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| Sports Betting Industry
Survives and Thrives |
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The global health threat
of Covid-19 has affected people and industries worldwide, and one of those
affected significantly has been the sports betting industry. With the majority
of world sports worldwide forced into a hiatus, quite simply there have hardly
been any sports to bet on!
So what did
sports betting sites and punters
do to make it through this period of uncertainty?
There were a few
sports around the world that either persisted through the pandemic or have
recently restarted to allow punters to get their gamble on. International table
tennis, Korean baseball, Esports and German soccer are a few of the sports that
found a new audience with some clear air from other sports. Horse racing
continued in some jurisdictions around the world. WWE wrestling may be loosely
considered a sport, but they have continued through this period, despite at
times having to pre-record matches. We’ve also seen the UFC resume their
events very quickly with several recent pay-per-views held in a controlled
environment.
While these sports are doing their best to move forwards,
there is one country that’s leading the way with suppressing the Covid-19
virus and restart professional sport to help stimulate the
economy.
Australia look set to potentially squash the disease thanks to
strict social distancing measures, border lockdowns and their advantage of
geographical isolation from the world. With daily cases now minimized,
we’ve recently seen professional sporting organisations such as the AFL
(Aussie Rules Football) and NRL (Rugby) officially restart their seasons in
recently weeks.
The NRL were widely slammed for announcing an aggressive
resumption but they met their May 28 deadline and were one of the first major
professional sporting codes to restart around the world. Just two weeks later,
the AFL also restarted their season with great success. Television ratings are
through the roof, sponsors and players are happy, and fans are entertained once
again. Sports betting and daily fantasy sports players are also enjoying being
back in action and betting on their best
sports betting picks.
Of
course, there are some limitations still in place. Some teams have been forced
to relocate to isolate in a hub to minimise travel and exposure to any possible
health outbreaks. For the most part, crowds are still unable to attend matches.
There have been some cases of a few corporates and members being allowed to
access games, but is expected this will open up in the coming weeks with up to
10,000 people expected to be allowed to attend matches. To compensate for the
lack of atmosphere, TV networks have been inserting artificial noise into
broadcasts which seems to have worked quite well. There’s muffled crowd
background noise for the most part, with louder cheers or boos when key events
occur such as scoring a goal or try.
The sports betting industry is a
resilient one, and with more sports expected to resume in the coming weeks and
months, it could be a fruitful period for all involved. |
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