While the beauty of sports is on its own enough to keep people invested in football, it is betting that adds the additional flavor to it. Sure, in your national championship you may have a favorite team or be passionate rooting for a team from your hometown, however, what is there to keep you interested in a game between teams you know nothing about? Even displays of the greatest football skill may not be enough to cause an emotional response and if you don’t actually care about the results, what is there to keep you watching? This is where sports betting comes in.
1. Keeping things interesting
Have you ever seen a sport or a game that looks dull from the outside, yet is incredibly fun to play? The reason behind this is that by playing, you are making an investment of your own skill, focus and effort in order to win. The same principle applies to betting on a sports event, seeing as how, by investing your money you are also getting emotionally investment. The fact that a certain outcome might result in a financial gain is enough for you to feel the thrill of the winning, which is a huge reward on its own.
2. Let’s speak numbers
According to one estimate, the sports-match betting industry is worth somewhere between $700bn and $1tn. Needless to say, this figure alone is more than fascinating, seeing as how this would make it into one of the most valuable industries in the world. What’s even more fascinating is the fact that about 70 percent of all that money comes from trading on football matches. Keep in mind, however, that these are only legal bets, seeing as how there is no accurate estimate of how many bets are placed each year. So far, about $2bn worth of gambling has been seized and it is quite accurate to assume that this is just a tiny fraction of the overall worth of this market.
3. Present day technology
One of the main reasons why betting on football is currently on its rise in popularity are – present-day technological trends that make it much more convenient. With the wide array of betting site offers, you can just register your account and place a bet on a game without ever having to leave your home. Furthermore, due to the numerous streaming services out there, you are now able to follow even the games you wouldn’t normally be able to. Finally, with the help of the internet, you can conduct your own research, prior to placing a bet, which will result in significantly greater odds than if you were to just make an educated guess.
4. Benefits to the sport
When it comes to gambling and sport, a lot of people are quite skeptical and assume that this exclusively has to do something with fixing the games. On the other hand, numerous businesses belonging to the gambling industry prefer to advertise themselves during live games. Nonetheless, it is important to mention that this particular trend might not stick in the nearest future. Still, at this very moment, it is estimated that gambling accounts for about 40 percent of all perimeter sales across the football leagues.
5. The bets are getting crazier and crazier
While this depends on the institution, a lot of bookies nowadays work with algorithms that can accept any kind of bet that you’d like to place. We’re not just talking about standard bets on the winner, half-time score or the end score, we’re talking about parameters like ‘who’s going to get the first yellow card’ or even ‘who will have a third contact with the ball’. As for the unsanctioned, illegal, bets, things tend to get even stranger, seeing as how a man once gambled his wife on an Arsenal match.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, when it comes to football and sports betting, the answer is quite simple. People mostly bet out of three reasons A) thrill of the winning, B) to make otherwise uninterested matches more fun and C) in order to make money. Seeing as how all of these three reasons are deeply rooted in the human psychology, it is highly unlikely that anything will change anytime soon. On the other hand, since the sport as a whole seems to benefit from it, the right question isn’t ‘will it?’ but ‘should it?’ instead.
