The Coronavirus is negatively impacting all aspects of life, one of those being the sports betting industry.
Since there’s no sport in the past few months, people have had to look for alternatives on how to get their weekend entertainment. However, not only that, but betting enthusiasts also have to suffer due to the lack of game selection.
As of the current time of writing, very few leagues across a handful of sports such as soccer, basketball, and football have confirmed that they will resume their activities in the coming months.
Sports betting companies have resulted in alternative games to fill up the void left by the Coronavirus.
In this article, we are going to give you our X ways how the Coronavirus is affecting the sports betting industry. Without further ado, let’s start.
1. The Lack of Game Selection
Since professional sports event is paused or outright getting canceled, the sports betting industry has to financially deal with the lack of game selection.
Since there’s nothing to bet on, these companies have resorted to finding alternative means of revenue. These companies mostly get their revenue from key sports and key leagues within each sport.
Some of the most popular ones include soccer, football, and basketball. The NBA, the English Premier League, the Champions League, the NFL, and various other leagues are some of the most popular ones that the betting industry is registering bets on.
All of these are put on hold until the Coronavirus pandemic gets resulted. Although there are plans for some of these to continue in June, we are still a long way to go.
The lack of game selection simply means that these companies need to find alternative revenue streams, and they might find it with eSports.
2. The Rise of Video Games
The great thing about video games is that they don’t require you to be present at a specific venue to play them. Video games can be played from home, and this is something that is currently a hot topic in the betting industry.
The betting industry is pairing up with some of the gaming industry’s biggest giants such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Rainbow Six Siege, for a chance to offer their audience something to bet on.
The gaming industry is already huge, but this puts it into an excellent spot to connect even more with various demographics. As a result of sports getting shut down, the gaming industry has emerged as a likely alternative for people to bet on.
But even the gaming industry is suffering at the hands of the Coronavirus. Valve, the owner and makers of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, has announced that they will be postponing the International 2024. This event is one of the biggest ones in eSports history, and ESPN has partnered with Valve to broadcast it to its audience.
With the postponing of the International 2024, betting enthusiasts are hit with another huge blow, and this directly impacts the betting industry.
But, with all that said, there are still virtual games out there that make it possible for you to place a wager on. Some of the most popular ones that resonate with your favorite games include Fantasy Football, Fantasy Soccer, FIFA, and various others.
These allow you to place a bet on a virtual game and win big the same way you would in the real world. For more information regarding such betting, make sure to visit i99club.com.
3. New Trends
The previously mentioned point is most definitely regarded as a new trend in the industry. But with all that said, virtual betting has been popular for quite some time now, and it isn’t really anything new.
It has grown exponentially thanks to the Coronavirus, but it was still something that tons of people knew existed.
But that’s not everything that the betting industry is doing to survive during this pandemic. Games of chance such as poker, blackjack, slots, roulette, crabs, and various others are slowly implemented by these companies.
While some have had games of chance already, others are rushing to implement these games of chance as they have emerged as the likely candidate to replace sports betting.
Online casino games are very entertaining and people can win big time. But there is a saying and the saying goes along the lines of “The house always wins”, and bettors know this.
While there is a chance to win huge amounts of money while playing online poker, blackjack, roulette, and various others, there is a very real chance that you could lose all of your money.
If you’re a person that doesn’t mind playing with a few bucks just for the purpose of entertainment, then this new trend is quite possibly the best way to keep yourself entertained.
4. Fantasy Games
We briefly mentioned fantasy games such as fantasy football, fantasy basketball, and fantasy soccer, but let’s elaborate more on what that means.
There is nothing that provides bettors the same level of entertainment they get from the weekend games like fantasy games. Fantasy games can literary be played from any device you own.
The thing with these games is that you’re not really playing, but you’re actually creating a team. You then pick players from a limited budget and slot them inside your team.
Before every “game week” you confirm your team and the players get points based on how they performed during their matches. It’s a very fun way to keep yourself entertained, and the betting industry knows that.
The sports betting industry is implementing something similar to the kind, by offering their users a chance to place a wager on numerous categories.
It’s fun, it’s exciting, and it gets the industry going while also providing something for the user. It might be one of the best ways to maintain the hype you get from each match day and it requires you to be smart when creating your team.
Some go as far as to include very niche fantasy games such as weather bets games.