A Look At The Global Sports Betting Trends

Levi Stadium
Pexels

As long as man has existed on the earth, betting has been a feature of everyday life – well, sort of. It depends on who you speak to, but the accepted theory is that betting has been around since the Paleolithic period which astonishingly, was a time before written history. Indeed, some form or other of gambling has captured the imagination of humans for thousands of years.

Needless to say, betting has developed as much as humans have over this time, with the simple dice used to settle bets during days gone up eventually giving way to the mobile phone and hundreds of online markets that are quite literally at a punter’s fingertips. The truth is, as far as avid bettors are concerned, there has never been a better time to be alive given how convenient it has become to place a bet.

This is largely the case all around the world when you consider how much betting has become a worldwide phenomenon. Whether you find yourself on a safari in South Africa, a hike in the Australian Outback, or a gondola in Venice, thanks to an array of payment methods, you’re only ever one click away from placing a bet on a sport that you love. Indeed, punting is open to all and far from a closed shop nowadays with the landscape completely unrecognizable from the early days of betting. You just have to look at how much it has evolved in the British Isles to understand the direction of the worldwide trends.

England’s green and betting land

The United Kingdom is, after all, home to over 8000 betting shops that are dotted across the length and breadth of the land, as sbo.net confirms here. These betting experts go on to say that, in reality, it’s odds-on that you’ll come across at least one when you walk down a local high street in Britain, but the trend is steering away from placing a bet at a brick-and-mortar shop. In many respects, gone are the days of having to make a trip to the bookies to place your bet now that there are a phenomenal amount of legalized online bookmakers.

Most of these bookmakers tailor their online apps to prioritize football betting given that the beautiful game is the favorite pastime of all four unions. In essence, punters will never go short of promotions with flash odds and daily bonuses being offered on all football matches in the UK. And on the off chance that none of the daily betting deals will suffice, companies are now asking their customers to Tweet them their proposed bet in order for them to make their quirkiest punting premonitions a reality. There really isn’t anything quite like the phenomenon that is betting in the United Kingdom.

Born in the USA

With that being said, across the Atlantic, even though online sports betting is still in its infancy, it’s fair to say that the American public has demonstrated a large appetite for punting. When you sit down to think about it, the online betting industry in the States could in theory surpass the size of any other country’s but it is heavily dependent on the various states legalizing online betting, something that certainly isn’t the case at this moment in time. Since New Jersey’s Supreme Court ruling in May 2018, any state that wishes to legalize sports betting is able to legally do so, but it will naturally take time for various parts of America to give it the green light.

Developments are going in the right direction though as can been sere on the map ESPN UK have drawn up, according to the sports broadcaster, 27 States have already legalized online sports betting.

One of the interesting trends in these 27 States is the size of the sign-up bonuses on offer to new customers.

Unsurprisingly, this has served to speed up the process of getting the public on board, with most punters using these bonuses to bet on the nation’s favorite annual pastime, the Super Bowl, which even on a bad year, still attracts 100 million viewers as DefPen.com tallies up here.

Interestingly, America isn’t the only country inundated with offers from betting companies to sign up new customers. The same goes for countries in Africa, Australia, and parts of Asia. When all is said and done, punters have a simple choice to make that should come down to what online operator gives them the best odds on the sport they love. It’s a relatively uncomplicated decision but in the same breath, it requires a hefty amount of research given how many online bookmakers are out there.

Where to next?

In the past, the global trend has been to sign up with a bookmaker that offers the biggest one-off bonus, but punters have become quite savvy in the sense that they now look for bookies who will provide a longer return on their investment over time. Indeed, punters are now happy to forgo large bonuses so long as they are offered regular promotions throughout the year.

Given that this is the case, it’s not hard to imagine that in the years to come, bookmakers will put all their efforts into marketing their ongoing promotions rather than inviting sign up bonuses, Although, let’s be honest, who doesn’t like a generous free bet to kick things off?

Of course, bookmakers will never do away with that completely but just like the primitive dice evolved into a mobile betting sensation that can now be found in every corner of the globe, trends are naturally bound to change. Roll on the next thousand years.

You May Also Like