Political and economic crises usually do not have a negative impact on the betting industry. This is because in difficult times, people especially need to be distracted. How are sports betting arranged, can players receive a steady income?
A bookmaker is a professional bettor who accepts money bets on various sporting events. For a bookmaker, it is important to predict the probabilities of events on which bets are accepted with high quality. The popularity of such rates among potential customers is also important. For each event, there are hundreds of different offers: the outcome of the match, the number of goals, fouls, standards, and so on. Bookmakers set the odds that this or that event will happen. The higher the odds, the lower the probability.
For example, if the probability of winning a football match is 50%, then the odds should theoretically be 2.00. In practice, the odds always take into account the bookmaker’s margin, so the real odds will not be 2.00, but several hundredths less. This is an analogue of zero in a casino: of course, players can win, even often and in large numbers, but thanks to the law of large numbers, the casino will not be at a loss in the long run. That is why the game in bookmakers cannot be perceived as a source of permanent income. This is entertainment: a bet on a particular event increases interest in watching a match, makes you more actively worry about what is happening. In essence, the player buys emotions, like a ticket to a movie theater or a parachute jump.
Betting in Russia
Bookmaking is a highly competitive environment for private business. At the moment, there are about 20 legal bookmakers in Russia (the market is dynamic, the number of bookmakers often changes, which is why I say “about” and do not give the exact figure). Online betting products of various bookmakers do not differ too much from each other now. 사설토토 are in positioning and marketing strategy. In many ways, this is similar to the banking sector: the product of all banks is approximately the same, but the positioning is different. All over the world, betting companies are an integral part of sports. All bookmakers support sports clubs, leagues and federations in one way or another, both financially and in terms of marketing. Bookmakers invest in the development of sports. This has happened almost everywhere. One of the first countries to set such a trend was the United Kingdom.
At the same time, there are a number of marketing restrictions for bookmakers, both from the side of legislation and from various platforms: media, social networks, etc. For example, bookmakers cannot use images of animals and people; they are only allowed to advertise on sports television.
How have world events affected the betting industry?
Crises do not have a negative impact on the betting industry. In difficult times, people even more need vents that allow them to be distracted and experience vivid emotions. Here are the latest statistics from our bookmaker. So, for example, in April 2022, the number of bets we had increased by 38% compared to February. Despite the mass suspension of domestic athletes and entire teams from participating in various international tournaments, fans still continue to follow the sport. In addition, local professional competitions continue in Russia, on which players traditionally place more bets. The number of bets on European football championships has not fallen: in March, bets on the Russian Premier League amounted to 6.4% of the total number of bets on football, on the Italian Serie A – 5.2%,
But the coronavirus pandemic hit us quite seriously, because for a while we had to close all land-based clubs (these are establishments where you can come and place bets offline). In addition, during the pandemic, almost all sports competitions stopped, so bookmakers had to seriously expand the betting line and accept bets, for example, on the Belarusian football championship.
At the moment, the number of sports broadcasts on television has decreased significantly. At the same time, a wide network of broadcasts is still available on the websites and applications of most bookmakers. Perhaps a small percentage of new bookmaker users this spring were people who came for events that they will no longer be able to watch on sports TV channels.
The first place we have in terms of the volume of bets, of course, is occupied by football. Also in the top five are hockey, tennis and basketball. Interestingly, this spring, eSports entered the top 3 in terms of betting volume. The most popular games are Counter Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends.
Whatever the player’s favorite sport, it is important to remember that sports betting is entertainment, not a source of permanent income. Then the emotions from this process will be extremely positive.