By Samantha Williams
Sports betting is essentially putting your money where your mouth is. In other words, taking a bet on how much you know, or how much you think you know. It is of particular appeal to fans of specific sports as well as punters with insider tips. For example the UEFA Champions League is playing throughout Europe and the UK and football (soccer) fans are betting like mad on who they think will win. There are future bets flying around on which team the overall winner will be; will it be one of the UK Big Four or a Famous European team.
Experts are calling sports betting the new online poker as it is quickly making up the numbers to become the most popular type of gambling to take place online. In particular live action sports betting has helped to grow this sector of the online gambling space, and the growth in the mobile sports betting sector has seen massive growth too. It is highly perceivable that this type of fast-bet activity will more popular than mobile poker because it is a completely different type of gambling game which is far better suited to the smartphone.
Football is by far the most widely wagered-on game in this entire industry, and the reason is simply because it is also the most popularly watched sport world-wide. Other popular sports betting activities include US mens’ basketball, which enjoys a massive audience, even in the UK; ice hockey, horse racing, greyhound racing, cycling, volleyball, cricket, tennis, American football of course and just about every sport one can imagine. The Summer Olympics take place again next year in London (2012), and this is one of the biggest betting events of any other sports gathering. It offers thousand of opportunities to bet on all kinds of sporting outcomes and in the UK proposition bets are a big deal too. Prop bets come with the turf of sports betting but US regulations are much tougher on this type of wager; the most popular prop bets take place with the Superbowl.
Horse racing is a heavily controlled sports arena, and as players bet more now on football than horse racing the sport itself has taken a financial knock. Annual levies are paid to horse racing bodies to help fund a very expensive sector of the gambling industry, but because bookmakers are no longer taking so much in terms of this form of bet, these levies are no longer as lucrative. Drops in levy contributions are very noticeable during the large international football events, and it is very interesting to note that part of the motivation for an online gambling bill for New Jersey (US) was to help the failing horse racing industry in the garden state.
Which ever angle we look at sports betting from, it is extremely popular, it is here to stay and experts predict it will be bigger online than poker has ever been. Enjoy it; a bet on your favorite sport will make the game more exciting for you to watch.
