Tomorrow marks the restart of English Premier League (EPL) soccer, three months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus. Like all major sports organizations, including the NBA, the NHL, Bundesliga and plenty more, the EPL has suffered economic losses that are going to require years to recuperate, but the process toward stabilization is now ready to begin. With the relaunch of EPL soccer, sportsbooks are becoming increasingly happier, as they are slowly able to offer a wider selection of options to keep sports gambling fans entertained.
In England, sportsbooks and gambling shops began opening their doors yesterday, ready to offer lines on EPL matches, which has historically been the most popular sports league in the world for gamblers. In addition, the Royal Ascot horse racing festival, which begins today and runs through the end of the week, is going to help gambling shops start their economic recovery.
William Hill UK now has 734 shops open out of the 1,538 it operates, and Ladbrokes Coral has all of its 2,445 gambling venues operational. According to Ladbrokes Coral PR Director Simon Claire, in speaking with Racing TV, “We are seeing plenty of our regular customers returning, and they are playing their part too, showing patience queuing for the counter to put their bets on, adhering to the social distancing measures and, when necessary, queueing outside the shop.”
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales aren’t quite ready to pull the trigger on the relaunch of their sports gambling activities. They are, perhaps, wanting to see first what happens in England before taking steps forward, but could ease restrictions on non-essential commercial activity by the end of the month. Many non-essential businesses have been allowed to resume their operations, but gambling shops are on a short list of entities that are going to have to wait for further approval.