Sports gambling operators are implementing initiatives to show trends in the gambling segment as the sports world begins to show signs of recovery following the nightmare suspension caused by the coronavirus. These trends help bettors understand where the action is, which ultimately helps influence their activity and puts their attention where it might receive the best returns. There’s no such thing as too much information, and sports gambling and iGaming operator Bodog is now preparing a weekly report that provides an in-depth look at the previous weekend’s action. With only a limited amount of sports being offered, the results shown on the first report, released yesterday, aren’t too surprising.
The goal of the report is to highlight the top ten favorite leagues in terms of bets, as well as the top ten gambling events and the percentage of the handle each of these took. Not surprisingly, the report for June 19-21 didn’t find tiddlywink gambling among the top ten, but ping pong is still one of the more active sports for wagers. It actually did better than half of the other sports on the list.
The top sport was the English Premier League (EPL), which is just now getting back on the field. With 25.94% of the handle, it was much stronger than basketball’s Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). The CBA, in second place, had 15.89% of the action. Taking third was UFC/MMA (Ultimate Fighting Championship/Mixed Martial Arts), which grabbed 11.51% of the market.
At the bottom of the list, lower than the 7.03% scored by ping pong, the RBC Heritage PGA event garnered 6.36% of the wagers. Horse racing, thanks to the Belmont Stakes, saw some action with 6.28% of the field and Spain’s La Liga captured 6.25% of the fun. The NFL hopes to get its season going this September and, despite no live action to attract gamblers, the NFL 2020 Sims did well, beating out eSports and the lowest three sports to take 6.87% of the handle.
With the EPL taking command, the game between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur was the biggest winner. It saw 50.73% of the action on all EPL matches this weekend. Gamblers were more than likely a little disappointed in the result, as the final score was 1-1. Man U showed domination on the field, taking more shots on goal and maintaining possession almost twice as long as Tottenham, but wasn’t able to capitalize enough to put another shot in the net.
Out of all the money spent this weekend on sports gambling, and despite being toward the bottom of the action, the RBC Heritage controlled 13.28% of the action. That isn’t shocking, given the fact that, after the third round, there was a four-way tie for the lead. Webb Simpson would put on a spectacular show, finding five birdies in the last seven holes to beat Abraham Ancer by a single stroke. It was Simpson’s seventh PGA Tour win and his second of 2020.
Two eSports matches, both during the CS: GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive) BLAST Premier Spring 2020 event, took a combined 8.6% of the market. Evil Geniuses (EG) took on FURIA and MiBR (Made in Brazil) in two separate competitions and ultimately emerged victorious. After losing the first round to FURIA, EG came back to take the next two for the win. MiBR initially showed considerable strength in a 2-1 victory against EG last Friday, but would fall in straight rounds on Sunday.
The sports gambling scene continues to grow, especially with more states in the U.S., as well as other countries, begin to take the action seriously as a way to recuperate lost revenue caused by the appearance of COVID-19. This is just the beginning of a huge industry that is going to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to governments, provided they can use a little common sense and make the right decisions.
