It has already been a few months since many major sports events from all over the world started to get cancelled or postponed. The impact of the 2019 coronavirus on the sports industry was mainly felt in March and it took a few weeks before sports leagues were able to tell the public if they will be able to return in no time.
Now, it’s not just the sports industry that was greatly affected by this health crisis. The gambling sector also felt its effects as sports betting was almost close to none during the period when the major sports events were put into a halt. However, since May, sports leagues like the EPL have already announced its return.
Sports betting has always been one of the favourite ways of the people in the UK to gamble. The country just really has a long and successful relationship with the sports betting industry. Every time a football or darts season is up, people would flock bookies by going through websites like this or Nostrabet to check popular bookmaker’s reviews. The website has all the sufficient info about a bookmakers and some tips too on how to improve betting skills.
It also helps that the UK is more welcoming than other countries when it comes to gambling activities. Instead of banning such activities, the government has the UK Gambling Commission or the UKGC to regulate the gambling industry.
Recently, the UKGC has released data that shows the updates on how the industry is doing, and this data has good news on the sports betting sector. It appears that after weeks of canceled sports events and lockdowns in the country, the sports betting sector has shown recovery since the month of May.
The data released by the UKGC is a study made on 2,000 British adults during the months of April and May. They found that the cancelation of the major sports events has decreased the total number of punters to 55 percent.
This changed in May, however, when the German Bundesliga returned to the scene. The UKGC noted that in May, the number of active players that participated in their study rose to 13 percent, and each month since then, this number continued to rise on the same percentage.
They also found that the total number of bets placed since may have increased by 60 percent and the Gross Gambling Yield of the GGY grew by 64 percent. This shows how much people have missed sports betting before sports events as the German Bundesliga returned. Now that the EPL is back and other sports events have started once again this July, we can only expect that the sports betting revenue will be rising in the next few months.
Aside from the recovery of the sports betting sector in the UK, the study made by the UKGC also found that virtual betting or online poker activities started to drop in May. They said that the number of virtual betting dropped by 48 percent, while the number of online poker players also decreased by 11 percent.
During the lockdowns, it was reported that there has been a spike in online casino gaming and this could be mainly because of the lack of sports events worldwide. Many gamblers have turned to casino games like slot machines and online poker during this period. Some reports have found that most of the new customers of online casinos during the lockdown period are sports punters.
And so, it only makes sense that online casino gaming activities went down in May. It is likely that punters switched back to betting on sports since bookies now have plenty of odds to offer once again. Whether online casino gaming activities will continue to go down is still hard to predict at the moment. What’s for sure is that sports betting is on its way to recovery.
It’s also most likely that people will just place their sports bets online. While shops are already going back to business in the UK, many people would still prefer to do some of their activities online. This includes online betting. It’s simply a safer and more convenient option for them.
Overall, the UK locals are surely excited to once again watch sports even if they are only allowed to do so in their homes. Sports events like the EPL are now happening behind closed doors and will remain that way until its season finishes.
OTS News on Social Media