How Sports Betting Industry is Dealing with Coronavirus?

It’s no surprise that the coronavirus has worsened the economic state of the major industries of the world. At the time of this writing, the official count of the coronavirus cases and deaths have reached 5,609,578 and 348,318 respectively. Although people who fought and recovered from the same counts to 2,386,321, we can’t really neglect it’s massive impact. These are just the preliminary death counts so far as the death certificates take time to be processed and collected. 
The graph below depicts the registered cases of coronavirus worldwide. And these are the world’s major economic contributors. Also, there is no doubt that these numbers are the ones that got registered wherein there are millions of cases across the globe that aren’t registered so far. So, this pandemic is just a beginning which has already torn half of the world apart.

 

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus while addressing a press conference said, “the virus will be with us for a long time,  at its headquarters in Geneva, “make no mistake, we have a long way to go”. This is a clear indication that the virus will remain for a long time and so will be it’s impact on the economic health of the countries. 

Many countries like India have already foreseen the influence of the pandemic and implemented lockdown at the right time while countries like the USA have done weeks after it had already taken hundreds of lives in the states.

The result from the lockdown resulted in the loss of many medium and small scale industries while other industries are still struggling to survive. Industries such as sports gambling, whose revenue generation is directly proportional to the sports events and punters who then bet on the outcomes have majorly been affected. As, absence of sporting events had made such industries helpless and hopeless. There is no such industry that has escaped the knock of the novel coronavirus.

Coronavirus Impact on Sports Industry

While there were reports stating that the industry will take off in the US in 2020, the rampant has crashed all the reports and stats that have been made earlier in the year 2019. It has adversely affected the sports betting market leading to a failure of high revenue generation. According to an analysis done for ESPN, the cancelled sporting events will cost at least $12 billion in revenue. Some lower level organization of sports, says, they will be lucky if they survive this pandemic, while the industry has already faced hundreds of thousands of jobs lost and much more. Global TV networks such as ESPN, NBC and many other sports channels have been directly affected by the sudden disappearance of the sporting events. Can’t ignore the empty-bodied stadiums that were once over-crowded with people. From stadiums to recreational gaming centers, everything has been shut down due to ever ending pandemic. Product launches, ad launches that were planned with the sports events all have suddenly paused. 

Cancelled Sporting Events

Here is a list that shows the cancellation of sporting events which in turn affected the sports betting too:

CRICKET

• India-South Africa 2nd ODI -Lucknow, March 15
• India-South Africa 3rd ODI- Kolkata, March 18, both postponed.
• Australia-New Zealand 2nd ODI, Sydney, March 15
  3rd ODI- Hobart March 20, both got canceled.
• Sri Lanka-England 2 tests, March 19-31 postponed
• Pakistan-Bangladesh ODI, April 1, 2nd test from April 5-9 both got postponed

GOLF

US PGA Tour
• Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, March 12, canceled.

US LPGA Tour
• Honda LPGA Thailand in Pattaya, Feb. 20-23 got canceled.
• HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, Feb. 27-March 1 got canceled.

European Tour
• Kenya Open in Nairobi, March 12-15 got canceled.
• Indian Open in New Delhi from March 19-22  also got postponed.

AUTO RACING

• -US PGA Tour

 

• • Players Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, March 12, canceled.

– US LPGA Tour

• Honda LPGA Thailand in Pattaya, Feb. 20-23 got canceled.
• HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore, Feb. 27-March 1 got canceled.
  European Tour

   

• Kenya Open in Nairobi, March 12-15 got canceled.
• Indian Open in New Delhi from March 19-22 also got postponed.

BADMINTON

• • China Masters, Hainan, Feb. 25-March 1 postponed.
  • German Open, Mulheim, March 3-8 canceled

 

 

BASEBALL

• MLB: Preseason got canceled. Regular season got postponed.
• Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan: Preseason from Feb. 26-March 15, no spectators. Regular season got postponed.

BASKETBALL

• NBA suspended.

BASKETBALL

• Dubai World Cup, March 28, no spectators.
• Grand National, Liverpool, England on April 4 canceled.
• Kentucky Derby, Louisville, May 2 postponed to Sept. 5.

ICE HOCKEY

 

 

• NHL, March 12 suspended.

You can find the entire list of cancelled and postponed sporting events here

This list is endless and will probably continue to grow by this year as there are no signs that the events would likely take place or resume at the decided time. Since, a lot of news and other articles, press releases have already been flooded with the effects of the widespread disease on the sports industry. There are people like Don White who are taking this as an opportunity to explore more of in-house premiere.

Official Press Statements from Top Executives on Sports Industry

• In an interview with CNBC, Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted says “It is a painful setback” talking about the coronavirus outbreak changing consumers’ behavior. He also added that the pandemic is going to force a quicker transformation to a more digital environment”.[1]
• Don White, the CEO of Satisfi Labs, said to CNBC that “tech firms are already studying how to make your couch into this real premiere event until we can get back live audiences”.[2]
• Mark Miller, CEO of TicketSocket, suggested leagues get innovative about selling “single seats digitally” via virtual reality when asked about the new methods teams can adopt to help preserve ticket income.[3]
• “The economic impact is going to be deep and broad, no question. You are looking at major broadcasters who won’t be making any money on advertising. How will they pay their bills? Vicki Michaelis, lead Olympics reporter for USA Today said in one of its interviews to the University of Georgia, Athens. Read her complete interview here [4]

State of Sports Gambling Industry in Covid Situation

For the people who take sports gambling just a pastime to fill the void may not be a big deal, but for the gamblers who have their primary source of income from betting on sports could be a major loss. Not only the punters, the operators are also facing a huge loss as they have to pay a GPR, that is normally in the range of 10-23% of the revenue generated. Even in this worldwide health crisis, operators are obligated to pay a fixed amount when they have no income or source, thus leaving them bankrupt. Though there are operators who have adapted the virtual betting, online casinos are on the least verge of crashing, but others have smashed down drastically.

• Joe Asher, CEO of William Hill U.S., which operates sportsbooks in Nevada, New Jersey and several other states said to ESPN that the sudden decrease in revenue from the sports betting industry isn’t surprising and he is quite confident that industry will bounce back. [5] 
• “The way it fits in the calendar, it’s a completely different race than the traditional Belmont would be,” New York Racing Association president and CEO Dave O’Rourke said Tuesday. “I think we’re going to have a big field. I think it’ll be a really competitive field. I think the dynamics of the race are different.” [6]

While esports have already become the talk of the town, the sports betting industry has been adversely affected by the widespread disease.

So, Where’s The Sports Gambling Industry Headed?

Like others, the sports gambling industry was not prepared for the impact of COVID-19 and is scrambling to adjust with no sports events and tournaments. While many other areas where betting already existed came into highlights such as weather bets and much more, there are a few more areas that are still struggling to come with that include topics like TV shows, political elections and much more.

 

Sportsbooks are looking for new ways and generating ideas on betting. A sportsbook manager said, “if there’s something to bet upon and we book it, there’s going to be somebody who will bet.”

 

New Ways of Placing Bet in the Current Situation 

 

Simulation Sports 

 

Weather Bets

Online Poker Games

Fantasy Bet

 

Esports Betting
Esports has enthralled the entire market by the overwhelming response from the audience after lockdown due to coronavirus. Just like online casinos, esports betting has also taken the sports betting market to a completely new edge. Earlier esports had its own world, people were confined in their zones playing esports, but today the market shows different data and stats that include players across the globe. Sports betting business is slightly switching into esports business and people are really curious about this. Quora is flooded with questions like does esports betting will replace sports betting? Does video games will change the way people look at sports betting and many others. Well, as far as legalized sports betting is concerned, it will stand alone in the race.

• Esports could be the biggest beneficiary of this,” Jason Robins, CEO of DraftKings, told ESPN.

 

 

Read Also: Esports is New Hope of iGaming Industry as Global Sports Get Shut Down due to COVID-19 Pandemic

How Gammastack is helping Operators with new Betting Avenues?

So these are the bets, gamblers are making these days in the sports void during this pandemic. Still, it’s a long way to go, post-pandemic things are not going to be the same. Sports are not gonna come back as before and there will be no sports betting as before. So before this pandemic takes a whole lot of your business revenue, investing in online casinos and esports betting can be a great idea to generate new streams of revenue. GammaStack is a well-recognized name in the iGaming industry and known for offering first-rate sports betting, fantasy sports, esports and online casinos solutions. Engage the huge audience with our latest offerings in esports and online casino gaming solutions.

Sources:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/11/adidas-ceo-kasper-rorsted-the-new-coronavirus-is-a-painful-setback.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/sports-ticketing-will-look-different-as-teams-get-creative-without-fans.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/sports-ticketing-will-look-different-as-teams-get-creative-without-fans.html
https://news.uga.edu/what-happens-when-sports-canceled/
https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/29040226/sports-betting-numbers-show-pandemic-impact
https://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id/29040226/sports-betting-numbers-show-pandemic-impact
https://www.statista.com/chart/21530/betting-alternatives-amid-the-shutdown-of-pro-sports/