Sports and betting have always gone hand-in-hand, it’s what made sports become mainstream in the first place. Even the Grecian Olympic Games were subject to bets, and later horse racing was at the forefront of sports betting. New betting sites in Ireland highlight just how many betting markets there are today. Not only are they real events that you don’t need to attend, but they don’t even need to be real events!
Football
Football is the most popular sport in the world. It’s watched by all countries, though the events that people are watching are most likely European – unless it’s a World Cup year. Because there are so many European leagues, there are games on every day. A punter in Korea would have a whole host of local games and European games to choose from on two different time zones. Football never sleeps, and those really into watching it enjoy the research and betting possibilities within it.
Basketball
Football may have 4 billion fans worldwide, but basketball isn’t actually too far behind that. Although it’s not so big in the UK, basketball is the most popular sport in many Eastern European countries, some Asian countries, and in the US (just behind NFL). It is a high-octane sport by nature with high score lines, but it’s arguably more predictable than football. Plus, you can bet on the margin a team will win by, not just the outcome.
Cricket
If we consider cricket, there seems to only be a small handful of (commonwealth) countries that play it: England, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, India – perhaps a couple of others. However, consider how big the population is within these countries, such as India, and then consider how many bets get placed. With well over 2 billion worldwide fans, cricket has many international competitions to keep punters betting – but it doesn’t have the domestic importance that the other sports have, so betting is very much confined to these international events.
MMA
MMA is a curveball inclusion because it likely isn’t quite in the top 5 sports worldwide when it comes to betting. However, researchers believe there are over 300 million fans around the world, and when you consider that sports betting dominates the UFC promotional partnerships (i.e. pay the fighters to make their picks and refer them to a certain betting site), betting is quickly becoming a part of UFC fan culture. Plus, it’s interesting to bet on, in which you can find strange odds that you believe there’s great value in.
Horse racing
Horse racing has to be included for two reasons: there are well over 1 billion horse racing viewers in the world (even if half of that is just the one-off Grand National event). But, there’s no other sport that is this integrated with betting, in which the Grand National has become synonymous with betting from the casual. It’s become big in the US, too, and continues to become one of the biggest revenue streams for online bookmakers. So much so that it’s one of the few sports in which they can put a video game simulation on the betting sites and people will still bet on it.