How Betting Under Lockdown Works?
Betting under lockdown has been challenging. Many sports have cancelled or postponed events during lock-down presenting regular sports bettors with a huge void to fill.
The unprecedented spread of Coronavirus has meant so much has changed so suddenly in our daily lives. Thousands of our fellow citizens have died, hundreds of thousands have become infected and we are all getting use to a new normal way of life which involves social distancing and being more aware of our surroundings. Much is still unknown in terms of recovery timelines, seasonality and when a vaccine will be available to deal with this pandemic. Luckily, we have some of the world’s leading scientists working on finding a solution and they will do, only a matter of time.
Anyway, this is a betting blog so let us get back to discussing betting under lockdown. A lot, a lot of sport has been lost since March. Unfortunately, this is the exact time of the year (late March through May) when a lot of major events occur – March Madness, US Masters, and the culmination of the major European Football League, NBA and NHL seasons. These are peak events for betting action across all demographics – once a year bettors passionate about the events, recreational bettors increasing their spend, semi professional bettors increasing their volume of bets.
Such a void in the betting calendar can mean a need to find something to bet on and more so when we’re all stuck in doors. Evenings and weekends normally spent watching sports and having some bets is no longer part of our normal lives. Although it felt strange in the first few weeks of lockdown, the void hasn’t caused me to start looking for action by playing online casino or poker and certainly not looking for betting on Chinese table tennis or Belarusian football. If you feel the need to bet on these sports, then maybe you need to start to rethink about your relationship to betting.
The only bet I placed over the last few weeks was on the Florida Derby at the end of March which was live on NBC. Surprisingly not all the online sportsbooks were offering betting on it which meant I needed to shop around with different firms. Some of those books that offered betting also had a range of appealing side markets, it was noticeable the extra effort some of these firms make compared to their competition. I won’t name individual sportsbooks in this blog but it is clear to see that 3 or 4 really stand out in terms of sports product offering and did so long before the Corona lockdown. I will write a blog post about this in the months ahead as I have a lot to highlight, both good and bad.
A lot of sports tv channels have been filling their airwaves by showing reruns of classic sports events, although it appeals to some, I have no real interest in watching any of them. Instead I have been using the spare time to read books about all kind of stuff from geography to classic music. Not sure how much of it will ever be useful to me unless I decide to go on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ or some other quiz show and by then I probably would have forgotten it all as form study would be a higher priority.
I’m hoping that by June 1st we have a return of most sports although it will be strange to see stadiums, arenas and other venues empty of sports fans. Closer to the time I will write another blog about betting whilst restrictions start to be lifted. Until then stay safe.
