Sports betting, bingo and poker in the UK continues to be on an upward trend where access to betting, casinos and bingo sites has increased due to the prevalence of online apps. In this article we will focus on the sports betting industry and how it has transformed significantly in recent years.
Traditionally if someone was looking to place a bet they needed to go down to their local bookmakers and fill in a form, whereas nowadays, you can watch almost any live sport online, but not all sports are as popular as each other.
Football
By far, the most-watched sport in the UK is football (or soccer). This is not only the favoured sport for the UK but independently in Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland, it is by far the most popular sport. Consequently, you will find fans betting on their local teams.
There are many different types of bets available for football and one of these is the accumulator. In this, you can select within a selection of games who you think will win, lose or draw. If you manage to predict all this correct, then you win. When international football is being played, you will see many of the adverts on betting sites offering various odds on specific score predictions. Some will even take this a step further and predict who the actual goal scorer will be to win even more cash.
Tennis
It is surprising to see that the second most bet on sport in the UK is tennis. This sport has grown significantly in popularity and, with people like Andy Murray representing the UK over the past decade and doing very well, it has brought more people into watching this sport. Tennis, unfortunately has been in the limelight, over the past few years for some of the wrong reasons which include players fixing matches and some instances of players being banned for taking drugs (which includes Great Britain’s very own Dan Evans).
In terms of betting on the sport, there are 4 Grand Slams held throughout the year which includes the world-famous Wimbledon. These are bet on quite strongly however there is rarely a week where there is not an ATP tennis match playing that also attracts punters.
Other Betting
Although not specifically a sport, horse and greyhound racing are also popular to bet on. If you head to a local bookmaker, then you will see all these different races on the TVs and many people betting on each of the races. Other sports that are growing in popularity in terms of betting include Darts and Rugby. Darts has transformed significantly in the past decade and many of the major tournaments now shown on the TV (including the World Championship of Darts, every December).
It is clear that, while football is the favourite sport by far to bet on, there are many other sports which Brits love to spend their money on. Remember though, betting is for those over the age of 18 only and if you do decide to place a bet, you should only gamble what you can afford to lose.