2013 in review – European sports betting
After we talked about the top sports stories of 2013 from the United States, we had to go across the ocean and see what the Europeans have been up to this year. The sports betting sector is huge to say the least in Europe and this guarantees that at least a few good stories will make their way to our list as we wrap up another great year and get ready for 2014.
Football Match Fixing
Since European football is by far the most popular sport in the world, most of the stories will be around this subject and what better way to start than with the match fixing controversy that has been making headlines recently? Allegations of major match fixing marked the sports betting industry in some of the biggest European leagues.
The first one this year came when the Europol officials stating that they had been investigating over 680 matches which they found suspicious. These were mostly from the big Asian and European leagues, with huge amounts of money in the middle.
Admir Suljic then made headlines when he was arrested for corruption in the Italian Serie A and B. The Russian mafia was also believed to be involved by the Europol, as it had ties in the Balkans and damaged the integrity of football.
As things seem to be settling down a bit, another shocker took place towards the end of the year after several professional football players from the United Kingdom were arrested for taking money in order to drop games. One of them clearly told an undercover reporter that he got £70,000 to be sent off the field.
Football Stars Placing Bets
With so much focus this year on match fixing in Europe, one would assume that the stars would lay low and not breach any betting rules. However, this was not the case as several known footballers placed football bets, thus breaching the FA rules.
The first one was Andros Townsend, which posted on his Tweeter account that he might place a bet on one of the clubs from London based on a feeling. Ian Black and Cameron Jerome added their names to the list but the cherry on the cake was when Professional Footballers Association chief stated that he has a gambling problem and that he had debts of £100k.
The Football Sponsorship Boom
2013 was a very good year for sponsorship deals in Europe and again, football got most of the attention. Bwin.Party was the biggest player of the year after spending the past 12 months making deals with some of the biggest clubs in the game, including Manchester United and Real Madrid.
Asian gambling operators also made a lot of waves in European football this year as they paid more than a pretty penny to have their logos on the shirts of professional football players from the big UK clubs.
Mobile Sports Betting
Sports betting is a fairly simple process that doesn’t require a lot in order to remain popular. All one needs is two teams, some odds and everything is settled. However, this does not mean that there is no room for innovation and one of the highlights of the year is the growth spurt in the mobile sports betting sector.
If more people started placing bets when telephone betting was introduced because it was more convenient, mobile has taken the concept to a whole new level. Some of the biggest online sportsbooks can easily be accessed from a smartphone or tablet and punters can get their bets in whenever they want and from any location.
Analysts predict that 164 million people will have a mobile device in 2018 and $100 billion is expected to be generated from the mobile gambling industry.
