If you’ve been to a sporting event in the past few years, you’ve probably seen somebody accessing one of the best mobile offshore sportsbooks on their phone to place a wager. Perhaps this behaviour is the result of the growing popularity of live sports betting, but is it on the rise and does it enhance or ruin the enjoyment of the event?
Adds Excitement to a Game
Sometimes, a game can be difficult to watch if it is boring, i.e., a lack of action or poor quality of play. In such instances, in-person spectators will often take their phones out and place a wager on something to happen, whether it be the next goal-scorer, the result, or another market that offshore sportsbooks offer. At least then, it injects another layer of excitement into the match, which can make it more amusing. Sometimes, if attending a sports match as a neutral, selecting a winner in a bet can assist in bringing some excitement to the game.
Multiple Contest Events
Sports events come in all different shapes and sizes. Football and rugby fixtures are usually just one sporting contest. However, tennis, boxing, and MMA events comprise several matches across a card of action. These, therefore, lend themselves to accumulator bets, which can be familiar to sports fans in attendance. If there are a few fights across an evening, in theory, a bettor could place a wager on every fight and watch the results as they unfold.
The Concept Isn’t New
Is betting at live sports events a new concept? No. It’s a practice that stems back many years. At football stadiums and many other sporting venues, there are betting booths where attendees can place a bet, usually on the sports event about to take place. As such, mobile technology has just moved the betting activity from the booth to the stands.
Win If You Lose
A standard bet for those attending a sporting match, especially football in the United Kingdom, is to bet against your team. While it seems counterproductive, the idea is that if you go to Elland Road supporting Leeds United, you’d like them to win. If you bet on them to lose and the Mighty Whites end up on the end of a defeat, you can walk out as a winner. However, this can be seen as taboo, as some supporters don’t think true fans should profit from their team losing.
The In-Person Edge (Over TV Bettors)
If you’re watching sports on live television and want to place a bet, then you’ll be subject to a delay. It’s a well-known fact that the TV broadcast is a few seconds behind the live action in the stadium. If you see the Los Angeles Lakers playing well on television and decide to bet on it, the actual game is a few plays on. The betting company knows that, so they can offer odds on the live event.
However, if you go to a live sporting fixture in person, you’re getting the play-by-play as it happens at the same time as the betting companies. Therefore, you are not subject to the delay advantage that the betting platforms have. A good example is when you observe one team or competitor playing well, a bettor at the live event can make a wager before they score, or the odds change significantly. When doing this from home, it can be the case that when trying to bet on a specific market, the odds change as the bookmaker has had enough time to alter their odds.
All Depends on Signal
Of course, there’s a glaring necessity for online betting to work. Bettors need an online connection to access their betting site or platform. There are a few reasons why this becomes difficult in busy stadiums. Firstly, with many people at major fixtures, the mobile signal becomes less reliable – with some networks grinding to a halt when in proximity to other users.
Even if a stadium has Wi-Fi available to the spectators in attendance, many people might be using it, making it very slow. In addition, many public Wi-Fi networks are configured to ‘family safety’ settings. These usually block out age-restricted content, which typically includes betting sites.
How About Living in the Moment?
People are always on their phones these days. While the functionality of instant communications and immediate access to information is good, it can sometimes besmirch the grandeur of events if spectators are playing on their phones instead of watching the action unfold. This has created a counterculture of people who call out attendees on their phones instead of watching the live sport, questioning why they came to the event, as they can play on their phones at home.
