When you think of a bookmaker and what they offer to customers, the first thing that comes into your head is sports betting.
Whether this is a wager on horse racing, a bet on Premier League football or something such as golf and tennis, a bookmaker will happily accommodate you.
However, we are seeing a shift away from their stance of only offering sports betting. The betting industry is a highly competitive market and bookmakers are always looking for ways to get an upper hand on their competition.
Spreading their wings and moving out is how they are doing it at the moment and that means taking bets on a number of other events.
This has given current gamblers something completely different to look at and bet on, while it has also opened the door for new customers into the industry who don’t like sports.
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Betting on eSports
Source: PLAY! Zine
Over the past couple of decades, the world of eSports has rapidly grown. The concept is simple, people playing against each other in high level competitions on computer games. However, there is a growing market for this and the betting industry has joined in the fun.
Those interested in watching can follow events live at places such as Twitch, while those wanting to bet on the winner can do so with their bookmaker.
At the start, few bookmakers offered this but as time has passed, more and more are becoming involved and the betting markets for games and competitions are growing.
Traditional eSports fans are usually gamers, rather than sports fans and this opens up betting to a new genre of people. Bookmakers continue to improve their eSports service as the industry continues to grow and the chances are we’ll see a lot more of this in the future.
TV & Film Betting
Source: Casino.org
There are many aspects of TV and film that you can bet on and these appeal to a variety of different people.
In terms of bets placed, the most popular TV betting certainly comes on reality TV shows. These offer great entertainment to viewers and there are millions of viewers who tune into these each day they are on and now people are betting on the shows as well as watching them.
Bookmakers have increased what they offer on these shows, so you will see many different ones available. If the show is big and on a mainstream channel and there is a winner, the chances are you will be able to bet on it.
Alongside this, the most popular shows will also have weekly betting on who will progress and who will be sent home, great for fans who are wanting to bet a little more often on shows.
The second TV and film betting method is to bet on awards. The biggest awards such as the Oscars, BAFTAS and Golden Globe’s all have betting available for them. If you are a big TV and film fan, this allows you to bet on your favourites when awards night comes around.
Betting on Political Events
Source: Helena Independent Record
We have also seen a huge rise in the number of political bets being placed. This has coincided with a number of huge political events taking place, including elections, the Brexit referendum between the UK and Europe and much more.
However, again, this has opened up a new avenue for bookmakers to try and take advantage of. Millions of people are into politics and most of them have a strong view on things.
Now they have the chance to bet on that, from markets surrounding who will win elections to the next president, prime minister and much more.
The future of political betting depends on how quickly the big events come around. If we go through a year where few big political decisions and votes take place, things are likely to be very quiet.
However, after people have already been placing bets on political events, when we get to the next big ones, there will already be existing customers waiting for the bookmakers.
New Customers Up for Grabs
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
With the betting industry being very competitive, and every single customer counting, this gives companies a new avenue to go down to try and pick up some new players.
Rather than targeting the usual sports customers that every bookmaker goes after, those looking to do things differently can promote their alternative ways to bet. This may be done by showing the latest TV betting markets, or focusing on eSports rather than events such horse racing and football.
When people are looking for a bookmaker to use for these alternative ways to bet, they can check out the odds and offers available at OddsManager, just like regular sports fans normally would.
Regardless of what you want to bet on, there will likely be a bookmaker offering it and plenty of ways to compare the services and odds on offer.
These events all give bookmakers the chance to gain new customers, people who don’t like sports and people who can help diversify users on betting sites.
What Could we See in the Future?
Source: Bloomberg
The future is likely to see much of the same and further developments in the same way. The areas above are all established but have not yet been explored to their full potential.
Combine that with the fact that new customers are becoming harder to find for bookmakers due to the number of them available and we could see further ways to bet on alternatives to the sport.
After creating their sports service, bookmakers spent a lot of time developing betting markets and giving people alternative ways to bet. Now we have things such as politics, eSports, TV betting and much more all established, it is time for them to grow.
Look out for more events being covered as well, it is fair to say that political betting in particular has been a real success, so look out for bookmakers finding other alternatives that they can offer their customers in the future.
