Will political and sports betting see growth in the next few years?

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected many industries. This includes the betting industry, seeing as most major sports events, including the English Premier League, the NBA, the Indian Premier League, and even the Olympics are either canceled or postponed.

In March, many sports leagues were forced to postpone or even cancel their scheduled matches. However, by June, sports events were starting to return, such as the EPL. In light of this, the betting industry is gearing up for a great comeback.

Sports betting review sites, such as Efirbet, are gaining more traffic as people are looking for the best bookie to place their bets with once again. Check out this website for reviews on the best bookies out there, as well as all the bonuses you should know about.

You may be curious to find out how the betting industry survived the last few months, considering there were little to no sports events taking place.

Well, many sportsbooks got more creative and began accepting bets on non-sports events, such as politics.

This may sound novel to some, but betting on politics isn’t exactly new to the betting industry. In fact, in the UK, this has been going on for decades now.

In the US however, it’s not exactly clear whether or not this practice is completely legal.

Since PASPA was stricken down by the Supreme Court of the United States back in May 2018, the opportunity to wager on things other than sports has also opened. There’s no law just yet, which prohibits betting on non-sport related events such as politics.

COVID-19 has indeed affected the popularity of betting on non-sports related events. In particular, in the last three months, popular online sportsbooks like William Hill and Betway offered odds on political events to address the needs of their customers to place bets during the quarantine period.

After all, everyone was stuck at home with no sports to watch. Sports may have been put to rest for a while, but politics went on.

John Lester, from BookMaker, an online sportsbook, said that their sports betting handle reduced by 80%, when compared to last year. On the other hand, he pointed out that their handle on political betting rose by 20%, just for the month of March.

The last few months have undoubtedly helped the political betting sector of the industry. However, we have yet to see how things will pan out, now that many major sports events are starting to make a comeback.

The sports betting industry is still set to be valued at over $6 billion by 2025. This is aided by the fact that more and more states in the US, as well as other countries, are considering legalising local sports betting. Currently, there are 20 states in the US that have legalised local betting.

While predictions are out for what faith the sports betting industry has in the next few years, it seems hard to predict what will become of politics betting in the next years to come.

There are people in the industry, however, who believe that the sector will also see huge growth in the upcoming years, especially now considering that the US 2020 elections are happening soon.

Matthew Shaddick, the head of politics betting at Ladbrokes Coral Group, said that when it comes to action, nothing really compares to the politics in the US.

“The Trump election was huge. In general, presidential elections are a nice binary option—in European elections, you’ve got complicated parliamentary processes. But Trump is such a well-known and controversial figure. The 2020 U.S. general election will no doubt be the next big thing. It’s clear to me from all the money we’re taking in that it will break all the records,” he said.

“It’s going to continue growing. The fact that sports are shut down, the fact that they’re not going to have the Olympics, there’s no doubt the U.S. election will be the biggest market we trade here,” he continued.

It is certainly possible that both betting sectors will see growth in the next few years. It’s just a matter of how sufficient the growth will be. For now, sports betting enthusiasts are just happy that sports events, like the EPL, are back on.

For those who are still waiting for their favourite leagues to make a comeback, why not give politics betting a spin? If you’re already a fan of sports betting, the odds for politics betting are just as simple!