Thanks in part to the FIFA World Cup in Brazil, 2014 has been a year in sports betting like no other. Our sports betting feature considers changes in the regulatory landscape in Europe and the US, the impact of virtual sports and the future of online wagering post-Brazil 2014.
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MARIO Götze’s extra-time winner in the World Cup Final in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this summer saw a European nation collect the coveted trophy for the third tournament in succession as Germany overpowered Argentina.
It would be premature to talk of dominance but the power of UEFA and the high-octane appeal of the Champions League, La Liga and the Premier League are important factors in keeping the European game at the forefront of world football. It is in Europe too that regulated sports betting continues to flourish and mature most noticeably. There are other pockets of success and substantial unregulated markets in the Americas and Asia especially but the big hitters – Paddy Power, Bwin, Ladbrokes, William Hill, bet365, Interwetten – are all based in Europe.
The market is mature but far from stagnant. The online landscape continues to change as the Netherlands regulates, joining (comparatively) recent graduates Denmark, Spain and France, and Germany does – well, whatever it is that Germany is doing with its sports licences. We could summarise the current position with the “federal” sports betting licences issued by the Hesse ministry but it will have surely changed once again by the time iNTERGAMINGi goes to print.
After a period of focusing on expanding the casino, bingo and slots markets, Italy - where the offer was initially limited to sports betting, horse racing and poker - has this year widened further the range of sports betting games on offer. The UK, meanwhile, has changed the stakes somewhat with the move to point-of-consumption regulation that has so far not triggered the game of musical chairs among operators that many forecast – most are simply staying put and sucking it up. There have been some notable moves this year, not least bet365 transferring its sports betting operations to Gibraltar.
Meanwhile, in the US, legalised real-money online sports betting still seems some way off, despite the considerable gains made in the broader i-gaming market there. In late November, New Jersey governor’s Chris Christie’s latest attempt to see sports wagering permitted at state-licensed casinos and racetracks in the Garden State was kicked into touch by US district judge Michael Shipp.
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