Online sports betting has taken off in the United States since the Supreme Court ruled to remove a blanket ban of the pastime in 2018. The exploding industry takes advantage of a pair of facts on the way to wild success: that Americans love a chance to make a quick buck, and that they’re enamored with their sports teams.
The industry offers bets on everything from tried and true classics like the NFL, NBA and MLB to leagues that are relatively unknown here in the states like Lithuanian Women’s Basketball… and bettors eat it up. Sportsbooks are always looking for ways to expand their reach, with offerings like player props and parlay bets giving bettors a multitude of options. Now they’re expanding into sports like horse and greyhound racing that are long established, but until now hadn’t really been touched by mainstream sportsbooks in the United States.
Another example of this diversification is the advent of virtual reality sports, which some bookies are eyeing as the next opportunity to set betting lines.
Football fans in the state of Maryland might wish they were living in an alternate reality right now. Superstar quarterback and 2019 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson announced in a Twitter thread on Monday that he’d requested a trade from the Baltimore Ravens back on March 2, saying that the team wasn’t interested in paying him what he felt he deserved for his level of play. The Ravens have always been in the thick of things with Jackson playing: it’s impossible to count out a player as dynamic as he is. As such, Baltimore had some of the best odds of winning the Super Bowl earlier this offseason, listed as high as +1600. Since Jackson made his trade demands public, the Ravens odds have fallen to +3000 at Maryland’s Caesars Sportsbook. They aren’t dead in the water, and won’t be if there’s a fraction of a chance the two sides can make up, but Jackson’s situation has taken a heavy toll on the team. If you want to bet on the Ravens or any other sports team, make sure to use a Caesars promo code to take advantage of exclusive promotions at Caesars Maryland.
Here’s a look at how virtual reality sports could impact the world of online betting.
The sports and gaming industries have long been intertwined: they’re two of the most popular pastimes around the world… of course they mesh together well in video games like Madden and FIFA. As video game streaming becomes popular with content creators like Ninja and Shroud showcasing their talents in front of millions of followers, the market is ripe to expand the sports betting industry into taking wagers on popular streamers.
Take a look at the bets offered for a sport like football: how many passing or receiving yards a player will have, how many points a team will score, whether their team will win a championship this season. The same sort of things apply to e-sports: how many other players Shroud can take down in a game of Counter-Strike, how fast Ninja can rank up in the latest Fortnite season.
While a lot of streamers try to appeal to younger audiences that aren’t able to place bets yet, the past few years have shown that people are ready to bet on anything, no matter if they’ve never seen it played before or if it’s taking place on the other side of the world. Expanding into new fields is yet another way that casinos can continue to dominate the sports industry, and if betting on games like Fortnite goes well, streamers can (and will) pick up other games, making the streaming industry explode too.
Virtual reality also offers new ways for fans to experience sports and Esports, with VR augmentation and headsets making you feel like you’re part of the action, yet another way that entertainment has been integrated into daily life.