Going down the lane, 2018 lies officially in the books with loads of interesting records. Undeniably, an awesome year it was! France won the World Cup, the Capitals won their first Stanley Cup, the Warriors won their second straight title, and the Red Sox won their fourth World Series since 2004.
Here we are, waiting for more of what 2019 has to offer. What will 2019 bring? Will it be another year full of historic firsts and legacy-defining victories? We think so, and we can’t wait.This article will centre on the gambling events which we have considered to be the biggest at the end of 2019,making recourse to the sport events and championships that we’re most excited to see in the year ahead.
Biggest gambling events
With regards to gambling events with the biggest betting volume, Sports betting has itself become a force to reckon with. Sports betting is big international business, and by ‘big’ we mean astronomical! The estimated global income for the sports betting industry is somewhere between $700 billion and $1 trillion a year. In 2017, a record-breaking $4.68 billion was wagered in Nevada sportsbooks alone!
What is everyone betting on? Which sporting events take the biggest bucks in the world of sports betting? We’ll take a look at some of the world’s most popular sports and discover just how much money is wagered in betting.
Here is a closer look at the biggest sporting events in the world, as far as gambling is concerned.
• The Super Bowl
• March Madness
• The World Cup
• World Cup of Cricket
When it comes to gambling — be it legal, illegal, or online — there are some sporting events that loom larger than others in the psyches of bettors. Some gamblers are professionals intent on making a veritable killing or occasional dabblers who just want the right to engage in some bragging (whether through online gambling or at a casino).
Regardless of where you fall on that spectrum, if you love sports, the chances are pretty good that you’ve wagered a small bet here or there with your best friend over the turnout of a game — just to make things a little more interesting. Well, all over the world, people are routinely making the biggest sporting events “a little more interesting” by betting billions of dollars on outcomes, point spreads, and more. Here is a closer look at the biggest sporting events in the world, as far as gambling is concerned.
The Superbowl
The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL) typically played annually between the champion of the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The game is the culmination of a regular season that begins in the late summer of the previous year.
The most-watched game on television is also one of the most popular games on which to bet, with almost $120 million bet in Nevada casinos alone over 2014’s contest, in which the favored Denver Broncos lost by a wide margin to the Seattle Seahawks. With the rise of online betting, millions are being wagered every year on professional football’s biggest contest, since you no longer have to be in the state of Nevada in order to get in on the fun. Also, getting the funds you win is always becoming easier. This year’s Super Bowl looks to become the most wagered upon game in history. If you’re looking to get in on the online action and want to be sure to be able to cash in on your winnings, check out the sportsbook banking and deposit guide.
The Super Bowl is the biggest betting day of the year, generating approximately $5 billion in wagers. This could also be the first time in a while that the New England Patriots are left out of the big game, as the Pats aren’t currently in the top three in Super Bowl 53 odds.
March Madness
The NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, also known and branded as NCAA March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to determine the national championship. The tournament was created in 1939 by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, and was the idea of Ohio State coach Harold Olsen.Played mostly during March, it has become one of the most famous annual sporting events in the United States.
If the Super Bowl is betting Christmas, March Madness is betting Hanukkah. Sports books rake in about $10 billion in bets over the course of the tournament, and all of it is risked on the highly volatile sport of amateur basketball.
March Madness is also a gambling event for bettors outside the U.S., too. Pregame.com, a site that analyzes gambling and gambling trends, estimated that over $12 billion was wagered worldwide on the tournament last year.
The World Cup
It shouldn’t be so much of a surprise that the World Cup results in hundreds of millions of dollars in betting since soccer is the world’s most popular sport, and the World Cup — its main event — occurs just every four years. From picking the eventual winner to crazy prop bets like the 175-to-1 odds that Luis Suarez would bite someone (he did), soccer’s biggest tournament always sees an impressive amount of gambling action all over the world.The FIFA World Cup is the ultimate tournament in the football calendar, occurring every four years. Despite a runtime of just one month, the World Cup provides an enormous amount of betting opportunities.
The competition kicks off with 210 countries participating in the qualifying rounds, then battling it out through different stages to make the final 32. Bettors from around the world are able to place wagers each step of the way. Although there aren’t any official figures as to how much is bet worldwide during the entire tournament, it’s estimated to be more than $260 million.
World Cup of Cricket
It might interest you to know that cricket is one of the world’s most popular sports, though seemingly difficult to believe. Cricket has a rabid following that loves to put its money where its mouth is. The World Cup of Cricket is an event that is televised in over 200 countries, which keeps fans glued to the TV and putting up a ton of money. While it may pass unnoticed on most Americans’ radars, millions are wagered every time cricket’s World Cup rolls around.
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport’s governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), every four years, with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament. The tournament is one of the world’s most viewed sporting events and is considered the “flagship event of the international cricket calendar” by the ICC. The World Cup is open to all members of the International Cricket Council (ICC), although the highest-ranking teams receive automatic qualification. The remaining teams are determined via the World Cricket League and the ICC World Cup Qualifier.
Conclusion
As it appears, sporting events have become an integral part of betting, they go hand-in-hand, whether the sport is soccer, basketball, or cricket. As long as there is competitive play with an unknown outcome, there will be gamblers lining up to try their hand at guessing the future, and these events have proven time and time again to attract the most bettors and the most money.
The figures in sports betting are staggering, to say the least. Bet big or bet small, it all adds up to a multimillion-dollar industry. Of course, there are those professional bettors who seem to live by the motto ‘bet big or go home’.
