Vaccine, Trump and dinosaurs
During the coronavirus epidemic, betting shops have become one of the most vulnerable businesses. The fact is that many sports competitions and championships have been cancelled. Therefore it is now very difficult for bookmakers to attract new customers. Therefore, they are trying to do so, and not always in standard ways.
In this regard, bettors have a lot of interesting opportunities. A bet on Donald Trump’s real estate or the cause of the death of the dinosaurs? This can be done at various betting shops. Although there really isn’t much to cheer about. Various championships have been cancelled due to the Coronovirus, which has affected bookmakers.
So, BetCity started offering customers bets on matches of the Belorussian championship. You can do it even now. Moreover, the Belarusian football is not the most unusual event. Now fans of betting can predict the outcome of matches of the championship of Tajikistan on the site https://betnero.sc/. Of course, a large number of bettors willing to make such bets are not. The coronavirus epidemic has therefore become a serious challenge to betting shops. It is especially true of those companies that have paid advertising and broadcasting contracts in advance. Added to that is the obligatory tax for betting shops, which amounts to 3 million roubles a month.
Of course it would be easier if the law allowed casino games, but that is not the case and you just have to wait until all sporting events resume.
How bookmakers get out of it
While there were no tournaments bookmakers tried to do something to attract customers. So they created betting groups dedicated to the coronavirus itself. For example, on the Betsiti website it was possible to place a bet on what would be announced as the end of the pandemic in June. There were even bets on the creation of a vaccine against the coronavirus in 2020.
Parimatch also has a good line on the epidemic. New bets appear regularly on the site. But all bookmakers are united in one thing – betting on the number of victims of the epidemic is not accepted, as it is not ethical. But in Parimatch you could bet on when a particular sports league resumes. The odds are calculated by experienced analysts who study statistics from previous months.
Some bookmakers listen to their audience. For example, there have been bets such as the likelihood of the Trump Tower being converted into a clinic. There is the possibility of betting that a computer game dedicated to the pandemic will appear.
Moreover, such bets are made all the time. However, they are considered mainly as a PR tool, because few people make such bets. Even Parimatch agrees with this and cites data showing that only 5 per cent of bets are on viral bets.
Everything about the coronavirus is by and large a promotional story, which is aimed at getting the bookmaker’s office unnecessarily mentioned. As far as punters are concerned, they are now being directed towards cybersport competitions and online casinos. Even according to statistics, the distribution of bookmaker visitors is now evenly split between betting and gambling. What is being hushed up is how companies manage to get around the gambling ban.
And we can definitely say that you should not trust the odds of bookmakers on various events related to the epidemic. Sure, you can bet on rising buckwheat prices or that a vaccine will be created by Elon Musk. But that is certainly no indicator of the likelihood of such an outcome. So you can bet, but you should not trust the odds on such events.