Thursday , March 28 2024

How much is betting worth to UK football?

Football is clearly one of the biggest sports industries in the UK. It is watched by around 40% of the population on a regular basis, that being around 27 million people—and that’s just the Premier League. For a long time, the sports industries closest partner has been the betting operators. Naturally, football is one of the betting industries closest allies—but how much is the betting industry worth to football in the UK? Well, as an overall value, it seems that the figure is around £1.4 billion.

There are a few ways we can look at this, so let’s not waste any more time.

Advertising 

As you might expect, advertising is one of the biggest ways that the betting industry helps add value to football. In the biggest games, some form of betting advertising is seen as much as every 10 seconds. This is obviously a huge part of the revenue afforded to clubs and broadcasters by the betting industry.

Whether it’s on the side lines during the game, or played as an ad during the break, betting adverts are a huge part of how the betting industry adds value to UK football. Future regulations could seek to limit this influence, but as of now, it is still a huge part of the betting money in UK football.

For many, the football is all they are interested in. Some like to bet here and there alongside their football viewing. Some, though, are pure bettors, and are drawn to the football this way.

Viewership 

Undoubtedly, to an extent, the betting industry in the UK brings in added viewership to UK football. As I said, many people are career bettors, and they will either pick a niche within betting, or will bet on a broad range of markets. So, those who might otherwise not have watched the football do so because they are betting on it.

Of all the betting markets in the UK, football is clearly the largest. While this is mostly driven by the popularity of football in the first place, it does work in reverse, too. This increases viewership, fanbase, and ultimately things like ticket sales and merchandising revenue.

Betting is worth a great deal to UK football for this reason.

Partnerships 

Of the 20 teams in the Premier League, 9 of them are currently sponsored by gambling and betting companies like bet365 and their Stoke sponsorship. This is a staggering figure at almost half, and again goes to show the huge value of betting to UK football. This has now been true for roughly 5 seasons in the Premier League. These are huge, multi-million pound deals.

The investment of betting companies in UK football is plainly huge. Given the money involved in Premier League football, one can only guess at the figures agreed upon for these partnerships. They also carry out advertising using footballing stars from the associated team. Though, again, regulation in the future could seek to change these rules, at the moment it still plainly brings in a great deal of value to the industry.

Whatever happens in the future, betting partnerships are one of the biggest ways that the betting market adds value to UK football.

There are many ways that the betting industry is valuable to UK football, then. The betting industry on its own is worth a huge amount of money, and so it makes a great deal of sense to partner with football and increase both of their profits. Whether that is done through advertising or sponsorships, or the betting companies outright increasing the number of people watching the games, everyone benefits.

About Arunava Chaudhuri

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