SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The chairman of Bede Gaming, Joe Saumarez Smith stated that the reason cricket hasn’t broken into the mainstream as a betting product is down to it being ‘extremely difficult to price.’
Smith said: “I’m very much of the view that cricket is a fantastic betting game, if you go to an Indian cricket ground you’re surrounded by people all betting ball by ball, I actually believe that there is nothing wrong with the game in terms of a betting product.”
Smith was talking at the 2017 Betting on Sports conference, as part of a panel that analysed Unibet becoming an official betting partner for Warwickshire CCC, epitomises a new wave of interest in the shorter format of the game.
Matthew Glazier, managing director, Bookies.com said: “Cricket falls somewhere in the middle of the popular betting sports, it can’t necessarily be described as a complete fringe sport but at the same time it’s not synonymous with betting, cricket as a sport, particularly in the test match format doesn’t lend itself out to betting, so it’s somewhere in the middle for a reason.”
Glazier added: “Although it’s a sport that will probably never achieve a rapid growth, the T20 format of the game does help it lean towards a younger audience from a betting perspective.”
Founder and managing director of Living Sports Ltd Dave Tharp went onto state his belief that ‘cricket is a sport that innovates all the time’ adding that ‘there is still a great deal of opportunity for bookmakers to come and talk directly to the consumer in the stands.’
