The betting industry keeps on growing year on year, with more and more punters signing up to enjoy a bet on their favourite sport. In the United Kingdom alone, the betting industry is worth around £14bn a year, and employs over 100,000 people, which makes it one of the bigger industries in the country.
On average, a staggering 32% of the population of the United Kingdom enjoy a punt every week and as of the end of 2019, there were 179,556 gaming machines around Great Britain. Needless to say, this is an industry that will continue to grow exponentially and the figure of £14bn a year that the gambling industry is worth is certainly likely to rise over the coming years. Now, whilst the UK is one of the big contributors to the total global sports betting market, the actual figures of the international market make for some truly astounding reading.
To this day, the global sports betting market is worth $104bn and is expected to reach $155bn by the year 2024, with almost half of that growth coming from the Americas region. Other contributors include Australia, which makes up on average around $24bn of the annual industry, with China not far behind on $21bn. Canda, meanwhile, generates $13bn of the global amount, with every active punter in the Great White North spending around $570 a year on average. Needless to say, international betting is absolutely thriving.
But it is the sports betting sector that really does amaze when you think back to the origins of betting and how advanced it is today. You can go back at least 2000 years to find evidence of the first type of betting taking place; the activity has gradually grown from throwing dice, to the Romans taking bets on a chariot race, or even the outcome of a fight to the death duel in front of the Caesars.
☝🏼🙏🏼🎾❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/OPhmZejCTO
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) July 14, 2019
Mercifully, we’ve come a long way since then and no longer bet on things quite as gory. Over time, betting progressed into sports punting – but long gone are the days where you can bet simply on the outcome of a game of football. Nowadays, you can pretty much bet on any sport under the sun and even then, you’re given wide-ranging options from who the winner will be to how many throw-ins will be given during the first half.
As mentioned, it’s not just football where the options are limitless. For instance, if you wanted to bet on Wimbledon over the English summer and the number of aces that Novak Djokovic is likely to serve, you can simply log onto the mobile app and go to the latest tennis odds to find out what that will be priced at.
The introduction of bettings apps and being able to do it on your mobile is arguably the greatest breakthrough that has been made, given how convenient it is. You don’t have to head down to your local betting shop to place a bet, which is ultimately the reason why the gaming industry has grown so rapidly over the last few years, thanks to the introduction of smartphones and the game-changing apps.
At the end of the day, you could be sitting in the Alps, sipping on a mulled wine and fancy a bet on the 2018/2019 Premier League champions Manchester City as they take on Manchester United in the derby, all you need to do is open your phone, place your bet and get back to enjoying the good life.
BACK-TO-BACK! 🏆🏆
Manchester City win at Brighton to become the first repeat Premier League champ since Man United in 2008 and 2009. pic.twitter.com/hOfuN2ItfL
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) May 12, 2019
Where the industry goes from here? It’s hard to imagine how much easier it will get to bet but given how massive this gaming sector is, you can be certain that the landscape will change yet again and become even more enjoyable.
