In recent times the relevance of sports betting has grown enormously, and changed how people view sports in general. Ten years ago, Soccer viewership came from the supporters of the teams and those who were genuinely interested in their team. While there are still people who watch for those reasons, people who are betting on the games are beginning to take over the viewership.
Many of the leagues will not worry about those placing bets on their games, as it will help their viewership and give them more revenue, but individual clubs who aren't in the spotlight are beginning to struggle. This is due to a lack of ticket sales for the less important games with unfavorable odds. The spectators are not watching for passion they are watching for their own benefit and hopes to make money. With less people watching for passion, the stadiums are not being sold out, as there are not as many loyal supporters of the teams. The loyal supporters have been driven out by those betting on games and now they don't feel as though it is worth going to games, which leads to less revenue for teams.
If teams are making less money, it will negatively impact the quality of the games. Especially the games of the less interesting teams, which can drive teams to be relegating and even going bankrupt. This is a hard cycle to get out of as only the well performing teams are paid large sums of money at the end of seasons, and if teams get relegating the money they receive is lower too. This makes it hard to escape as they don't get the money they need to dig themselves out of the holes they are in, which will eventually make the leagues less competitive with just a handful of teams dominating every year with little change.
Betters don't want to watch games in person as it is cheaper for them to watch at home, rather than may to travel and tickets to the games. The betters would rather save time and money while betting, than having a good time at games and enjoying them. If the betters aren't betting on one specific team every time it means that they will not be loyal to the club. Which means they will only be watching games occasionally when the team has a matchup that could benefit them.
If teams don't have loyal followers because of betters, it means that shirt and merchandise sales will also fall, as people only want to buy the shirts of well known players instead of buying shirts of teams they follow. This means the richer teams get more money and the poorer teams get less, which further contributes to the cycle of money, or lack there of, provided to the poorer teams.
Betters have in general increased viewership which is good for the leagues themselves which will allow leagues to stay open, but even if they have more money to give, it will be useless unless they give it to the teams that performed worse instead of those who won or competed for first place. This is one of the many decisions that has to be made soon regarding the changes in the sport, as the times are changing and different things are wanted and expected of the sport.
Overall, there are some positives to sports betting on Soccer but leagues who are making more money from viewership have to be responsible on how they spend it in order to keep games interesting, and to keep the money flowing between all teams, instead of only benefitting the rich teams. Leagues just have to be aware of the changes to the sport, which could help them if they react well. Sports betting could either make the sport better or worse depending on how people with power react.
Colin Kirk, Junior Writer
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