The planned return this month of the NBA and Major League Baseball is a welcome sign for sports fans, but even more for sports bettors. The burgeoning sports gambling industry hit a wall when the coronavirus pandemic shuttered all sports for months. But as sports have started returning in the last several weeks, so has the "action."
"The need for sports betting and entertainment is at such a high rate right now," says Peter John Anadio, who runs the Sports Bet Expert consulting service. "We've seen on our social media pages, the influx of interested people quadruple in the last month or two."
Anadio tells KTRH that demand for sports betting is so strong, bettors have been flocking to other sports in the absence of football, baseball and basketball. "Golf, horse racing, English Premier League Soccer...more people in the United States becoming soccer fans overseas," he says. "People that don't even understand golf are now betting on golf because they're looking for that edge, they're looking for that feeling from sports betting."
Assuming MLB and the NBA return without a hitch, Anadio expects the industry to bounce back from the shutdowns, especially with the big kahuna of betting---football---just around the corner. "We've seen over the last five years that every year our profits have gotten bigger," says Anadio. "Now it's tough during the current circumstances, but we're finding ways around that, and look---as long as the games are played, sports betting is going to continue to grow."
Now they are just waiting for the games to actually be played again.