The Sports Betting Industry Has Boomed – Entertainment Beyond The Match: Gamification Brings The Showtime To Sports Betting

The sports betting industry has boomed in the last four years across the pond with operators spending an increasing amount on TV advertisements. Actors are also getting in on the scene. Sometimes they are the act themselves.

Betting parlays bring multiple hooks

When 50 Cent, aka Curtis Jackson, placed a bet on the 2012 NFC Final for the New York Giants to beat the San Francisco 49ers, he won half a million dollars. 50 Cent being 50 Cent, he let people know about it. A decade later, a 50-cent stake won a significant six-figure sum for a trio of bettors in Pennsylvania. The bet was based on a parlay - when a bettor makes multiple wagers and ties them together into the same bet - and somehow their ship sailed in.

Source: Pexels

At first glance, the connection might appear to be a loose change in contrast to an outlay from a rich man with millions of followers. However, a closer look shows the gamification of the sports betting industry has been the most significant change over the last few years. The entertainment doesn't always have to generate from the action on the pitch. After all, the attention span of 21st-century sports followers might not allow every moment of a Super Bowl to be absorbed like popcorn.

Hollywood actors give the sports betting pitch

Whether it is the sharp-suited Jamie Foxx walking on water with a mobile phone to reel you in, J.B. Smoove playing Julius Caesar in what might be termed another piece of creative freedom, or Ray Winstone as the face of Bet365, the biggest sportsbook in the world, there has been a proliferation of Hollywood and celebrity endorsements for digital wagering opportunities surrounding the main event.

Sports games have always produced a crowd, a social environment of bodies or minds that congregate and expect to be entertained. Now, though, it’s not just about the sport. Sports betting is the entertainment that has connected fans to the games in a new way, where there are myriad possibilities and outcomes within the framework of the big match.

Source: Unsplash

Gamification is the entertainment beyond the match

Supporters only need to watch or keep an eye on a particular moment in time or portion of the game that involves their placement. Modern players are not necessarily invested in the whole game. It could even be argued that the overall result can sometimes be irrelevant given the myriad combinations and side plots that exist.

There is much research to suggest that consumers increasingly relate to the gamification of sports betting. A considerable percentage of bettors enjoy competing with other like-minded people in a visible community positively. 

Ultimately, the gamification of the sports betting industry is key in driving richer engagement and creating a more personal bond with the brand. The shift in the culture of sports betting now hangs on a collective, a social community that creates a competitive environment that can be shared in digital time away from the stadium.