Online sites win by a KO for gamblers
Casinos, betting shops lose some of their appeal as sports gambling mushrooms
● As a 23-year-old, John* used to wait for a Cape Town betting shop to open almost every morning, then he’d spend his whole day, and often his whole pay cheque, inside.
Eight years later, the Cape Town call centre worker gambles mainly online as he surfs the fine line between feast and famine for South Africa’s growing contingent of sports betting enthusiasts.
The growth of sports betting, a market worth nearly R36-billion in 2016, has been fuelled by online access, which has also transformed it from a working-class pastime into one that attracts people from all economic brackets.
“I’ll spend around R300 to R800 per punt if I’m chasing, maybe a grand or two a month,” said John. “My winning margin is currently about 12%, which is not great, but I’ve seen big wins which have carried some losses over.”
John said people had become much more open-minded about betting as a result of its online growth.
“Betting advertisements have also improved dramatically. It makes people realise that these are legitimate companies.”
As for the betting shops that have mushroomed across the country, he said it was “very much a vibe . . . The level of friendliness is extremely high. There’s banter flying around. That’s consistent to all betting houses and people there help each other.”
Hilton Hasson, 43, has been in the betting industry for over 25 years. He is the director of World Sports Betting’s Western Cape operation and said retail stores represented a “drop in the ocean” of betting revenue.
“Mid- to higher-LSM groups have definitely migrated to online betting,” he said. “Retail still holds its own, but I think what it really does is give credibility to the brand. I don’t think having a standalone website is enough.”
According to Hasson, the migration from shops to online betting has changed the atmosphere and urgency of betting.
“The culture has moved from a very relaxed environment to a situation where people are demanding instantaneous payouts and instant options,” he said.
“The higher-LSM type of guy likes to sit at home and watch the games. The lower LSMs still like to come into the branch.”
Robert Koning, owner of industry website Best Sports Betting, said the move online had helped to remove the sports betting taboo.
“Traditionally, you’d go down to a shop, and you’d stay there,” he said.
“Families would see their loved ones go off for the whole day and come back angry, broke or maybe rich. That meant that sports betting became too closely associated with gambling — or casinos, specifically.”
Casinos take more than 75% of gambling revenue, but Hasson said the playing field was changing. “We’ve seen a shift of around 5% from casinos to online, year on year,” he said.
“I think guys are realising that casinos just aren’t giving them a chance. People go and play the slots and bet right through with no luck, as opposed to sports betting where you can actually apply a bit of knowledge.”
A “bit of knowledge but a lot of good luck” is what Steve*, 24, thanks for his betting success during his years as a student.
“I can thank Liverpool FC in 2014 for the money I made at the time,” he said. “I went through a stage with them and some others where it seemed I just couldn’t lose.”
Steve said his biggest bet was almost his costliest.
“I put down R34 000 worth of winnings on a Barcelona game against Manchester City where Barca were 2-0 up. I backed them ‘in-running’ with the hope of making R2 000 back. It looked like free money,” he said.
“But then City scored, and then they scored again. I thought, ‘I’ve gone over the edge here’, and my heart dropped. But Barca scored and won with about the last kick of the game and saved my bacon.”
Koning said South Africans bet mainly on football, tennis and horses. “Everyone loves soccer,” he said, adding that this year’s World Cup in Russia is likely to produce a spike in betting.
John said his betting strategies had changed since his days as a “naive beginner”, chasing the odds rather than the teams he knew.
But even he admits that sometimes his habit gets out of hand.
“I once laid a bet on under-16 Yugoslavian volleyball,” he said. “That might have been a bit over the top.”
* Not their real names