What are the 10 most popular sports to bet on in Singapore in 2023? If you’re interested in sports betting but don’t know which tournaments to follow, this list is for you. Here are some of the most popular sports that punters worldwide are betting on and making big money off.
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Football or soccer is the biggest sport in the world, and it’s the sport that’s played the most globally. Football is the one place to start sports betting. Millions of fans are travelling every week to support their teams in this beautiful game, and even more, people pray to get off work early so they can go home and catch the action on television.
Betting on football is so common among football fans that people often assume you’re speaking of betting on football when you talk about sports betting. If you head to a sports club or a pub before a football match, you can hear heated discussions about who will score the first goal. It’s also common to hear post-game analysis about where bets went wrong.
5,230 million viewers tuned in to the UEFA Euro 2020 between June 2021 and July 2021, showing the world’s strength and popularity of sports. The FIFA World Cup finals are some of the most-watched broadcasts in Europe, the US and beyond. With online sports betting, punters can now access hundreds of leagues around the world, 24/7.
Horse racing was the sport of kings and the most popular with punters once upon a time. These days, football and tennis betting have left horse betting behind. But horse racing is still a massive market, especially in the UK, Hong Kong and some other parts of the world.
In 2021, horse racing bets made Hong Kong punters a whopping KH$136.1 billion. In Japan, profits from local races went up 30.1 per cent to 912.29 billion JPY. Between April and September 2020, of course, betting revenue reached 1.04 billion British pounds in the UK.
Horse race betting is a massive market with big events like the Royal Ascot, Grand National and Epsom Derby drawing huge wagers. However, the new generation of punters are less interested in horse betting, preferring football, tennis, and other sports.
If you’re not a fan of tennis, you may not realise that the game is not far behind football in terms of popularity among punters. It ranks only behind football and horse racing in terms of the money generated for bookmakers in the UK. It’s an exciting game, with tournaments held throughout the year. More and more punters are getting interested in betting on tennis.
Big events like the Australian Open, French Open, US Open and Wimbledon have millions of viewers. They offer the most prize money and fame, and punters are the most interested in the outcomes of these tournaments. There are men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles to bet on. Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev are some leading players to watch out for today.
Tennis odds are available on any tennis match you can imagine, ranging from the Grand Slams to the Futures Tour, the lowest tier. The great thing about betting on tennis is: if there’s a match you want to bet on, you’re sure to find a bookie who’ll help you out.
In tennis, you can bet on the tournament winner (outright), a match-winner (match betting), handicap betting, over-under betting, in-play betting and other bet options.
In the US, punters typically place ACCA bets or accumulator bets, and these are made of multiple options combined into one bet. Punters in the US tend to typically bet across various contests, including basketball, American football, ice hockey and baseball.
The NBA’s great basketball tournament makes for an exciting betting season for punters. The long NBA season offers’ punters many opportunities to bet on NBA events from October to July. The games can be high-scoring events as each team has only 24 seconds to score. So bookies tend to use a line or spread to equalise the chances of either team winning a wager.
Other typical basketball wagers include Moneyline (different odds based on who will win), Totals (the combined score of each team), Quarter or 1st Half Lines, Half Time lines, Parlay or teaser, and Futures betting.
American football is played professionally and at the college level with great enthusiasm in the US. The minor league games culminate in the Superbowl, which is the annual tournament of the National Football League (NFL). As far as volume goes, American football is the most popular sport for betting in the US. A huge number of games are played over the week, offering punters plenty of opportunities to win. NFL betting is smaller than NBA betting in volume, but it still provides a big betting market at home and abroad.
Golf offers punters plenty of options to bet on each week. The biggest golf events to bet on are the major PGA tournaments, the US Open, team events like the Ryder Cup, the British Open and the Masters. Golf is one of the most played sports globally, with 60 million people around the world playing the sport regularly.
The sport has been one of the biggest risers in sports betting in the last few years. There are 78 players at any moment on the course, and there are plenty of betting formats. Big golfing events tend to run across three days, and some significant events are four days long. There are plenty of odds, opportunities and variable outcomes in golf than in many other sports.
Like Golf, Rugby Union is a recent riser in the betting charts. Many new countries are rising through the game’s ranks, with 30 rugby-playing countries globally. The 2019 Rugby World cup was historically the biggest rugby event. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and the Home Nations tournament in the Southern Hemisphere are two big annual events to watch for.
In addition, punters can look out for the Super Rugby League Premiership, the Top 14 and the Champions Cup for more betting opportunities.
Punters have been betting on boxing for years. The market is not as big as football or tennis; it’s still quite big. MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is relatively new, but with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) betting history, MMA betting is quickly catching on. In boxing, betting on the underdog is likely to be more profitable.
The National Hockey League is not as popular as the other sports. But this means the market for betting on ice hockey in the US is softer, and the market is not as efficient as it is for other popular sports, which can give punters a bit of an advantage.
When betting on hockey, it helps to check out the closing lines and familiarise yourself with implied probability and the many stats that make up hockey.
E-Sports are fast-growing in the betting market in terms of volume. E-Sports include virtual racing and other virtual sports that bookies are increasingly offering odds on. In India, E-Sports cash awards have grown at a whopping 123.3% between 2016 and 2018. There are several types of games you can bet on in E-Sports, including tournaments; Battlegrounds, MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), League of Legends, CS: GO and more.
READ MORE: Sports Betting: Singapore’s Favourite Bet
Some bookies will offer odds for any sport you want to bet on. This list is by no means comprehensive depending on where you are in the world and the bookie in question; you may also want to bet on cricket, a strategic game that comes in many forms, such as Twenty20 and Tests cricket. Cricket betting sites let you choose which type of cricket you want to bet on.
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