Ed Craven: Beyond the game: Maximising excitement while watching sports
Sport is a social phenomenon just like gaming online with friends and is something that has always seen interest from punters and fans in order to maximise its enjoyment. The thrill of cheering on your team, country or favourite across an array of sports is at times indescribable. Added to this the opportunity to win money and we have ourselves a perfect recipe for excitement.
It’s no secret that we are consuming sport at a rate higher than ever before with more televised/streamed content available to us. With this, it is only natural for betting opportunities to have also evolved.
Whether football, basketball or Formula One, success on the pitch, court or track requires a real team effort and fans appreciate this. Already exciting in their own right, betting simply adds another layer of excitement to events.
We recognise this at Stake and it’s why we sponsor a host of teams and events from Formula One to football and UFC. Our connection with sports will always be a major part of who we are, and we recognise the joy factor sports fans get from betting on the events they love.
I love that with sports betting, you can cheer and subsequently win from a specific overtake in a race, the number of corners in the first half of a match or the duration of a fight. All this is of course the case for both sports and e-sports too.
Last year for instance, we saw over 120,000 fans place bets during the World Cup Final alone, and what a match it was! We are also seeing rapidly increasing user engagement with other sports from table tennis to ice hockey and basketball.
Here are some other cool stats on the growth in fan engagement. Active users betting on football, baseball and Formula One (to name just some) more than doubled from 2021 levels. We are also witnessing similar growth patterns for other sports too, testament to players enjoying more engagement opportunities available to them.
I’ve spoken on the growth of e-sports before, but here’s a fun fact for you all. Did you know that over the past year, active users placing bets on CS-GO and League of Legends (combined) was slightly higher than those betting on baseball?
In the same way we grew up with collectible sports cards and have online fantasy sports leagues with co-workers and friends, the idea of winning with your team will never stop being appealing.
The reality is that as soon as the match kicks off or the red lights go out at the beginning of a race, betting means that fans have more to cheer for and to enjoy.
As viewers, we love the risk element of sports and the anticipation before and during an event. Betting is a natural partner to this. It helps add to the excitement level, builds anticipation and risk and also provides us with the opportunity to win while watching the content we love.
Horse racing for instance, is one of the oldest forms of all sports and it’s one that has welcomed betting since the 1800s.
I don’t know about you guys, but chatting with friends to see the sorts of bets they’ve put on games and then watching the events together (whether virtually or in-person) is great. We win and lose together in a responsible manner but always have fun in the process.
Further, the amount of in-play betting options is also adding to the entertainment factor of events. We can cash out if we like, add more bets and see the live odds as events manifest. This adds yet another dynamic to the strategising dynamic of our bets and, for me, further enhances the viewer experience.
Sports betting gives us more to cheer for, adds anticipation to the viewership experience, creates more social opportunities with friends and/or co-workers and offers the thrill of winning together with your team.
Like all forms of gambling, sports betting should always crucially be undertaken in a responsible manner in order to maximise its enjoyment.
Ed Craven, Co-Founder, Stake.com
