The sports betting industry has been on a constant rise for years now. While in the United States, a country known for their pro sports leagues, like the NFL, NBA, and MLB, and of course their sports betting events, like wagering on its always famous NFL’s Monday Night Football matchup, it’s only now that the country has made great strides towards legalizing online sports betting ventures. But across the world, including in Asia, this scene has been a favorite for sports fans for years now. Thanks to all of the technological advances in the online betting industry, there has been a surge of interest in sports fans wanting to wager money on their favorite sporting events.
While in different betting markets around the world, the preference for certain sports will always change, today let’s focus on which are some of the sports considered as favorites for the always blooming Asian sports betting market. In a place where a sport like American football doesn’t necessarily stand as a betting favorite like in the western hemisphere, which sports reign supreme? Let’s take a look.
Football
Football, association football, or soccer as it’s known for American crowds of course takes the top spot for most popular sport to bet on in the Asian market. Given that football is known all over the world as the “king of sports” and because it’s played all over, with leagues, tournaments, and matches happening all year round, it’s the perfect sport to wager on. Thanks to the reach that the sport has, because of international cups and tournaments, such as the FIFA World Cup Tournament and the UEFA Champions League Tournament to name a few, this sport has become the premier option for betting fans looking to score big.
From a few years back on to today, Asian football leagues have also experienced exponential growth both in quality and in popularity. This has been mainly because of many top European, South American, and African players choosing leagues like the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean professional football leagues as their homes, bringing the level of competitiveness up, and the interest for betting purposes up as well.
Table Tennis
Table tennis, or Ping Pong, is one of those sports that can easily be deemed as being of full Asian dominance. Being in pro competitions, or in international tournaments, it has always been a custom to see the top players and athletes in those events be of Asian descent, which automatically makes it one of the most sought-after sporting disciplines for betting purposes.
Given that, unlike any other team sport, table tennis is an individual discipline, bettors have to depend solemnly on the skills of each player to make money winning. With table tennis being such an intense sport, even if its dimensions are much smaller in comparison to other sports, the online sports betting industry, especially those that focus on the Asian markets, have seen how popular the sport is amongst fans and has been offering betting options for some time now, with very positive results appearing almost immediately.
Cricket
If you ever wondered which sport in the world could give football a run for its money and claim to be the most popular on the planet, then look no further than cricket. While it might be hard to understand at first, that doesn’t take away from the actions and thrills that each game brings to the table. Given that cricket is the most popular sport in countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to name a few, its levels of fan popularity easily surpass the billion mark when it comes to spectators, making it a premier betting pick for sports betting fans in the Asian continent, but especially in West Asia.
With local leagues, as well as international club and national team tournaments happening almost on a year-round basis, cricket fans have taken to online sports betting platforms to pursue their betting endeavors, especially more since actual physical betting has taken a back seat because of all the Covid-19 pandemic complications. While it’s also very popular in countries like England, South Africa, Australia, and others, it is the Asian market that is truly where cricket shines the most, especially when it comes to sports betting purposes.
