Staff Reporter
Sports fans around the world have teams they follow, but they also bet on teams they have no allegiance to as a form of entertainment.
That ranges from single bets, to accumulators and from final game results, to the number of corners or fouls committed.
This is especially the case with young men in their twenties who will often put small bets on games as part of the sports package.
Two teams in a league you may never have heard of will be playing, but you will get so into the game once you place a bet, because it’s in your nature to want to win.
People take pride in their betting accomplishments and will do their research in order to see how they should place a bet, including a team’s recent form in the last ten games for example.
There are even those who have made careers out of sports betting, the so-called tipsters.
These tipsters have pages on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and ‘tip’ their followers on what the most likely outcome will be for a game, based on prior research they have done.
By doing that they save people the time from having to research themselves.
For example, two football teams in Belarus may be playing, but instead of just placing a random bet, the tipster will have done his research and found out that one of the teams is battling to save themselves from relegation and will therefore have more to play for than the team in mid table.
Sports betting is usually something that brings people together and is a form of social interaction, as they might put accumulators on together and sit in the pub to watch their results come in.
Your bet coming in sometimes feels as good as your team winning a game.
The most common of sports betting is done online, on their laptops or even more commonly on their mobile phones. Such as 888sport betting.
However, the more traditional punters also enjoy going into the local shops to place their bets.
This is particularly the case with horse racing, with big racing festivals such as the Royal Ascot in the UK or the Kentucky Derby in the US amassing huge numbers of spectators.
Companies nowadays also act in a very responsible manner and promote the idea of responsible betting in order to make sure that people that partake always do it for fun and it doesn’t harm their mental health.
That’s why there are now things such as deposit limits that help punters stay on top of their money. Ultimately sports betting is the fans’ way of partaking in the sport, without playing themselves.
