No Games? No Problem! Betcris’s Betting Vision
The cancelation of major sports events due to the global coronavirus pandemic has left many in the sports betting industry high and dry. Provider Betcris, with over 100 locations in the Latin American market, has a new idea for monetizing and placing bets even when there’s no sports event to speak of: current events. In a meta twist, players can even bet on whether or not certain sporting events will still happen.
Betcris is re-imagining sports betting in the COVID era, which will include options like ping pong and gaming simulations. ©EVG photos/Pexels
A Creative Solution to a Global Crisis
The creative idea from Betcris to continue offering betting options for enthusiastic sports bettors is sure to act as some kind of salve in many weeks of repeated disappointments for everyone. As the coronavirus pandemic has swept the world, increasingly stringent measures have followed, and have not spared the gaming industry.
From a tourist ban in Macau to the closure of all casinos in Colombia and Cancún, not to mention the cancelation entirely of massive annual sporting events, including not just March Madness but the entire NBA basketball season, lovers of sports betting have likely been facing some big disappointments in the last weeks.
COVID Postponements Become Bet-Worthy
The announcement from Betcris comes as conversation swirled throughout the international world as officials for this year’s summer Olympics maintained that the massive global event will happen as planned in Japan. The first day of the Olympics, which will bring together athletes from around the world, were set to begin July 24.
Eager to find something for their patrons to vote on, users of Betcris could even place bets on whether or not they thought they Olympics would occur on July 24. At last count, bettors on the Betcris platform are banking on the postponement or cancelation of the Olympics, with 480 users anticipating this result. Conversely, 340 users believed it would still happen.
These many voters who anticipated the event would not proceed as planned were likely delighted when their bet was proven correct, as a decision was announced on behalf of the Olympics planning commission just last week that the Olympics will be postponed until 2021. This will also apply to the Paralympics.
Inventive Approaches to Sports Betting
Betcris officials are not just using this will-they-won’t-they metric to engage users and find creative solutions to sports betting. The website will also continue to feature sporting events in parts of the world where forced cancelations or postponements have not yet happened.
What’s more, the brand also plans to continue to expand what, exactly, constitutes a sport worth betting on. This will include football — Australian style! — table tennis, and even topics in the politics and entertainment realms. According to officials at Betcris, there’s plenty of room for optimism in the sports betting business.
And from just a look at the Betcris website, it’s clear that there’s no shortage of events to bet on. In just two days, the website features events from the Russia Masters to the Madden NFL20 Simulation, the Moscow Liga Pro, and what’s being called the “FIFA 2020 Ultimate Quaran-Team.”
That’s Not All: Betcris Expands iGaming Options
These inventive approaches to sports betting aren’t the only thing Betcris is doing to continue to offer lucrative services during a global economic and health crisis. Following worldwide measures to keep people staying at home, Betcris is capitalizing brilliantly by expanding its iGaming offerings.
According to the company, this will include additional casino games, live-dealer tables, and more virtual sports for gaming enthusiasts to play during their additional hours cooped up at home. The company believes that all of these additions will serve their client base well, offering respite in a moment of chaos and stress.
What Is Betcris?
Betcris is a gaming operator with more than 100 locations across Latin America, including in Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, Panama, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Peru, and Guatemala. The main headquarters of Betcris are located in San Jose, Costa Rica, but it is owned and operated by TV Global Enterprises, based in Malta.
Cleverness Across the Sports Betting Sector
Betcris isn’t the only sports betting company which has had to think outside the box since the shutdown of international sporting events. In a recent feature in Bloomberg, DraftKings CEO Jason Robins referenced the attention now being paid to less-conventional sporting events, including table-tennis (also known as ping pong).
In this interview, Robins reported that close to 60% of money bet on DraftKings last week was on table tennis alone — a little-watched sport before this, certainly! If March Madness had been going on as planned during this time, it’s hard to imagine the sport getting anywhere near the same numbers.
“Ping pong is fun to watch. A silver lining here is that people are getting a chance to try new things that maybe they hadn’t before, and that some of them will like them and continue to play some of those games once other sports come back.”– Jason Robins, CEO, DraftKings
As Brick-And-Mortar Casinos Close, A Win for iGaming
Though the difficulties posed by the global closures enforced following the coronavirus pandemic are certainly severe, the economic and social upheaval experienced in countries worldwide has undoubtedly encouraged many to spend more time on their technology than ever before — meaning a win for many online-based companies, including iGaming!
Though no numbers have been released, it’s hard to imagine that enthusiasts of gambling will shy away from the exciting world of online gaming, which was already popular before. It’s easy to see how companies like Betcris will be continuing to expand their iGaming offerings as social distancing and quarantine measures persist.
