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Because I fancy myself to be somewhat of a futureologist, I often spend my precious spare moments pondering the future of soccer betting. In fact, during my deeper contemplations on life, I sometimes notice that my mind spontaneously focuses upon the following consideration relative to soccer wagering: What will it take for Americans like me, who detest soccer, to become interested in betting on the sport? Why do so many of us Yanks who love football, basketball, and baseball despise soccer? In other words, is soccer grossly overrated by the ignorant masses who populate the planet, or is it grossly underrated by snobbish American elitists, such as yours truly, who maintain that it represents the height of tedium?
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The Americal public might go for a version of soccer in which the final score is something like 15-12, with no ties.
Bettors could then have either a pointspread or moneyline similar to football and baseball wagers that exist today.
Handicappers need some boxscore stats to play with. Maybe number of head-butted balls, or something.
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Sportshobby, higher scoring would definitely help. Half of the top-level soccer games seem to end up 1-0. In my opinion, they need to juice the ball and/or the athletes. My father, who grew up playing soccer in Germany and England, tells me that a 1-0 game can indeed be very exciting and that I'm simply too dense to appreciate the subtle nuances of the game.Comment
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I think the real answer to your question is education about soccer. My kids are playing on a club soccor league and learning a lot, but I don't have a clue. Once last year I was asked to be a sideline "flag guy". My job was basically just to signal which team touched the ball last and show the posession direction. I had a hard time just doing that!
As for the rest of the game, I don't know the rules, I don't know the positions, etc. And watching the game in person (without the commentary from Dan Dierdorf) doesn't really do much to educate me about the game.
It really is a culture thing. What are the guys at the office talking about - soccer? No, it's football or basketball.
I think as the current generation of kids grow up learning soccer, the U.S. will slowly get on the bandwagon. For the rest of us old fogies, it's probably hopeless. ;(
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Reno:
Next time you're in Asia, when you take your date out; also take her younger brudder ---
He could explain some of the moves and strategy...
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I think they should play the game without goalies. In fact, if they removed the goalies in hockey, I think the game would be awesome.
Hockey games that are 64-61 would be some treat. I am serious about this. I like hockey now, but I think my idea would revolutionize the game.
Best of Luck,
Groz
P.S.--On the other hand, I enjoy a 2-1 baseball game anyday over a 12-11 game.Comment
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How about this for a good reason?
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Compare odds from 52 bookmakers on sports events from across the World. Odds on 297 football matches right now. See the probabilities of the bookmakers.
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and even more getting in on the act like Olympic, WSEX I saw had some Scandinavian stuff listed, etc.Comment
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Higher scoring won't do it alone, and here's the proof:
In my younger days I did some PR work for a club in the now-defunct Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL). We had 15-12 games all the time.
I swear we couldn't get more than 3,000 people out to a game even with dirt-cheap tickets and a $3 tub of beer.
We only had one promotion that worked
...Singles Night.
For the record we ripped the idea for this promotion off the son of the greatest promoter of 'em all, former ChiSox Veep of marketing Mr. Veeck (pronounce that to rhyme with "wreck", kids...anyone remember Disco Demolition at Comiskey?). Anyway his boy owns St. Paul in the Northern League (newest employee: Strawman). And his boy devised Singles Night. And we ripped it off hard.
Our deal was you buy a ticket for $12, sit in a special section, and be guaranteed someone of the opposite sex would sit on either side of you. By the third night of the promotion (we did one Singles Night a month) the section was jammed and we opened two more.
We also invited the TV crew for what I thought was great free publicity. Fatality. We were all over the late news but were flooded the next morning with irate calls (OK "flood" is relative: 37 calls) from people who had watched the late news wanting confirmation that their lying, cheating spouses had bought tickets for Singles Night. Just how many homes were were trying to wreck? (Pronounce "wreck", like "Veeck".)
Our GM wanted to market to families and promptly deep-sixed Singles Night and threw my ass out. My severance check bounced and the league folded that summer.
On our last Singles' Night the home team won 23-21 in double OT. Still only had 8000 people. Wipe out the Singles sections, we had about 3475.
Higher scoring alone ain't it.
*sigh*Comment
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AussieVamp, Do all of those 52 bookmakers only offer soccer propositions in the "3 outcome format"?
It seems that not even WSEX offers an American style "head to head" proposition where you get your money back on a tie.
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handicap lines on soccer are available at some places like Canbet, sportingbet, interwetten, wienwest, megasports etc.
you can get Asian handicap lines at others like Ladbrokes, Darwin All-Sports etc.
There is a simple reason for legal bookmakers that they won't refund a draw like that, they have to pay taxes, they make no money on this, and draws will happen around 25% of the time in general. Not many bookmakers are going to want a negative return on 25% of events.
Also, not a good way to bet on soccer necessarily, depending on the market percentage, see my post on 'the problem with betting a half goal handicap in soccer'.Comment
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Exactly the same reasons Reno gives, plus a couple of others, are reasons why people hate American football here - plus the too slow, ball is only in play a few minutes a game due to all the stop-start stuff, so that can be a function of the general population.
However
1 You don't have to like something to bet on it
2 You don't have to watch something to bet on it
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There are exceptions, of course.... I'm one of the rare Brits that HATES soccer,and just about every other traditional Brit sport going (except Rugby!), which is why I got into US sports in the first place!
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come on Mark, you gotta be a big darts fan, admit it
[This message has been edited by AussieVamp2 (edited 07-28-2000).]Comment
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I have been known to watch darts very occasionally - but that's only been the local tournaments here on the island!! The last one to remain standing when the others have fallen over drunk, is the winner!!
[This message has been edited by Mark Pereira (edited 07-28-2000).]Comment
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AV, sure.. but that list needs
3 ..but if you like and watch what you bet on, it's so much more fun.
Anyway, I doubt there's need for Americans to start liking soccer. If they don't, how bad can that be?
Over here local soccer is about #5 if you rate sports by popularity. Because of the climate, it's something of an extreme sport especially to the spectators in the fall and early spring. On TV, maybe 3rd most popular. Yet, most people definitely understand the game, and anyone who bets on something is most likely a soccer bettor too.
And no, about the only time I hear soccer talk at the office is when I'm talking to myself.
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