The world of sports betting covers a multitude of disciplines ranging from the most popular such as football, basketball and tennis, to lesser-known sports. While the latter are often overlooked by many bettors, they represent a unique and potentially lucrative opportunity that is often missed.
In this article, we will see what is the potential of betting on little-known sports and how you can benefit from it. Do not miss it!
Examples of unknown sports
When we talk about sports betting, we usually think of the big sports giants: football, basketball, tennis, etc.
However, the world of sports is much more than that, and there are many little-known disciplines that also offer opportunities to earn money. Let’s see below some of the sports that many bettors overlook on their way to achieving the desired profitability:
- The Cricket. Although it is extremely popular in countries like India and the United Kingdom, in many parts of the world it is little known. However, due to its tactical nature and wide variety of possible outcomes, it offers endless opportunities for interesting and potentially lucrative bets.
- Darts: Darts is a year-round sport that has a range of markets similar to a tennis match. Bookmakers often offer markets for the larger tournaments, such as the World Championship, as well as daily tournaments that take place around the world.
- Table tennis: Also known as ping-pong, table tennis is a sport that is played at a professional level throughout the year. There are competitions and tournaments all over the world and often on any given day you can find matches to bet on. It’s very popular in Asia but here… well, not so much.
- Snooker: Snooker is a sport that has a long season, with tournaments taking place throughout the year. It has the drawback that not all bookmakers allow you to bet on snooker, so if your main goal is to bet on unpopular sports, you should bet on a bookmaker that has the most snooker sports.
- Badminton: Often overshadowed by more popular racquet sports such as tennis, badminton is nonetheless a high-intensity sport played year-round with a large number of events and markets available across the bookmakers that support it.
- The eSports: Although the E-Sports are very different from traditional sports, they are considered a sport by many bookmakers. E-Sports tournaments are played almost every day. Games like Dota 2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and many more offer a wealth of betting opportunities on a daily basis.
The danger of rigging
One element to take into account about sports with little impact is that they are more susceptible to rigging than other more popular ones.
This is because, in lesser-known sports, information and surveillance can be scarce, opening the door to potential wrongdoing. It is crucial for bettors to be aware of this possibility and try to be aware of any rumours.
Here are some examples of match-fixing in recent years:
- Cricket – Spot-Fixing Scandal (2010): During a series of matches between Pakistan and England, three Pakistani players were accused of fixing specific parts of the match, known as “spots”, in exchange for money. All three players were found guilty and received suspensions from cricket.
- Soccer – Calciopoli in Italy (2006): In this scandal, several Italian Serie A teams, including Juventus, were accused of selecting favorable referees for their matches. As a result, Juventus was relegated to Serie B and other teams were penalized with points.
- Tennis – Match-fixing allegations (2016): In 2016, the BBC and BuzzFeed News published reports alleging that the tennis integrity unit had ignored evidence of match-fixing at the highest level of world tennis. Although no direct convictions resulted from these allegations, the report led to an increase in vigilance and awareness of the potential for rigging in tennis.
On the other hand, single-individual sports, where athlete salaries are not as high, or a small number of athletes can significantly influence the outcome (e.g. boxing, cricket, tennis) may also be more susceptible to match-fixing than team sports. Therefore, it is not necessary to bet on “weird” sports to find such unfortunate events, although it is certainly more likely to happen.
Advantages of betting on atypical sports
Lesser-known sports can be lucrative for several reasons:
- Firstly, due to its lower popularity, there is less competition among bettors, which can result in better odds and therefore higher potential winnings.
- Second, those who are willing to spend time learning about these sports and understanding their dynamics and strategies can gain a significant advantage.
- Last but not least, the excitement and enjoyment of discovering and following a new sport can greatly enhance the sports betting experience.