Regular Joe’s and Jane’s of the world really get to decide who’s who in sports and which teams make the grade. We see this phenomenon in sports betting. People love to gamble, and there’s never been any doubt about that – as evidenced with the world’s plethora of both on-location and online casinos, where millions of people exchange billions of dollars. The love of gambling merged with the love of sports long ago, and even sports like cricket earn big numbers for bookmakers.
Another thing people can’t seem to get enough is streaming video and social networking from sites like YouTube. Offering up a wide array of video clips with their “Broadcast Yourself” slogan, this user-friendly site is among the most popular on the net. But you can’t watch living sporting events there, right? Wrong! Confirming its first ever live sporting deal, YouTube announced on January 20 that they are to start hosting live Indian Premier League cricket matches in the UK.
The big story has been YouTube, in itself, finally making the jump and picking up some major broadcasting rights for a major sport. The scope is enormous, involving every country outside of the United States which, let’s face it, aren’t the biggest cricket supporters in the world with their Major League Baseball and other year-round sports. YouTube has a two-year deal, granting the Google-owned site exclusive rights to IPL matches online.
However, this isn’t necessarily the crux of the story. Sports are so popular and so sought after by broadcasting companies for one reason: money. YouTube has a viewership in the hundreds of millions, and cricket has millions of loyal fans just begging to see more matches. So not only does this provide a boost for cricket’s ratings and lends YouTube some credibility, but it opens up the betting lines to infinitely more players.
The vast majority of those who would gamble on any sport are fans of the sport. When you put your money down on a cricket games, there’s really no difference than putting it down on a hand of blackjack or a spin of roulette: You want to watch the results. People going to horse races aren’t betting and leaving the track. They stick around to watch.
With YouTube offering vastly increased viewership for cricket matches, not only will cricket pick up some rather large ratings, but the betting side of the sport will literally explode. More fans will be pouring into online gambling sites, and more watchers will earn Google more ad revenue.
Essentially, it’s a win-win for everyone involved with this venture. Over the two-year period, it’s reported that YouTube will air 60 live matches over 45 days. This doesn’t seem like a lot of cricket, but it’s exponentially larger than zero and potentially large enough to propel both cricket and Google up a few rungs on the proverbial monetary ladder.
تبصرے