Sports betting back on the cards

The restart of sport in Europe will come as good news for the sports betting industry this week, after the coronavirus pandemic killed off virtually all of the means to wager two months ago.

Newgioco Group, a major sports betting and interactive gaming technology company, is already reporting a sharp rise in its sports betting handle – a non-GAAP measurement that represents wagers placed as sport returns, and restrictions continue to ease.

Betting handle, says the company’s Italian retail operations, has more than doubled from $0.6m in April to $1.3m in May with the return of the German Bundesliga on May 16. Newgioco is optimistic that the handle will continue towards more normal levels in the coming weeks with the Italian football championship restarting today and Spanish La Liga matches already running from June 11.

The Italian Serie B and the English Premier League are both restarting on Wednesday of this week.

Said Michele Clavarella, Newgioco’s CEO: “Revised league play schedules could likely mean that thousands of matches will be played over the next few months, which despite the three-month lockdown from March, gives us great confidence that we can achieve our stated performance goals through the remainder of 2020.”

He also noted that the restart of North American sporting events, including NASCAR, golf, NHL and NBA, would represent key developments in returning to normal operations.