Online Gambling: The Slots & Football Phenomenon
$6,000 Welcome Bonus
Online slots and football are not something that usually goes together. Especially on the top UK casinos sites, you can see that slot players are usually not betting on Premier League, and vice-versa.
However, in 2020 things changed, caused by a global pandemic that halted the Premier League season, many sports bettors turned to play slots, and even after the league restart many of them stayed. So, that antagonism is seemingly out of the industry now, although more gamblers are exclusively playing slots and gamblers who are sticking with football.
In this article, we will try to look at the things in the industry deeper and analyze the motives of both of these groups. Will this year be the year of fusing these groups into one large group with similar preferences and betting habits, or will going back to stadiums and restart of normal life cause the ripple effect and divide these groups again?
The Main Differences of Slots and Football Betting
We will put the major difference between these two types of games at once, and discuss it because we know that some of you won’t agree with us. So, most people think that playing slots from betting on football matches differs fundamentally, because gambling on slots ruled by RNG (Random Numbers Generator) is pure luck, while sports betting requires skill and knowledge, apart from some luck, which is also apparent.
However, professional slot players deny this statement and claim that playing slots is not just poor luck. The thing is, slot game providers are obliged to give the correct information about their slots now. So, anyone can see the Return to Player, slot volatility, and also try the demo version of the slot to see how it feels like playing it.
Some people are claiming that playing the demo version of the slot is not the same as playing for real money, because casinos will definitely make it harder to win, but there is no proof of that. The only problem with RTP is that parameter is calculated on thousands, even hundreds of thousands of spins, so you can’t really play all those spins to confirm it is accurate. It might be very different when you throw a few tens or hundreds of spins.
Nevertheless, playing slots by optimizing your bets and getting a cash-out at the right time is the right thing to do, and it is reasonable to claim that optimal playing is a kind of skill, and that gives you better chances to win. There is still a huge amount of luck involved, but there is a reason to claim that luck is not the only factor.
When it comes to sports betting, fewer people claim that it is pure luck. It is obvious that knowing the teams, players, tactics, following the league, for example, Premier League, is obviously benefiting and raises your chances of winning the bets.
Of course, every bettor also knows how many times they lost the bets because of an unexpected chain of events, so we can’t say that luck is not a factor there as well.
Another obvious difference between slots and football betting is the fact that slots are way more volatile. You can win more, in a shorter amount of time, but you can also lose more money in the same amount of time.
When betting on football, you will usually lay bets before matches, even bet on multiple matches, and wait for the outcome for a few hours, even days. Of course, you may bet live in-play, which draws football betting closer to slots – you can win and lose more in a shorter amount of time, and also there is more luck involved, especially if you want to bet on the next goalscorer or a corner kick, which is pretty hard to guess when the game is still played.
Another difference is the learning curve. Obviously, betting on sports has a much steeper learning curve – you must know the sport, teams and players you back, the last news around the team, and other stuff.
With slots, you can learn how to play a particular slot in a manner of minutes, and you can also read all information about it and user reviews rather quickly. If you know the basic slot strategy, you can use it on any slot machine, while knowing a lot about football doesn’t save you when you want to bet on the league you are not familiar with.
The Similarities Between Slots and Football Betting
We talked about differences, but there is also a lot of similarities between slot gambling and football betting. There are odds, betting margins, laying bets, and the same system of awarding the winnings. So, if you are an avid bettor, but you never played any slot machine, you will easily understand slot parameters because it is basically the same as sports betting – edge, odds, bet are the terms that are very well known to any sports bettor. For someone outside that world would be a lot harder to understand them.
Also, the thrill and adrenaline rush is the same. Somebody likes to hear the sound of a jackpot from the slot machine, somebody else wants to see the winning goal in the last seconds of the match, but the adrenaline rush you feel in those moments is the same.
Both slots playing and sports betting are considered gambling. You should always gamble responsibly, and not let that thrill overtake your brain, so you lose more than you can afford. Always gamble only the money you can afford to lose, that advice goes to both slot players and sports bettors.
Is There a Chance for Complete Fusion of Slots and Football Betting
After the pandemic started, not only football but almost all sports got hit, at least to some extent. So, many sports bettors decided to transfer to poker, slots, and other casino games (which is another argument for slots and football betting similarity), but what happened after football, Premier League, in particular, restarted?
Apparently, some of the former sports bettors returned to their first love and stopped playing slots, but most of them continued playing both! Even the players who would never do it before, are now spending a lot of time and cash on slots.
Another thing that is interesting here is the evolution of slot games, which is accelerating. It seems that better designed and pure fun slots, not just the ones which have the best parameters and chances for a gambler to beat, are more popular in the sports betting community.
The reason behind it is probably the fact that sports bettors are used to watching sports, and they want the same thrill and excitement from slots as well. In a nutshell, it is boring to play some old slot machine with outdated graphics, even if that gives you the chance to win more money.
Conclusion
Incidentally, COVID-19 pandemics blended the two worlds of slot gambling and sports betting together. Now, sports bettors are playing slot games more than ever before, and it seems that trend will continue. In the future, we don’t expect major differences between these two groups of gamblers, especially not some former antagonism we were seeing from time to time.
