It’s just a few days old, but punters are already putting their money where their mouths are, with local bookmakers reporting impressive sales on their FIFA World Cup offerings.
Sports betting, outside of horseracing, is still relatively new to the Jamaican gambling scene, but don’t try telling that to local football gurus, who have been flooding the parlours of the island’s two major bookmaking firms Supreme Ventures Sports Betting Limited, through their Justbet brand and the United Bookmaker’s Association (UBA), which is a conglomerate between Track Price Plus, Champion and Markham betting.
Justbet’s Carlene Edwards was pleased with the response that the company has been getting from pundits so far and gave some insight on the teams that have been enjoying the bulk of attention from the gambling public.
“Things are going very well, our facilities have been getting a lot of customers and we are seeing where the awareness for Jusbet has been raised significantly since the start of the World Cup,” Edwards said.
“People have been coming in and placing their bets. The traditional teams are the ones that most people are betting on ,so for instance Brazil tops the list and there are also Argentina and Spain.”
some attention
Nonetheless, the lesser-fancied teams have also been enjoying some attention. “A lot of bettors are going with the underdogs especially in cases where there are attractive odds,” explained Edwards. “In cases where there is an overwhelming favourite, people are going with the under and over option; this is where people bet on how many goals they think will be scored in the match.”
Despite being satisfied with the reaction so far, Edwards, is expecting things to get even more hectic at the start of the second round of the competition when the top 16 teams will be decided.
UBA executive Wilbert Witter is also pleased with the way things have been going for his organisation. He too is expecting even more bets after the first round and indicated as well that five time champions Brazil are the public’s favourite.
“We had been getting bets from before the World Cup even started and all in all it has been satisfactory so far and we are even expecting things to get even better after the first round,” Witter said. “Traditionally, Jamaicans on a whole are like Brazilians so they have been dominating the bets and a lot of people are also betting on Argentina as well.”
Punters have also been taking up several other attractive offerings from both companies and have been having their say as to who they believe will end the tournament as top scorer and so forth.
“People have been betting a lot on the other offers as well such as game-by-game predictions and so,” said Witter. “Where the top scorer is concerned, a lot of people are betting on Lionel Messi of Argentina.”
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