Will No Fans Affect Betting on Sporting Events?

For the near future, regardless of which sport you bet on, you are facing a period where you will be betting on events that have no fans in attendance.

From football leagues around Europe to the NBA and NHL in North America and many other events and leagues in between, fans are going to be limited to their own homes for viewing. But how will this affect the games and how you place your bets on them? 

Will some teams and players thrive in this situation, will others struggle to get their act together without the backing of their loyal supporters. These are all questions we do not know the answer to, but things you need to focus on when making your picks. 

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Caution in the First Few Weeks

Everyone will have to bet with caution at the beginning. We all have an idea of which teams and players are the best, but all of that is based on normal playing conditions, not what we are facing for the next few weeks and months. 

Will this change things, and will teams all of a sudden struggle or greatly improve because they are playing without anyone in attendance? The German Bundesliga was the first major football league to resume play last weekend, and for punters, this is going to be an incredibly important league to monitor. If you want make a bet in football, you need to know best football bookmakers for 2024 .

Over in Germany, even if you are not betting, look out for the results coming in to see if they are going as expected based on form from earlier this season, or whether we are seeing a lot of upsets. This can help you work out what to expect when other leagues such as Serie A and the Premier League resume. 

For other sports, you don’t have the same luxury of watching another league, but caution can be used to protect yourself. Try and not go for any big bets, lower your stakes until you are comfortable knowing how teams are coping. 

Arena sports in North America look as though they could return at some point in the coming weeks, going straight into the playoffs. The NBA and NHL is known for big playoff atmospheres, something that will be missing. Home fans can make a big difference in these games, and home advantage to the top seeds may now not mean as much because of this. 

Those who need the crowd to get them pumped up may suffer, can these players play inside an empty arena where they hear every shout from the bench and the echoes of empty stands around them? 

Will Bookmakers Change How They Price Games?

The likelihood is that they will have no choice but to do this, which is going to make things fascinating and we are likely to see some value because of that. Teams that are big favourites won’t be quite as big, and this could turn on its head if any sports decide to use a neutral venue for the games that are taking place. 

This is something that the NHL have spoken about, with “hubs” on both coasts hosting the games that are taking place, rather than teams being at home or away. The NHL doesn’t usually have neutral venue games, so this is going to be something new for the league, something new for fans and something new for the bookmakers to work out. Click here if you want to know best cryptocurrency bookmakers online 2024 .

With things changing, this is a good time to really analyse the prices that are on offer. There is sure to be value out there because there will be a lot of opinions based on how teams are going to play without fans and wherever the game is taking place. Not everyone will get this right, if the bookmaker gets it wrong and you get it right, you could find yourself taking advantage of a much higher price than you would normally expect to get. 

Will We See More Betting Offers?

This is highly likely for two reasons. The first is because bookmakers will be doing what they can to get people back betting with them after a break in sport and the second is because of the environment we are seeing the games played, we could see more upsets than normal. 

When it comes to offers, bookmakers usually give a mix of welcome offers to new players and regular offers that their existing players can take advantage of. When many sporting leagues and events return so we are pretty much back to a full schedule, betting will return to the same levels as before. 

Bookmakers will want to ensure that when players do return, they go back to them. For this reason, it is likely we will see good regular offers available, and potentially some new ones launched in a bid to keep custom. As for welcome offers, every customer counts, so don’t be surprised to see these increase as bookmakers go out to try and get new players betting with them. We have been without sport for many weeks, bookmakers need to try and get that money back. 

As for the second, with the potential for more upsets than usual due to games being played without fans, and potentially at neutral venues in some leagues, we could see bookmakers taking more of a risk. They may be prepared to offer bigger odds on these teams in the shape of enhanced odds welcome offers. These are usually on strong favourites, but with strong favourites having to contend with a slightly trickier situation than normal, now may be the time for bookmakers to take them on.

Whatever happens, we will see a different landscape to the betting industry and how we bet in the future. The key to being successful will be caution, don’t rely too much on what happened in the past and respect that times are going to be different.

Keeping stakes low early is a key part of that, and something all punters should be aiming to do when the return happens. 

Dalius Mikalauskas

Sports Betting Expert

Dalius became interested in sports betting at the age of 16, although he could not place bets at that time (bets accepted from the age of 18). However, it was not forbidden to sell betting picks, which is what the author did actively on sports betting forums. Today, he has more than 18 years of experience in sports betting. In school, the auth ..
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