World Cup Spurs Increase in China's Sports Lottery Sales

In keeping with a World Cup tradition, China's National Sports Lottery Management Center has announced sales of over 150 million yuan ($24 million) for the first day of sports lotteries for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a blistering pace set on opening day.

Sports Lottery Format

The sports lottery format was introduced for the first time in the Chinese market, in 2001. Sports “lotteries” is the designation given to a rapid fire type of betting, with wagers placed on which team will win a given match. Wagers are also available on game scores, and potentially a whole array of game-time features, actions and statistics.

Today's Technology: Ease of Betting

Bets are placeable via PCs and Mobile devices, as well as offline. Lotteries seek to target amateur buyers with relatively simple wagers whose visibility the widest milieu of individuals have access to. The winning bets are awarded a prize according to a predetermined ratio set by the betting organization. This ratio is made known to all bettors by the provider before placing any bets.

World Cup Spike

Like all betting activity surrounding the World Cup, sports lottery format sales also spike during the World Cup. In the powerful Chinese economy, sports lotteries in general are gaining popularity, with the 132.8 billion yuan in sales for 2013 representing an annual increase of 20.2 percent.

Smartphone Wagering Benefit

The availability of betting on smartphones represents a tremendous sales facilitator, as physical sports lottery vendors are not evenly distributed. Obviously, the online availability of the sports lottery cuts that obstacle right out.

This new vehicle translated to online sports lottery sales of 42 billion yuan in 2013, a 62.79 percent jump from the previous year. Predictions call for that figure to increase next year to approximately 60 billion yuan.