Chronicle Editor
Innocent Kurira, Sports Reporter
BETTING houses have taken a huge knock from the recent global suspension of major sporting activities, particularly football.
A survey of betting houses in the city centre by Chronicle Sport yesterday found most of them virtually empty, as there are no live conventional sports to bet on since all sporting activity was frozen last week due to the spreading coronavirus outbreak.
Sports betting had become extremely popular in Zimbabwe over the years, with many people making a living out of fulltime punting.
Betting dens would fill to the bream, with European leagues, Uefa Champions League and Europa League being the major cash cows.
However, since suspension of these leagues and every other sport around the globe, most betting houses echo with emptiness.
Operators of the betting dens say they have been sneezing since cancellations, suspensions and postponements of the world’s sporting events. “The suspension of all major European leagues has had a huge impact on our business. As you can see things are moving at a slow pace. Normally, the place is busy, but you can see for yourself there are a few people here. Football brings in the people and if we do not have top games business is slow, but now it’s worse due to the total absence of all sports,” said a worker at a popular betting shop in the city.
He said due to the absence of live sport, punters had now resorted to other forms of sports betting such as virtual soccer, lucky six and greyhound races (dog races), lottery products and casino games, which they would not place their money on under normal circumstances.
These, however, are not as rewarding as football betting, whose yields tend to be higher.
“For some of us this is a job, so the ban on sporting activities, especially football, means we suffer financially. It is a situation beyond anyone’s control, but the reality is that most families are now surviving through sports betting, so this is really a big issue for us,” said one patron.
“Personally, l am not worried, I have moved to playing virtual sports until football is back. It’s hard though to be honest because you stand a higher chance of winning in football betting than these machines generated gambling,” said another punter, who only chose to identify himself as Dube.
Although the suspension of sporting activities around the world and 60-day ban on all domestic sporting activities is frustrating for any sport fanatic, there is a common agreement among sport lovers that this is the time for responsible authorities to work on the country’s facilities.
“I think the ban is a good move by the Government in the wake of this deadly virus. While sport is life to many, as a country we cannot afford the spread of the virus through sport,” said Allen Ndlovu, a football fan.
Another fan Lifa Ndebele said it’s something he’d never imagined would ever happen.
“I think this is the time for our sports associations to sit down and come up with ideas on how to improve sport in the country. Right now, there is the possibility that our football league will now align with the Fifa and Caf calendar. The big question is, are we ready to host games during the rainy season? I don’t think it’s possible at the moment,” said Ndebele.
“Our infrastructure is poor, as we tend to have water logged pitches every time it rains and the drainage system must be fixed during this two-month ban. We should take this time to fix our stadia not only to be ready for local games, but to also meet required international standards.”
His sentiments were echoed by cricket fan Mthandazo Mafu, who feels that although it’s frustrating not having any sports, enough work should have been done on facilities by the time the ban is lifted.
“It’s going to be a very long and boring two months. Personally, l was looking forward to watching the English County Cricket team Derbyshire and the Ireland tour of Bulawayo, but all that has gone up in smoke,” Mafu said. – @innocentskizoe
Online Reporter