Some gambling markets have plenty of similarities. Some exist solely because of the size and popularity of the overarching market. Examples include poker and video poker, football betting, and virtual football betting. However, some markets have more in common than some people realize. Today, we focus on the overlap between the sweepstakes casino market and football. Although they are standalone entities and appeal to different types of bettors, there are similarities.
Transformed by digital innovation
Both football and sweepstakes casinos owe much of their recent growth to expansive online markets. In fact, online sweepstakes are the most profitable arm of the sweepstakes industry.
Before the advent of the internet – and more recently, smartphones – there wasn’t a market for sweepstakes. Well, that might not be the right way of phrasing it. There was clearly some market, as millions of people who play sweepstakes now were also around before the internet took over every aspect of our lives.
Perhaps a better way to describe it is that they did not have a good avenue for growth, and sweepstakes casino providers had not yet figured out just how much of a market lay in the vastness of the digital world. However, once casinos began moving online and became available to other regions of the world, a substantial potential option emerged for sweepstakes to expand into.
How sweepstakes work
Sweepstakes casinos follow a simple format, but the key distinction is that they use on-site currencies. These currencies can come in many forms, including gold coins, credits with the site name, and virtual currencies.
Crucially, these coins do not constitute hard currency, and can only be used with that provider. Herein lies the main distinction. Real money casinos take deposits in specific currencies, whether that be pounds, dollars, etc, and by so doing, they fall right into the remit of the strict regulatory framework of an online casino.
Online casinos that accept real money must adhere to a raft of regulations and often have to ensure they offer a range of secure, licensed, and verifiable games that are third-party audited. Sweepstakes casinos, however, do not constitute a traditional gambling platform, so in states like Utah, California, Texas, and North Dakota, which recently and emphatically voted down an amendment to legalize sports betting, there was a growing market for casino gamers who were not gambling with their own money.
From the perspective of site gaming mechanics, sweepstakes casino options work in the same manner as those of a classic online casino – whether it is slots, blackjack, or roulette. The only difference is that you win vouchers and on-site currencies rather than money you can withdraw to your bank account.
Football in the digital age
Many football fans now get most of their news via a digital platform, whether they watch highlights on YouTube, check out injury news on X, or look at the Premier League table.
While some traditional elements of the game remain in place in England, such as the 3 pm blackout, there has been a vast, notable shift into the digital world, completely transforming the landscape of how football works. It has also fueled the rise of many online-only markets.
Although football betting existed before the internet, unlike sweepstakes, from the standpoint of innovation, there’s a correlation. In-play markets, in particular, have benefitted from the rise of a global, online market, much in the same way that sweepstakes have been able to find millions of new customers who either don’t have access to traditional online casinos or simply prefer the experience of playing the games and don’t want to run the risk of losing money.
It would be nice if football didn’t have the same sort of overheads online as sweepstakes do. They certainly differ in that regard. However, both have benefitted from a digital market that has become digital and global.
Similarities in terminology
Depending on which side of the pond you’re on, both football and sweepstakes can mean two different things. For instance, football and sweepstakes in the US refer to either the NFL or college football, and casinos that accept on-site currencies. In the UK, football is the game you play with your feet.
Although sweepstakes casinos are growing in popularity in the UK, the term is quickly replacing what sweepstakes used to refer to – football pools or office competitions, where people would throw in £1 each and have a few punts at that weekend’s fixtures.
Office sweepstakes refer to big sporting competitions in the UK – usually huge horse races like the Grand National – or football competitions like the Euros or the World Cup. There’s little correlation between sweepstakes and football for US customers – they’re two completely different words. However, in the UK, where there’s a much stronger and deeper history of the words; there’s much more that links the two words than there is separating them.
Summary
It might seem like an obvious connection, but the main similarity that sweepstakes and football share is that they have benefitted immensely from the rise of the internet. Sure, in the UK, there is some crossover between the terms, but with sweepstakes casinos quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing niches in the online casino world, the sweepstakes name will likely be phased out over the coming years.
Without the internet, sweepstakes wouldn’t exist. While it wouldn’t be true to say that football would be suffering without the internet, it certainly wouldn’t be experiencing the enormous global appeal we see today, which has made the English Premier League one of the most valuable sports leagues in the world.
Although playing with on-site currency and tokens specific to a casino’s brand might not seem like the optimal way for casino gamers to explore roulette, poker, and slots, there is certainly a growing demand for it.
A lot of this demand stems from areas where online casinos are still outlawed, but there are plenty of customers from areas where gambling is legal, too. Here, we can see that sweepstakes have been able to bridge traditional gaps in the market, which again bears similarities to football, which has billions of fans globally, and landmark contests like the World Cup bringing countries to a standstill.
