Sportsbooks Taking Big Loss During Coronavirus Shutdown

On what was supposed to be the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament, it’s safe to say that we’re all missing these games right now. Especially as the coronavirus is spreading like wildfire, leaving us with virtually none of our country’s traditional sports to watch.
While the fans are reeling from an entertainment perspective, one can only imagine how badly the sportsbooks are feeling from the shutdown. With this being the second-biggest sports betting weekend of the year, next to the Super Bowl, these establishments are losing out on money spent on gambling, eating and drinking.
“How do you prepare for a complete shutdown of major sporting events (and) any gatherings over 50 people?” said Duane Colucci, assistant race and sports manager at the Rampart Casino in Las Vegas. “It’s so hard to fathom. You can’t prepare for something like this, especially in the race and sportsbook industry.”
The sports betting industry, as a whole, is expected to lose around $140 million alone this weekend off lost NCAA Tournament games, according to the American Gaming Association. Not to mention, there was about $43.5 billion in economic activity that was set to follow.
Last year, the American Gaming Association estimated $150 billion was wagered around the world in both legal and illegal aspects.
The impact of this virus is spreading well beyond just gaming, as casinos are feeling the pinch as well.
As of Friday, about 95 percent of casinos in the United States of America had closed up shop for the time being – 82 percent of the tribal casinos also closed. Additionally, we could see 98 percent of the casino workforce (more than 600,000 employees) affected, with $74 billion in total annual wages and $43.5 billion to the U.S. economy if these casinos remain closed.
Still Some Options
One thing to do in these times of crisis is to get creative. There are plenty of international sports like the KHL Russian Hockey League, Australian Rules Football, Mexican and Turkish Soccer Leagues to bet on.
Additionally, the prop bets of where certain NFL players would land during free agency was out there as well.
“If you can bet on it and we can book it, somebody is going to bet on it,” said a casino manager in Las Vegas.
While Vegas is doing everything it can to keep bettors in the sports-betting game, some offshore sites are trying to get even more creative with how they go about things. There are some sites that will let you bet on the weather and reality-TV shows like American Idol and Big Brother.
We’re probably looking at a worst-case scenario with the coronavirus outbreak, at least from an economic standpoint. Not only is there a shortage of sports to bet on, but there will be many people affected economically, and they won’t have enough money to bet on sports when they finally do come back to life.
All in all, the best thing we can do now is follow the advice of doctors and medical experts who are all much smarter than us.
We’ll be in for the long haul, so let’s do everything we can to neutralize the number of people getting infected.