The 2014 Football World Cup competition may be starting to fade away in most people’s memories now, but that’s hardly going to be an issue for most football fans in England, who see the return of the Premier League, perhaps the most popular football league in the world, this Saturday, 15 August.
Always a tightly-contested competition, this, and with the huge viewing figures worldwide and amount of money in the game, it’s no surprise that our industry is a significant player, in more ways than one.
Naturally the Premier League is a huge component of the sports betting turnover in the UK and elsewhere, but some of the big companies are involved in sponsorship too.
We reported recently about Liverpool signing a deal with Comeon!, as well as 32Red being the new sponsors of Rangers FC in the Scottish Championship, which has already kicked off the new season (having previously adorned the shirts of both Aston Villa and Swansea City).
Paddy Power are also a sponsor (though not the shirt sponsor) of front runners Manchester City.
And it’s not just the casinos themselves either — popular, secure payment providers Neteller are kit sponsors of Crystal Palace - in their second consecutive season in the top flight, having avoided the drop last season.
As to the odds being offered on the 2014-2015 season, the favorites with most betting providers are unsurprisingly, Chelsea, with odds as low as 19:10 at the time of writing.
The 2 Manchester teams are next up, with City again having the edge over United at around 2:1, and Arsenal, despite their proclamations that this is going to be their year, are 4th favorites with odds of around 6:1 at press time.
At the other end of the table, the 3 most recently-promoted teams, Burnley, Leicester and QPR, are viewed by most online casinos as the most likely to go down again, with odds as low as 12:1 for all 3 to be relegated.
Let’s look forward to another cracking season!