How is Coronavirus affecting the betting market?
This is nothing funny, not even a clickbait title. It’s a real fact. When the Italian Federation decided to cancel all the basketball games from Legabasket Serie A and other leagues, we all thought that this is happening only inside the country. With the Coronavirus outbreak in Italy, it was an emergency understandable measure. The cancellation of all the Italian league games affected the betting market, including here the bookmakers who cannot list those games and also the bettors who couldn’t bet their money.
But now, it seems that is affecting as well the European cups. As reported by Sportando, Turkey has decided to cancel all the flights with Italy, which can have a direct impact on the game hosted Wednesday in Istanbul between Darussafaka and Virtus Bologna. It is the last round of the Eurocup, a do-or-die game for both teams and is attracting a lot of attention.
Virtus Bologna was seen from the beginning of the season the main candidate to win the European competition, due to their amazing roster (Milos Teodosic. Vince Hunter, Stefan Markovic, Julian Gamble and so on) and reputed coach Sasha Djordjevic. The Italian club invested a lot of money this season and their budget is bigger than some of the Euroleague’s teams. Now they are in front of the most important exam of the entire season, but it seems that their arrival in Turkey will be complicated. At the moment, Virtus Bologna cannot fly directly from Italy, so the squad have to travel first to another country and then from there. It will imply more fatigue for the players.
But let’s get back a bit to the betting market. There are many people that were placing their bets on Virtus Bologna, because, logical, they have the first chance in front of Darussafaka. Now, in a case of postponing of the Eurocup game, all these bettors will have the money blocked for days or weeks especially if they have placed this game in combos. Even if the game will be played as announced on Wednesday, Virtus Bologna will be more tired now because they have to travel more to reach Turkey. And this can affect their chances to win the battle in Istanbul.
It remains to see what will really happen. But the lesson of the entire story is that sometimes the bettors can be affected by unbelievable things like this. They are fighting not only with the odds but as well with any unexpected situation that can ruin their chances.
Photo: Image by _freakwave_ from Pixabay
Gratian Cormos
