When sports meet the online casino

Thirty years ago, John Lennon proclaimed that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. We can ponder on this analogy when we think of the relation between sports and online casino sites. Not comparing either one to Jesus or the Beatles, of course. Sports and online casino sites have bore a relation from the inception of gambling sites. Bets were placed on sport events and comprised a main gambling activity in the industry. The relation grew even tighter as time passed.

Certainly the invent of television has helped the Beatles gain pop culture prominence, and eventually convince Lennon that the English band did outdo Jesus in the popularity contest. Television has done the same to online casino sites’ games. At first, online casino sites would host bets on sports events that people would then follow on the television. Nowadays, with poker games and poker channels on television, the casino games themselves have taken over the role of the sport event!

According to the Poker Players Alliance website, a nonprofit group that lobbies for legalizing the online casino game’s status, the third most watched sport on cable television is poker. It trails right behind auto racing and football. Can we then paraphrase Lennon’s words and say that online casino sites are more popular than sports? To some this would be a heretical statement, no doubt. But will we wake thirty years from now and tell ourselves that we remember the days the online casinos became big?