The sports betting industry attracts a multiple billion-dollar revenue each year, and its main focus is on core events. Football is the most popular sport to bet on, closely followed by horse racing.
Other key events for the bookmakers include golf, tennis and cricket, but the operators also look to cover more niche pastimes. The sector knows that not all customers are the same, and the bookies also have to cater for their needs.
On many platforms, there are unique sports to bet on, and some followers would even call them unique.
Pesapallo
It’s the national sport of Finland, and most games are restricted to this solitary country. Many bookmakers with Scandinavian roots publish betting markets for pesapallo, although there are options from operators in other parts of the world.
The sport is similar to baseball in the sense that there is a batting team and a fielding team, and batters have to propel a ball before running around bases.
The key difference between the two sports is that pesapallo involves a vertical pitch. This makes the ball much easier to hit, so scoring is higher, and the action is much faster than baseball. It’s a fascinating, unique sport and one that is starting to attract interest outside of Finland.
Harness Racing
It’s one of the most historic equestrian events, and harness racing is more widespread than you might think. If any events do make it onto TV broadcasts, it’s likely they will come from America, but interest in the sport extends into mainland Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Rules are similar to that of horse racing, but the horse pulls a two-wheeled cart, upon which a jockey sits. Harness racing enjoys a cult following in many countries worldwide, while a good selection of sports betting operators list markets for the bigger events.
Quidditch
It’s a sport that was made popular in the Harry Potter series of films, and Quidditch has since been adapted for real life. The flying broomsticks, as featured in the movies have been dispensed with, but there are similarities between fantasy and reality.
The rules of the game have been devised by the International Quidditch Association, and the sport involves two teams consisting of anywhere between seven and twenty-one players. Those players run with a broomstick between their legs and points are scored by getting a ball between the opposing team’s hoops. While it’s a unique sport based on a fictional series, there are similarities to field hockey and lacrosse here.
While it remains a fringe sport among bookmakers, the first Quidditch betting markets began to appear in 2011. It continues to grow in popularity, so we can expect more options from the sportsbooks in the near future.
Bandy
Like most sports, there are crossovers into other disciplines. Bandy takes its inspiration from ice hockey, but it can also be considered as unique. It’s played on ice, and the rules are similar to regular hockey, but the field is much bigger.
The dimensions of the playing surface in bandy are similar to field hockey, so there is scope for a more expansive game, and for more athleticism among the players. Beyond that obvious difference, the aim of scoring goals and beating the opposition is the same.
Bandy is thought to have originated in the UK in the 1800s, but it’s largely died out in its home country. In the modern day, Scandinavian nations, most prominently Sweden, enjoy a thriving bandy scene, and it’s another sport where many markets have been listed by a small set of bookmakers.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
It’s hard to believe that this playground game is now an internationally recognized sport. Rock, paper, scissors now has its own world championship, and it attracts players from all across the globe.
While it’s primarily a game of chance, there is an element of strategy involved with rock, paper, scissors. Players look to anticipate their opponent’s patterns of choice while attempting to read their expressions, so there are similarities between this and poker.
So far, betting on rock, paper, scissors is informal, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if bookmakers were to take it on board in the future.
Virtually anything with a competitive element can be described as a ‘sport’ and we should all welcome new ideas into the landscape. Innovations such as Quidditch will be unfamiliar, but the increase in popularity shows that there is a demand.
Other entries on this list are more historic, but we shouldn’t overlook them simply because they are specific to certain countries. All of them prove that there is scope for everyone to enjoy sport, no matter what their interests are.
Whether the bookmakers are offering betting markets is down to the individual operators, but that element of competitiveness means that there is scope for staking on the winners, and on other aspects within each of these unique sports.
