Revenue of Sports lotteries reached NT$40.3 billion (US$1.42 billion) last year, despite the postponement of many international sports events amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sports Administration said on Thursday.
It saidthat NT$4 billion of the revenue would contribute to the National Sports Development Fund.
Many US professional sports leagues, such as the NBA or MLB, suspended their seasons in March last year. In response, the agency implemented an emergency response plan to protect local sports lottery providers, allowing betting schemes with higher prizes and opening new sports to the sector.
The agency is also mulling new measures, it said.
“We will introduce betting on table tennis, mixed martial arts and online video games,” the agency said. “We will also sanction 8,000 more basketball, soccer, volleyball and ice hockey games for people to bet on.”
For every NT$100 bet, NT$10 would automatically go to the National Sports Development Fund, and benefit local athletes and the sports industry, it said.
Bets on soccer exceeded those on baseball and basketball games for the first time last year, as soccer seasons in Europe continued amid the pandemic, the agency said.
Soccer betting revenue grew 16.5 percent to NT$16.5 billion, it added.
Revenue of bets placed online surpassed NT$12 billion, accounting for 30 percent of total revenue, it said, adding that online gaming bets contributed NT$200 million.
As to when people can start betting on games of Taiwan’s new professional basketball league P. League+, which started its first season last month, Taiwan Sports Lottery said that it first needs to collect enough data on the teams.
“We need to gather data on the new pro-basketball league for some time. People might be able to start betting on games next season,” Taiwan Sports Lottery Co president Ted Lin (林博泰) said.
Sports Administration Director-General Chang Shao-hsi (張少熙) has reached a consensus with P.League+ founder and CEO Blackie Chen (陳建州) that they would work together to prevent any attempts of game-rigging.
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