Australian Open tennis betting massively up

William Hill’s Australian operations have seen a massive 258 percent year-on-year increase to in-play gambling activity during the first two days of the Australian Open tennis competition, which has been the centre of attention over the past few days following a BBC and Buzzfeed expose on match-fixing in tennis (see previous reports).

Figures obtained by the publication AdNews reveal William Hill’s sponsorship of the event has had a strong impact on turnover (up 93 percent on last year) despite inaccurate media allegations that the betting shop is under an Australian Federal Police probe.

“William Hill was attracted to sponsoring the event by the IBM-powered MatchCentre feature of the Australian Open mobile app, which provides fans with live updates, stats and analysis at their fingertips,” AdNews notes.

Tennis Australia manager of digital and publishing Kim Trengove told AdNews that he had no personal problem with wagering, which is a common and traditional Aussie trait.

AdNews quotes the following two days of action for William Hill in the Australian Open:

* In-play (live betting) turnover up 258 percent.
* 93 percent increase in turnover.
* All bets up almost 150 percent.
* William Hill has paid out over A$1.3 million in their #ChaseTheAce promotion. This includes paying out A$114,000 on Milos Raonic serving 24 aces in a match and $90,000 on John Isner serving 37 aces.

http://www.adnews.com.au/news/william-hill-reports-huge-spike-in-tennis-betting/type/yafNews#0wTmCiAl4txgTfB4.99