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Is Baseball Betting Dead?

Baseball is as American as mom and apple pie; that’s how the saying goes anyways.

Baseball betting, on the other hand is hardly a blip on most North American-facing sports betting affiliates’ radar. Some sites don’t even bother covering baseball and wind up doing most of their US business during football season and the NCAA Basketball  Tournament.

The decline of baseball betting in the United States isn’t actually a new phenomenon. A 1989 New York Times article on this same subject said that baseball betting had been in decline for decades thanks to the increased popularity of football.

Eleven years later, football still dominates US betting. In 2011, baseball wagering accounted for only $500 million of the $3 billion in legal sports bets placed in Nevada. All told, football still pulls in more than baseball and basketball combined.

What’s Behind the Decline

Why is that baseball’s 2430 games over nearly six months has turned into a black hole for sports betting? According to Joe Duffy, CEO of Offshoreinsiders.com and a longtime sports handicapper, the struggling US economy and a more stat-savvy betting public, could be behind the slump:

The economy has eliminated a lot of square, casual players. Plus easier and more economical access to great information has made the average player much sharper.

Of course the 1994 strike, along with all those ugly steroid scandals, haven’t helped its popularity much either.

Promoting Baseball Betting

Baseball betting may be in decline, but it’s definitely on the downswing, it’s not an entirely lost cause. If you know where to look, there’s plenty of baseball action out there.

Duffy says that some regional markets, including Philadelphia; Atlanta; and Pittsburgh are still hotbeds of baseball betting. Targeting these hardcore fans and gamblers could revive baseball betting fortunes.

Unlike most casual football bettors, baseball fans can’t get enough statistics, graphs and seriously wonky analytics. (That’s why fantasy baseball is still very popular.)

This kind of in-depth analysis falls well outside the average handicapper’s skill set but affiliates should be able to uncover a baseball brain of their own to break down the numbers that drive traffic.

Do you have any luck promoting baseball? If you do, we’d love to hear your tips and tricks on nailing down this elusive audience.