Betting shops, threat to viewing centres, pool houses.

 

 

 

The advent of sports betting shops in the country have become a source of worry to operators of match-viewing centres 

betting shop

and agents of pools houses,

“This Arsenal team are capable of making someone hypertensive. They are a very unreliable club,” an Arsenal fan shouted in a football betting shop in Ojuelegba, Lagos.

This was after Arsenal lost 2-1 to Manchester United in the English Premier League. It should have been just like any other EPL result but the Gunners’ fan was irritated because he had staked a bet on his favourite team, hoping that they would play a draw against the visiting Manchester United.

Even though he lost the stake, he still had a consolation, as his bet of a first half draw earned him some money.

It is a common spectacle to see football fans throng these venues in a bid to monitor the matches they had staked their hard-earned cash on.

They have jettisoned the once valued viewing centres and now pitched their tents with the agents of the various betting companies that have sprung up in the country and are thus able to watch the matches free of charge in their shops, while betting.

Moreover, the coming of these sports betting shops has also put pool shop operators on their toes.

The Genesis

The wide spread popularity of cable television in the 1990s and the gradual decline of Nigeria’s football league, brought about the increase in the followership of European football clubs.

A 53-year-old man, Niyi Oladotun, a keen follower of Nigerian football, remembers vividly how Nigerian football fell from grace to grass.

He said, “In the late 70s and early 80s, people trooped came out in large numbers to watch matches in the stadiums. Then clubs were scattered around the country. It was a delight to watch Shooting Stars, Stationery Stores, Enugu Rangers and many others play in the Challenge Cup and other competitions. The Challenge Cup was so popular then that even local musicians waxed songs about it.

“But when satellite television stations got into the country in the late 80s, only the rich could afford them and watch the foreign leagues, particularly the EPL. But you know, with time, the digital television providers came in and even our own league was not well maintained, so people had to satisfy their cravings for their favourite pastime – watching football.”

Match-viewing centres came when there was a sharp rise in the support of foreign clubs and the non-affordability of satellite cable television for the teeming lovers of these clubs. These viewing centres gradually increased and spread across cities in the country as more and more cable television providers entered the market.