OVER the last few years the biggest and best sports betting companies have aligned themselves with the most famous and prestigious darts tournaments around the world, and next month, Unibet become the headline sponsors of one of the heritage darts events in the calendar - The Unibet Masters.
Unibet's Ed Nicholson, who has spent over 25 years in the industry and has witnessed the expansion of darts' sportsbook sponsorship at first hand, explains why darts and betting really are a 'double top' combination:
Unibet is one of the biggest gambling companies in the world. Worth in excess of £800 million, it is listed on the Swedish Nasdaq Stock Exchange with over eight million worldwide customers, and is one of the grandfathers of internet betting, having been established in 1997.
And in 2013, Unibet re-launched into the UK market with a £3 million marketing campaign around that year's Summer of Sport. It heralded our first UK marketing campaign for many years and demonstrated that Unibet was systematically targeting UK customers for the first time.
You may recall seeing our award-winning Unibet armchair marketing campaign across a number of media platforms during that summer of 2013, including on Sky Sports, in the Daily Telegraph and through ITV - with Sir Ian Botham talking about England's Unibet's markets and odds for The Ashes; Goran Ivanisevic discussing what it takes to win at Wimbledon and the vast number of live betting options Unibet has on tennis and Gavin Hastings explaining why betting on the British Lions with Unibet made sense.
This year, Graeme Swann has joined our armchair experts team and we are sponsors of ITV's coverage of the Indian Premier League, as well as activating in-stadium betting partnerships with 12 Premier League and Championship football teams including Man City, Liverpool, Everton and West Ham.
Unibet is also the proud sponsor of Royal Windsor racecourse.
In short we are a market leading, global, reputable sportsbook that is making headlines within the UK having dominated the Scandinavian and European territories since 1997.
And now we're the official sponsors of the Unibet Masters darts championship. So why darts?
Darts in effect is numbers, nerve and excitement – the same as betting. If you can work out how to get to double 12 from a starting 501 in eight darts you have to know a thing or two about probability, numbers and odds. And if you are either on the oche with one dart left for that nine-dart finish, or whether you have backed the man at the oche to do it – you're both having to deal with nerves and excitement.
But the development of internet betting, live betting and regular televised coverage has meant that whereas once upon a time high street bookies were happy just to take bets on the action, online sportsbooks now want to be part of the action, sponsoring the events, and being associated with the great players, and events, of the sport.
Live betting has recently been, and remains, the future of online sportsbetting. People like to watch and bet on events that unfold in front of their eyes. Most people tend to have an opinion on most things, but now those people can put their money where only their mouths had previously been; by phone, by computer and or by tablet. And they can do this while they are watching on their phone, on their computer and on their tablet.
It's instant regulated access, and by sponsoring events like the Unibet Masters, we can engage with darts lovers, those who like to bet on darts, and those who just like to bet. And we can impress upon them (hopefully) our site, our brand, our markets and our all-round award winning service. We have the best online sportsbook offering in the World, a title awarded to us most recently at 2014 aming Awards.
And what are those darts markets? Well once the draw is known for the Unibet Masters, we'll be the first firm to price up individual match odds, we'll be offering unique markets that no other bookmaker will offer – for example – live betting on the score of first dart on every leg.
We'll be offering who will win the tournament betting (outrights) during the matches as well as industry leading enhanced multiples.
We have made a promise to be top price on the top four in the outright before tournament starts, once we know the draw.
We'll also be offering the following betting opportunities:
Handicaps
Correct Scores
Total Legs
Total 180s
Most 180
Individual Total 180s
First 180
Last 180
Player With Highest Checkout
170 Checkout
Nine-Dart Finish
180 First Leg (Yes/No)
Red Checkout Leg 1 – Yes/No
First Dart in Match (Treble20, Single20, Other)
Checkout Total Points Leg 1
During the live broadcasts on ITV you'll also be able to bet on these live markets too:
LIVEBETTING
Match Odds
Current Leg
Next Leg
Handicaps (x2)
Total Legs (x2)
Under/Over Checkout
Red Or Green Checkout
180 in Legs (Yes/No)
Total 180s
Individual 180s
Score of 1st Dart in each leg (No other company will offer this market)
Over the next few weeks this column will aim to pinpoint a few bets, markets and betting opportunities that will hopefully interest you – and we'll also be unveiling some very special promotions and special offers.
And we start right here – open a Unibet account and your first bet is risk free – up to £20! Visit www.unibet.co.uk for more details.