As each day goes by, we’re greeted with news of the last postponement or cancellation – as we head toward May, we’d usually be within the middle of the sporting season – but this year it seems the off-season has arrived much earlier and may last for much longer than many would like. The expectation is that the lockdown within the UK will be extended through April until the start of May, and whilst this still might change, that’s a long period of time for many of us to have a disrupted daily routine.
We’re seeing some good news for some – The All England Club, the organisation behind Wimbledon, can look forward to receiving a large insurance payout of having pandemic cover as part of their insurance since the SARS outbreak in 2003 – but many others haven’t had as much to look forward to as the Premier League fear losses that could top £1 billion. As we see a longer extension loom, however, what are we finding people do following the longer off season?
With betting services not having many options available, many are turning to their casino alternatives such as those at Maximum Casinos to receive their fix – we’ve seen online casino services find a huge surge in traffic as those stuck at home during lockdown are finding a way to stay busy throughout the day. This is also true for gaming across the board – sales of physical games, and not only for consoles but for board games too, have found a sharp increase, this can in part be attributed to a larger number of children at home as schools also close.
This has also held true for book sales – the number of children’s education books sold through March has seen a large increase, and fiction in general in some areas finding up a 300% increase in share. Movies & TV have found their footing amongst this too as services such as Netflix have had to reduce data usage due to the increasing demand and traffic.
We still expect to see many more cancellations, and many more postponements over the coming months – as it stands most competitions through to July have been completely put on hold but as there is a lot of uncertainty around the timescale, it’s difficult to have any preparation. Event organisers will continue to watch the outbreak closely in an attempt to get things moving again as soon as possible, and the athletes within our favourite sports will of course be eager to get going too. Businesses that rely on sporting events – betting companies, hotels, restaurants, and travel companies will also be hoping to get things going again as they look to find an area to begin recovery.
