In-play live sports betting giants are Bet365 and William Hill

When it comes to sports wagering it seems like many bettors are more interested in putting their money on the line during live games rather than before the contests. A recent survey show that’s the newest trend in betting and sportsbook giants William Hill and Bet365 are leading the way in regards to in-play wagering options.

The research was carried out by Gambling Compliance in November and December of 2011 and revealed that in-play betting is quickly growing in popularity across Europe. The in-play method enables bettors to wager on their favourite sporting events live, while they’re taking place. This new fad means that traditional over the counter betting before games get underway is now taking a backseat.

The big sportsbooks are also advertising the in-play live betting method quite heavily. For instance, Bet365 has hired British actor Ray Winstone to star in a series of television ads. The survey showed that Bet365 offers the most choices for in-play wagering when it comes to amount of events and sports to bet on, but William Hill offers more possible wagers for each event.

Nor surprisingly, those two companies are also our most recommended sites when it comes to live dealer casinos and for many other types of games.

The research was conducted over a 14-day period and it showed that Bet365 offered customers the chance to wager on a total of 534 events in 20 different types of sports. Sportingbet offered bets on 358 different games while Bwin offered 317 wagers, Ladbrokes 313 and William Hill had 297 different options. But when the researchers looked at the number of bets available for each game, William Hill came out on top with an average of 53 different choices. Ladbrokes was next with 30, followed by Sportingbet at 25, then Bet365 with 24 and finally Bwin with 23.

Football most popular among live bettors

The most popular sport to bet on, according to the survey, is football. It was reported that more than 66 per cent of all in-play wagers were laid on the sport. Perhaps surprisingly, basketball was the second most popular with tennis being third and then volleyball.