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For the past two weeks, the Little League World Series has drawn some of the highest traffic to the Gambling911.com website this year, translating into a windfall for our friends at BetOnline as they were one of the few gambling sites taking bets on this high demand event.
Little League World Series Betting (73,145 impressions this week)
The Little League World Series has absolutely dominated the news here at Gambling911.com and the interest and betting demand continued right up until Sunday's title game between Nevada and Chinese Taipei, a lopsided affair Chinese Taipei won 7-0.
73,145 impressions were recorded over the last seven days. This number dropped as teams dropped out of the competition.
By comparison, the UFC 319 main card - Dricus Du Plessis vs. Khamzat Chimaev - drew a respectable 33,135 impressions, not even half that of the Little League World Series. This was the second most trafficked event/story of the week here at Gambling911.com.
The Little League wasn't exactly thrilled by the notion of sites like BetOnline taking bets on these kids.
"No one should be exploiting" children for "their own personal gain.” Tweets were flying about the ESPN and sponsor dollars Little League receives, as well as the CEO's compensation, but that's a conversation for another day.
This marks the fifth consecutive year BetOnline has offered LLWS odds. The online sportsbook is also posting betting lines for marquee high school football matchups every week this season, with the most recent game coverage drawing more interest than some of Saturday's college football games, according to Gambling911 internal data.
So why do they do it?
"We offer Little League World Series game lines and futures because there's a clear demand for it," BetOnline.ag Brand Manager Dave Mason said. "Our customers request these markets annually, and we've already seen thousands of bets on this year's tournament.
Mason has since confirmed these games generated significant revenue for BetOnline. While not offering specific final figures, the 73,145 impressions observed at Gambling911.com do provide a fairly accurate glimpse of how popular this year's LLWS was. That's 73,145 individuals who, at the very least, had the itch to bet the Little League World Series. If every single one of these folks in theory each bet $10, you can do the math and use your imagination to come up with a fairly conservative figure on how much was wagered over the last seven days. Perhaps more realistically, if just a quarter of this 73,145 number placed an average bet of $50, you'd be looking at an improved outcome for the books.
"We don't force it on our customers...heck, we don't even send out LLWS promotional material," Mason insisted. "These games captivate audiences on national TV every summer, and we simply provide an option for people who want to watch and wager on these remarkable athletes."
- Ean Lamb, Gambling911.com
