High Rollers Watch The Game In Style – How Match Day Experiences Have Improved
Tell anyone born after the Premier League launched in 1992 what football – and even football betting – was like in the bad old days, and they wouldn’t believe you.
Pop your head round the door of the bookies, ignore the peeling wallpaper and the overflowing ashtrays, put a quid or two on Mark Hughes banging one in against Oldham at Old Trafford. Squeeze through a rusty turnstile and stand in the rain watching your team hoof it over a pitch that’s more mud than grass. Then off home to watch a whole two minutes of grainy highlights on Match of the Day.
Sports hospitality services like White Label Hospitality have definitely improved match day experiences for fans. And high rollers definitely get the best of it.
Football’s Improved. Obviously
Let’s get the obvious bits out of the way first. Here’s how football and football betting has improved:
- Safe, all-seater stadiums
- Live TV coverage home and away
- Instant highlights on the internet
- In-play betting, both online and through apps
- Less hooliganism and violence
There’s a reason that matchday we mentioned at the start feels so alien. It’s because gambling isn’t like that any more, and nor is football. No need for the bookies, no need to hide under a matchday programme when it starts raining, and no need for Welsh carthorse strikers when there’s a steady flow of European, African and South American talent gracing our pitches.
That’s the obvious. But what about the less obvious?
Corporate Comfort
Yeah, the seats are better than the terraces – unless you liked being kneed in the back for 90 minutes and getting trampled if your team scored. But they’re still just plastic seats. Hardly the lap of luxury.
Maybe for your average fan. But not for the high roller. Oh no, you get to put your winnings to good use with corporate hospitality.
Free parking? Of course sir. Fine food? Right this way sir? Fighting your way to a communal urinal? Oh no sir, perhaps sir would like a private bathroom next to sir’s box?
Sir very much would!
Great views, food and drink included, and a chance to rub shoulders with some of your team’s past greats. Who’ll make the way football used to be sound far more romantic than our blog post has, in fairness to them.
Better Betting
But what about betting at the stadium? Never mind running to the bookies – stadiums are beginning to offer fantastic betting facilities to high rollers.
Wembley? You can visit the kiosks on the Club Wembley kiosks, or you can wait in your suite and let the staff come to you to tell you the odds and collect your stake.
The same goes for other stadiums up and down the country. The Etihad, Old Trafford and Anfield all have dedicated betting kiosks. Even second division grounds like Elland Road have on-site bookmakers so you can place your bet as you head to your seat.
Handheld Betting
Placing a bet in person is all a little bit 20th century, isn’t it?
Most grounds offer WiFi access to their corporate hospitality guests. And that means with a few taps of your thumb on your phone screen, you can place a bet on pretty much any sporting event anywhere in the world through your apps of choice.
So remember, the next time someone tells you about how much fun football was in the 80s – when it comes to the matchday experience, high rollers have never ever had it this good.