Since the introduction of VAR on the English Premier League, many football enthusiasts have aired different views on this technology. For many in-play betting punters, the technology has affected them significantly, especially where goals and wins have been overturned on the account of VAR. This season, the technology is still making headlines in different top leagues worldwide, affecting football betting in different ways.
Here’s the impact of VAR on online football betting for professional and recreational punters on the premier league and other top competitions. But first, let’s have a clear understanding of what’s VAR.
What’s VAR Technology?
Popularly known as VAR, Virtual Assisted Refereeing is a new review system in football used alongside the goal-line technology to improve the referee decision-making process. The system is designed to boost the sport’s fairness, though it has met mixed reactions since its introduction in the Premier League. Some fans have focused on the positive side like in rectifying red card decisions, though others are still complaining about its capability to change the game in a way that was never intended.
The VAR technology relies on the efforts of three officials, one of them being a serving or a former referee. These referees work together to review the match referees’ decisions and check whether a clear error has occurred. As such, this technology can intervene if:
- The match referee requests the technology to review an event and inform his decision.
- The VAR spots an incident that might otherwise pass unnoticed.
VAR’s Impact On Sports Betting
According to leading bookies, the introduction of VAR technology has largely impacted the in-play betting process. So far, such a disruption has occurred during the FA Cup, FIFA World Cup, and UEFA Champions League.
Many betting operators are complaining that VAR technology has been inconsistently deployed various competitions, making it hard to get clear information on why or when such interventions may occur. For this reason, it has become hard for gambling operators to efficiently price their live betting offers. Even worse, the high competition on the online betting market makes the operators lose customers, especially when they’re disgruntled about a certain decision.
Sky bet head of in-play betting, Joe Petyt believes that VAR technology is responsible for most of the problems experienced by most of the in-play punters. According to Joe, his firm had to actively prevent their punters to withdraw from their in-play bets until the game was over as they had previously paid out winnings that later got overturned through VAR reviews.
There were more discrepancies reported on the technology after betting operators reported that data providers were relaying information on VAR interventions in different ways. Moreover, there seem to be differences in VAR processes across multiple football competitions that have adopted the technology. The concerns of these discrepancies have been shared by multiple betting operators across the web and it could leave some in-play betting providers at a disadvantage.
Bottom Line
Considering the state of in-play betting post-VAR, it’s evident that this new technology has a huge impact on the future of football betting. However, there’s no telling how huge the effect might be until we observe the technology on the premier league for the next two seasons.