Relax South Africa Players: Sunbet’s Got You Covered

You are certainly aware of the incredible popularity of both online casinos and sports betting throughout South Africa. Yes, it is true that technically, online gambling is prohibited. On the other hand, online sports betting is perfectly okay. Now, a big money player has upped the ante for South Africa and the online sports betting world.

The sports betting market is getting huge. According to a PwC Gambling Outlook Report, sports betting is growing by leaps and bounds in South Africa. In fiscal year 2012 for example, sports gambling revenue increased by an incredible 71%. But its not just a one year change. Taking a closer look at this report reveals that gross gambling revenues for sports events increased by an impressive 566% from the years 2009 to 2012.

Spotting a growing trend that has shown no evidence of slowing down, the hotel and gaming giant, Sun International has decided to take a proactive stance and put their money and their resources into this market. Just a casual look at the numbers will make this very easy to understand. Sun recently revealed a brand new sports betting platform specifically designed and customized for the South African online player.

This all started as recently as last year when Sun International quietly acquired Powerbet Gaming. Since then, the company went to work and re branded the company, engineered and launched a new website for South Africa.

When questioned later about this move into South Africa and online gambling in particular, representatives from Sun let it be known that the launch of Sunbet was all about accelerating Sun Internationals foray into online gaming. In fact, spokesperson, Michael Farr made the point that sports betting is just getting started in a big way, in many ways it is still in its infancy.

But here is the point you want to stand up and pay attention to: Mr. Farr went on to make the case that “….it seems likely that online gaming will soon be legalized in South Africa. The point is that by setting up operations right now, Sun International is positioning themselves to be in a leaders position when (if?) online gambling is finally legalized.