LEON: VAR system radically changes in-play football betting

With introduction of VAR system (video assistant referee) in-play football betting has been experiencing significant changes. According to LEON bookmaker company, this was confirmed by an insane ending of Champions League quarter-final second leg between Manchester City and Tottenham. It was not the footballers who played a significant role in the match outcome but rather the VAR’s decision, thereby Spurs proceeded to next stage of the tournament, while the hosts were defeated even after scoring a seemingly crucial goal.

The situation with a unified approach towards VAR potential is still not clear, and this causes certain difficulties for the betting business. LEON’s press office states that soon the industry will have to develop common algorithms in response to the use of VAR in matches. After all, when one of the teams scores a goal and the clients’ bets are calculated as winnings, there might be disputes between the players and the operator if the goal gets cancelled and the bet appears void according to VAR decision.

«At first glance closing the game line seems like a solution for the bookmakers. However, situations like this become more frequent and could irritate many users and, as a result, lead to bookmakers suffer considerable damage to their reputation», LEON believes.

The past second leg match of Champions League quarter-final between Man City and Tottenham became the most vivid example of VAR dilemma, which now prevails among the betting community. «When the hosts scored the crucial goal during the added  time, some of the bookmakers — including those with high reputation among the players — have already calculated the bets (including totals) as winnings. However, after that VAR’s result has become official and the decision about the goal cancellation came as a shock to thousands of bettors», summarized at LEON.

The company has also added that in order to avoid conflict situations some of the bookmakers are forced to significantly limit betting markets in those tournaments where VAR is used (apart from Champions League, these are German, Italian, Portuguese, US and Australian elite divisions).

Starting from the upcoming season VAR system will be launched in English Premier League as well, which represents the most popular national football tournament among the bettors.

«It will be reasonable to unify the tools for using the system as soon as possible for both governing bodies of European and world football and national federations of those countries which use VAR. Meanwhile, due to frequent use of VAR, we can witness how the bookmakers are experiencing unjustified conflicts with those users who prefer live betting», summarized at LEON.