Inside Asian Gaming

IAG APR 2021年4月 亞博匯 89 日本 here for Japan to do the same and sell its own sports content to the world.” A keymoment in the increasing digitization of global sporting leagues came in 2018, when the US Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on single-game wagering and opened the door for individual states to make their own decisions around sports betting legislation. Since then, 21 states have launched live, legal sports betting, four more have passed legislation and another 17 have legislation filed and pending. “It's hard to believe, but Russia’s underground ping pong league brings in JPY50 billion (US$460 million) a year,” Kobayashi adds. “That’s more than the USPGA. Once betting is allowed, interest in video and stats skyrockets, giving value to this content. This is what has happened with Japan’s national racing.” FANTASY SEEDLINGS The buds have already started to peek out of the ground in Japan. In May 2019, the first Japanese company to join the Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association, Neo Sports, put together “FANTASY ONE on ONE” for the B. League Championship, allowing users to create their fantasy teams and awarding prizes such as Amazon gift certificates. In July of that year, a similar fantasy sports contest was created for the 87th Japan PGA Championship, one of the oldest professional tournaments in Japan. US-style sports betting could wellbeseenasamorepalatable option than some other types of gambling moving forward. 比起其他類型的博彩方式，美式運動 博彩顯得更容易被接受。 大聯盟比賽在去年被迫推遲，之後亦由於疫情而只能在沒有觀眾 的情況下重啟賽程。但運動博彩就可能在同樣情況再次出現時把 所有人救出生天。當彈珠機及彈珠角子機業逐漸要面臨長遠的生 存難題時，網上博彩就沒有這樣的擔憂。在去年的賽馬投注高達 2.9兆日元(265億美元)，比起2019年的營業額上升3.5%。小林至 教授表示，時移勢易，無人能擋。 他解釋道：「不論你喜歡與否，數碼化的轉移進程並不會停 止，即使是在體育業界亦然。」 「網上世界無遠弗屆，亦沒有自然海洋這些屏障。日本不能 再假裝自己不受世界的洪流所影響。」 「打個比方：如果你是美國棒球大聯盟網上服務的會員，你 可以在自己喜歡的時間於網上收看所有賽事和重溫精華片段。我 們已活在一個消費者可以從世界各地選購產品的時代。因此，日 本就有機會做同樣的事，可以把自己的運動內容推至全世界。」 其中一個令全球的各個運動聯盟變得更數碼化的關鍵時刻， 就出現在2018年。當時美國最高法院駁回了一項針對單一賽事投 注的聯邦禁令，並且為各個州份開啟了自行決定建立運動博彩法 律的大門。自此之後，21個美國州份已經推出了即時及合法的運 動博彩，另外4個州份就通過了法律，還有17個遞交了法案並等待 審議。