NBA commissioner Adam Silver poses with a Mickey Mouse mascot – credit NBA.com
The NBA has confirmed that talks are ongoing with Disney concerning hosting games at the Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando.
Spokesman for the league Mike Bass, said the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association are “engaged in exploratory conversations” with Walt Disney Company for a workable later July restart to the season, which discontinued on March 11 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The proposed Walt Disney Resort in Orlando to host NBA games in July
Bass said: “It would be a single site for an NBA campus for games, practices and housing.
“Our priority continues to be the health and safety of all involved, and we are working with public health experts and government officials on a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure that appropriate medical protocols and protections are in place.”
NBA Commissioner said he wanted to determine whether the NBA season would commence within ‘”two to four weeks” since it had been stopped because of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to ESPN, Silver and owners reached an agreement on the preference of a “campus environment” for the health and safety of the players and teams, as well as the general public.
The idea of a resort setting is to make arrangements for a controlled environment where all NBA teams will be housed(resort setting) was brought up in late March when Silver urged teams to examine a prospective return date, while the Bahamas was mentioned as a possibility.
Bayern Munich star, Muller, has matched Kevin De Bryune record of 17 assists in a bundesliga season(in 27 games) with seven matches left to play.
Muller equalled De Bryune record in the 17th minute for the second goal against Eintracht Frankfurt fired home by Leon Goretzka in the center of the penalty area after Muller assisted with a cross from the left.
The 17 assists sees Muller level with De Bruyne’s total through 27 matches in the season where the Belgian shattered the league’s record in the 2014/15 season. De Bryune still went on to make 21 assists at the end of the seas on and finding the net 10 times.
Muller this season has found the net 6 times playing in a more deeper role.
Muller’s claim to the crown is tightly contested by Borussia Dortmund’s Jason Sancho. Sancho is currently on 16 assists and both players will feature in De Klassiker on Tuesday.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka £30.7m in earnings has surpassed Serena Williams as the world’s highest paid female athlete within a 12 month period.
Naomi Osaka is the highest paid female athlete ever within a 12-month timeline
The earnings rake in from prize money and endorsements according to Forbes.
Osaka earned £1.15m more than American great Williams who lead the list for the last four years.
Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams at the US open in 2018
Another tennis star, Maria Sharapova previously held the record for 12-month earnings for a female athlete, having made £24.4 million(current rate) in 2015.
Female tennis players have always topped the leaderboard on Forbes’s women’s list since 1990 with either Williams or Russian Sharapova dominating since 2004.
Osaka burst into the spotlight by creating an upset in the 2018 US Open final, against Serena, the highly-controversial match in which Williams was given three code violations by the umpire.
The Japanese went on to win another Grand Slam, the 2019 Australian Open, although her form has since dropped and which has seen her fallen from world number one to 10th on the WTA rankings.
Reward for passion is the message that speaks out of any broadcasting medium and a message that is on anything “print”. Bet9ja a Nigerian outfit which claims to be number one in the country owns this alluring message.
Bet9ja’s brag-like claim to the leadership board
Sports betting seemed to have a revival between 2012 & 2013, a time when it was as good as dead, perceived to be entirely illicit, unpopular and the spirit of sports enveloped all reason and sentiment attached to the activity of betting. ‘Tete’ known as bet in local parlance hit the vigorous emotions of football fans in the country with one key motivation, cash.
The opportunity to make money from all “highs and lows” the sporting scene had to offer became available to all, old & young, male or female, fan or neutral. Fans no longer had to reminisce on the good old days of ‘pool’ or just view European bet sites while surfing the internet. The sporting culture(dominated by football) was going to take a new turn.
Branding and Marketing
Frankly speaking, there has been a presence of bet outfits around, but they just didn’t have the power or influence to change the shape of the sporting scene.
Many bet outfits came back as brands with strengthened professionalism and intense marketing on all mediums available; they were everywhere and Bet9ja was leading the advert coup to attract patronage.
Smartphones were fast becoming integral and social media tweaked the conventional type of mass media which carved a niche for online betting in the country were only few outfits capitalized(not all could keep up). Bet9ja quickly gave persons the platform to forecast games, book tickets via smartphones and print out slips.
Maximum Reward
Founder of Nairabet commenting on Nigerians interest on maximum reward.
Bet9ja often promises of the highest payout which has piqued interest of bettors, the amount has changed quite a number of times to raise the stakes and competition. Their maximum payout is N50,000,000 compared to Nairabet N20,000,000(the second best outfit).
Proximity
In a research conducted by Benjamin Dada (content creator) two years ago he estimates a humongous 3033 Bet9ja shop scattered across Lagos state with an estimate of 60 persons visiting the shops a day. This allows for offline users to place bets at ease or online users who alternate between playing games online and printing tickets or engage themselves with the virtual game popularly known as ‘baby’ or ‘aja 1’.
Google map view of Bet9ja centers in Ikorodu, Lagos.
This network of shops allows the outfit to be anywhere, all a patron need do is ask.
Bet9ja coupled their marketing campaign with the capability to reach interested customers at neighborhood or community areas, this increased their popularity and bottom line.
User Experience
One attractive package Bet9ja has as a brand is a simple to use website which ensures an effortless user experience.
The website(irrespective of version) won’t have anyone wondering how to use; everything is a click away.
The simplicity of the site gage a satisfactory quality that could keep anyone with a smartphone on the site to place bets back to back.
A quick link on Bet9ja latest site giving access to a previous version
Bet9ja aware of Nigerians unwillingness to change still ensure bettors can access a particular old version of their site via the present upgrade or accessing it through the platform of search engines like Google.
Sponsorship
Now while Bet9ja may sponsor sports shows on radio and television(like most bet outfits) featuring top pundits like Femi Obong Daniels and Olawale Adigun which draw a significant amount of traffic on their shows and on social media for various sporting discuss, Bet9ja has often stepped outside the conventional scope of advertising.
Bet9ja has fiercely sponsored events and establishment.
“On 10 September 2013, Bet9ja signed a shirt sponsorship deal with Remo Stars F.C. during the official unveiling of Bet9ja.
In 2017, Bet9ja signed a 200 Million Naira sponsorship agreement with Nigeria’s penultimate men’s football league, the Nigeria National League.
In March 2019, the Ekiti Fa announced Bet9ja as league sponsors for the amateur league event.
The maiden edition of the National Anti-corruption marathon was organised by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in partnership with Bet9ja in December 2018.
Bet9ja was announced as headline sponsor of the fourth season of Big Brother Naija” – Wikipedia.
Innovations and Tweaks
With the gambling industry rising at a fast pace, valued at a billion dollars in Nigeria. Most betting outfits have come up with key adjustments to their product. The “one game cut” option for bettors, which creates a circumstance whereby a bettor is guaranteed of reward if only one game outcome fails in a multiple game slip or ticket.
However, other bet outfits beat Bet9ja to this race with Sporty Bet allowing for a two game cut window in late 2019.
Another tweak is the “cash out” option which offer bettors the ample opportunity to request for reward before the ultimate stake placed on other games is realized on a multiple outcome slip.
Conclusion
Tracing the rejuvenation of the gambling industry, introduction of social media into our everyday activities, high reward, tweaks, and taking into consideration the country’s economic situation (unemployment & belt-tightening situations) its not farfetched that the sector became a multimillion dollar industry under half a decade/dozen years.
In any sector a particular outfit must standout or become a dominant force, or exploit opportunity.
Its a safe call to put Bet9ja out there as the “few among many” who became household names from taking advantage of the Nigerian sporting culture and maybe economic situation.
Based on their popularity compiled by the Alexa ranking as the second most visited site in Nigeria it only goes to show that the outfit is a fans favorite.
Bet9ja nearness to everyone has enveloped many who have the N100 to spare across the country and their reach has expanded to neighbouring international cities like Cotonou with a squadron of centres to match their presence and hoist their emblem in local communities of Benin Republic.
Other bet outfits might have legitimate shouts to the punting throne but by popular demand, the only outfit ambitiously meeting the supply to sporting aficionados is Bet9ja who reward your passion.
Bookmakers 