June 27 – The Chinese are finding ways to use the 2014 FIFA World cup to circumvent local gambling laws. In general gambling is illegal in China, but in instances where the proceeds are donated to charity, exceptions are allowed. Alibaba and Tencent Holdings, two of China’s dominant Internet companies, have linked up with provincial lottery centres so as to allow betting on world cup matches.
They have made the process easy for customers by enabling bets to be placed online, and via smartphones. With an estimated 85% of Chinese interested in buying products through their mobile, the service these two companies provide capitalises on a growth market.
Rather than having to wait in line at a kiosk to buy a ticket, customers can simply press a few buttons on their phones if they wish to make their world cup viewing a touch more exciting.
By Sunday, $642 million (CNY4 billion) had been bet in China on the world cup, towering above the CNY2.3 billion figure that the 2010 World Cup achieved.
But a kink in the online system that occurred on Monday may curtail these record figures growing further. Tencent’s mobile betting site QQ Lottery stopped accepting payments from Alipay, the ecommerce company of bitter rivals Alibaba. Tencent stated that technical problems were causing delays, but skeptics voiced the alternative opinion that perhaps it was more a case of commercial skulduggery – an accusation that has been vehemently denied by Tencent.
With these issues now seemingly ironed out, the betting is sure to recommence as the tournament reaches the knockout stages.
And to calm the excitement and risk-taking of the occasion, An Cheng Insurance is selling “World Cup Heartbreak Insurance”, for the more emotionally invested gamblers.
Payouts are offered to console the psychologically traumatised supporters of underachievers. For example, if a fan had purchased heartbreak insurance for 8 yuan ($1.30) whilst backing Spain, a handsome payout of 18 yuan would have been provided.
Each policy covers just one round, so continued payments will need to be paid if psychological damage is to be offset by monetary recompense for the tournament’s entirety.
Furthermore, the payout is only credit for purchases on Taobao, which is an online consumer purchasing platform run by Alibaba. This is to avoid falling foul of betting laws once more, as a product manager at An Cheng Insurance suggested, by saying, “If you use cash it looks a bit too much like gambling”.
Other insurance policies are available too, like the ‘Night Owl’ insurance offered by Zhong An Insurance for those wishing to be covered from contracting a cold from staying out all night to watch the matches. Since kick-off times are at inconveniently unsociable hours for Beijing audiences, starting at midnight, the protection is less farfetched then it seems.
Zhong An Insurance is also providing the less specific ‘Soccer Hooligan Insurance’, which covers medical attention for World Cup related accidents. And these are reportedly in abundance according to the stories that have emerged in the past couple of weeks documenting numerous people suffering ailments due to the exhaustion of skipping sleep to watch the games.
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