Perhaps it is even surprising that the percentage is still so high: according to data published by the Customs and Monopolies Agency and processed by Agipronews, football is still the favorite sport of bettors, even if following the latest scandals it has inevitably seen its share drop, and even by a lot: -5 percentage points, from 92% in 2008 to 87% of total bets in 2012.
On the contrary, tennis rose, which thanks to the increasingly popular live games exceeds 5% of the market share, and basketball, which for the first time breaks the 2% threshold. The official report also highlights that among the football leagues in particular difficulty, and it could not have been otherwise, there are Serie B and Lega Pro, most affected by the "scommessopoli" scandal, which in fact recorded a significant reduction in receipts, respectively of 10 and 25%. On the other hand, the main foreign championships hold, in particular the Premier League and the Spanish Liga, and in the end even the charm of Serie A (in reality it too is involved in the round of crimes) is difficult to resist.
In the top ten sporting events with the largest collection of bets in the calendar year, nine in fact - and despite everything - concern the Italian Serie A championship and in particular the matches that see Inter, Milan and Naples as protagonists. The most played game in 2012? The Milan-Inter derby on 15 January, which the Nerazzurri won 1-0 with a goal from Milito: the highly competitive match collected bets worth over 5,2 million euros.
