章 44: OPAP Company
As the main stadium for the Olympic Games, the Athens Olympic Stadium has its commercial facilities. There are commercial streets and shopping malls in the vicinity. Most of them are not newly built but transformed from old buildings. Although the construction speed of the Athens Olympic Stadium has always been criticized, the construction of the business district is very fast, even before the completion of the stadium.
At the corner of a commercial street, the crowd was crowded. Zhang Guan stood in front of a building and looked up at the big sign of "OPAP" on the signboard. He took out a tourist map and compared it. When he found that there was nothing wrong, he walked in.
OPAP is the abbreviation of a Greek football gambling company. Greek football gambling company is the largest gambling company in Greece and a Greek state-owned company. It almost monopolizes the entire Greek spinach market.
The Olympic Games is undoubtedly a huge gold mine for gambling companies, and for speculators, the Olympic gambling is also a feast not to be missed. However, Zhang Guan remembered many Olympic results. Buying a few popular games through gambling and making a fortune is a good way to get rich quickly.
Therefore, Zhang Guan raised as many funds as possible before going abroad to exchange for euros, even at the expense of loans. At the same time, Zhang Guan signed up for the rehearsal of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, hoping to arrive in Athens earlier to participate in this gambling event.
Zhang Guan first ran to the bank to get a debit card. Although the work efficiency of the Greeks is not fast, it is very easy for foreigners to apply for a debit card in Greece during the Olympics. Take out your passport and can be done in minutes.
Then Zhang Guan came to the biggest betting station near the Olympic Stadium.
If it is a few years later, the European online gambling industry would be maturing, Zhang Guan can completely handle online banking and then conduct online gambling through the website, but this time internet gambling has no legal status in many European countries, and some countries even have many restrictions. For example, Finland, the largest online gambling country in Europe, has a law stipulating that only permanent residents of Finland can participate in online gambling; while the United Kingdom, the largest gambling country in Europe, has not implemented the "2005 Gambling Act" that stipulates the legalization of online gambling, while Italy, Spain, etc. also have no online laws and regulations.
Therefore, in this era of gambling, the main form of gambling is through live betting.
OPAP's betting stations are all over Greece. Most of the small and medium-sized betting stations only sell OPAP's sports lottery tickets. Some large betting stations, in addition to selling OPAP's own sports lottery tickets, also represent major gambling companies in Europe. In the case of European countries still striving to protect their gambling industry, this kind of situation of OPAP is rare in Europe.
The gambling industry is an industry that makes making money a lot easier. At the national level, it is natural to hope that local people only buy their lottery tickets; and from the perspective of big gambling companies, it is natural to hope that all countries can open the market.
The European Union has always been committed to the economic and financial integration of the euro area, so it also hopes that the EU countries can open up to each other, including some monopoly industries dominated by state-owned capital. At that time, Greece's entry into the eurozone was opposed by many countries in the European Union. To enter the eurozone smoothly, Greece had to promise to open some areas of its own country to allow foreign capital to enter, including the conditional opening of the Greek gambling industry.
The Olympic Games is a big cake for the entire gambling industry. Greece also knows that it is impossible to swallow this big cake alone. Moreover, to build an Olympic venue, Greece also borrowed a lot of money from the EU. The big gambling group pressured Greece through the EU. Therefore, the Greek government allows foreign gambling companies to enter Greece through agency sales, but the only agent is the Greek state-owned company OPAP.
For foreign gambling companies entering Greece, Greece carries out strict approval and supervision. OPAP will draw a certain fee as an agency fee for each gambling transaction. At the same time, Greece also stipulates that the purchase of foreign gambling companies' products through OPAP must be registered under an account with OPAP, you do not need to register for an account to purchase OPAP's gambling products directly.
Although there are many restrictions, there are still many people who are willing to spend more time buying products from foreign gambling companies. Many of them are tourists, especially local tourists from Europe, who are more inclined to buy products from their own countries.
...
Zhang Guan walked into the lobby of the betting station and saw that the walls were covered with LCD TVs, and the odds of the Olympic games were broadcast in real-time. At the same time, there were dozens of odds self-checking machines, some of which can check the odds of the foreign countries' gambling company.
Zhang Guan took the bank card and passport he just opened and registered at OPAP. Then he came to a self-service inquiry machine. He first checked the odds of the men's 100-meter sprint.
All the athletes who entered the Olympics with the Olympic A standard are listed. As for the B standard, it is not worth it for the gambling company to put them on. Even if they are put on, no one will buy them.
The odds of the champion are ranked from low to high. The top three are American players. The first is the defending champion and the sprinter who has broken the world record, Morris Green. After Morris Green is Sean Crawford and Justin Gatlin, Jamaican trapeze Asafa Powell ranked only fourth, the fifth is the Portuguese Francis Obic Viru, followed by the Caribbean Island Countries St Kitt and Neville Sri Lankan, Korean athlete Kim Chris and British veteran Jason Gardner are all there, and Zhang Guan's name does not appear on the first page.
The athletes ranked on the front page only listed the odds for winning the championship. They were regarded as sure to enter the finals. The athletes after that gradually listed the odds for the finals and the semi-finals.
"Where am I?" Zhang Guan kept pressing the page-turning key and finally found his name.
"Only one company gave me the odds to enter the semi-finals, and the odds are very low, only 1 to 1.2. The gambling company thinks that I can enter the semi-finals. I enter the final odds, Ladbrokes is 2 for 1; Ribo for 1 for 2.5; William Hill for 1 for 2.1; Tibo for 1 for 2.5. Hey, this Spanish company opened me to the highest, 1 for 3.3. "
Based on these data, Zhang Guan knows that the major European gambling companies are relatively optimistic about being able to enter the finals.
"Look at my odds of winning... Uh, Ladbrokes 1 loses 80, Ribo 1 loses 100, William Hill 1 loses 80, Timber 1 loses 100, this Spanish gambling company opened 1 Lose 120, and this Italian company opened 1 to lose 150! OPAP gave me the odds to win at 1:80. The Greeks are going to make a big mistake! I want to make a fortune!"
Zhang Guan was secretly happy, but looking again, from the fourth page, all athletes have the same odds as himself, ranging from 1 to 80 to 1 to 150.
"It seems that this is the highest odds offered by various gambling companies." Zhang Guan thought to himself.
Large gambling companies have an upper limit when setting the odds. The upper limit of odds given by British gambling companies is 1 to 100. Since the UK is the most developed country in the gambling industry in Europe, Western and Central Europe. Most gambling companies also refer to this British standard.
The biggest business of the gambling company is Football Lottery. Spain in southern Europe has La Liga and Italy has Serie A. The two top leagues and the Premier League also have a competitive relationship. Spain and Italy will naturally not be on par with the British in terms of odds setting. In particular, many gambling companies in Italy have the shadow of the Mafia behind them. It is not without artificial control of the game. Naturally, the odds are bolder, and they can open odds of 150 or more. Occasional odds such as the Greek OPAP company's 1 out of 200 compensation have occasionally appeared.
As for Northern Europe and Eastern Europe, they are small gambling companies, which can only be mixed in their home countries, and have little market and influence overseas.
The larger the company, the more conservative the odds are given. For example, in the World Cup in Brazil, the odds for the big gambling company to North Korea are the upper limit of 1 to 100, and the odds for some small companies to win the championship Can reach 1 to 700.
Zhang Guan began to check the odds of other games. The single-player events are almost the same. The odds of winning the top players are very low. Players who do not want to win the championship are all about 1 to 100.
In the team project, the most popular basketball championship is, of course, the American team. The second odds are the Greek men's basketball team, the Spanish men's basketball team ranked third, followed by the Argentina men's basketball team and the Italian men's basketball team, then Germany, Russia, and Cyprus Black, as for the Chinese men's basketball team, Ladbrokes' odds of winning are 1:80. Of course, the Chinese team is not the worst. The highest odds for Japan and Nigeria are 1: 100.
"The men's basketball team's performance in this Olympics is still very good. Although there is no hope of winning the championship, it has also reached the quarter-finals. It's just why the Greek men's basketball team ranked second. The Greek men's basketball team has been losing the past two years. Is it because of the host's reason, there are too many people buying, and the odds are downright?" Zhang Guan thought to himself.
The odds given by the gambling company are not static. According to different game performances, the odds will always change. Also, if the amount bought is too much, the odds will also fall. Theoretically speaking, even if the odds of 1 to 100 are paid, as long as there is enough buying, it may fall to 1:1.
"Remembering that the basketball champion of this Olympic Games will be Argentina, but Argentina has indeed performed very well in the past two years. It is not a upset, and the odds are very low. It is not profitable to buy it. Let's watch football!"
Zhang Guan started to check the odds of football.
European football has the strongest atmosphere. The annual sales of gambling in the top European leagues are tens of billions of euros, so Olympic football is not only the most concerned but also the most involved in gambling.
However, Olympic football athletes are age-restricted and cannot exceed 23 years of age. This makes many famous big-name football players miss the Olympic Games and increases the uncertainty of the Olympic football events. If you are not a senior fan, I am afraid that you will not have too much understanding of athletes under the age of 23, so the odds given by the gambling company has become the most direct way for fans to understand the strength of each team.
From the odds, the four teams of Portugal, Italy, Argentina, and Paraguay are the favorites to win the championship, but Zhang Guan did not pay attention to the odds of these strong teams but directly found an Asian team-Iraq.
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