Yearender: Soccer Lottery Makes Successful Debut in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Yearender: Soccer Lottery Makes Successful Debut in China

Soccer lottery is new to Chinese. As the betting fever spread quickly across the country, the traditional daily greetings of many people have changed from "Did you have your meal?" to "Did you buy the soccer lottery?"
Since the Soccer Lottery was introduced following the national team's historic victory in October, more than 40 millionaires have emerged.

China's qualification for the World Cup soccer finals means more than pride for Chinese fans. Since the Soccer Lottery was introduced following the national team's historic victory in October, more than 40 millionaires have emerged.

Soccer lottery is new to Chinese. As the betting fever spread quickly across the country, the traditional daily greetings of many people have changed from "Did you have your meal?" to "Did you buy the soccer lottery?"

It's not all about money

The first round of the official betting began on October 22. A lottery ticket sells two yuan (24 cents), allowing buyers to predict wins, losses and draws in nine matches of Italy's Series A competition and four matches of the English Premier League. The first prizes are for those who get all 13 results right. Those who guess 12 matches correctly win the second prizes.

"It is not only based on luck. It requires the knowledge of foreign soccer," said Wang Jing, a self-claimed "super fan" of Italian soccer for over 10 years.

"I like it because I feel in control of the game. In the Sports Lottery, you just pick numbers randomly and depend totally on luck, " he said.

Xie Lei, a middle school teacher in Beijing, said: "The soccer lottery makes me keep track of my favorite foreign leagues and I may win money through my hobby - watching games on TV."

Why not bet on domestic soccer

"But when can we bet on our Chinese soccer matches?" asked Xie, also interested in domestic soccer.

The China Sports Lottery Administration (CSLA) said the current betting on foreign leagues is just a "warm-up" for the betting on the Chinese professional league next year.

Sun Jinfang, director of CSLA, listed the inappropriate season and the infant Chinese league as major reasons to postpone betting on the domestic league.

"The time of the Italian and English soccer leagues is ideal for the current betting while Chinese league usually runs from March to November," she said.

"We will definitely bet on the Chinese first division league sooner or later as long as our league becomes more mature. The overall environment is not ready for betting right now," added the former world volleyball championship player.

The Lottery Byelaw, which is to be released soon and the Law of Lottery, which is in the cradle, are believed the key elements for the betting on the domestic professional league.

"Only after the related laws being launched, the national league betting can be put on the table. The laws regulate the clubs, soccer players and lottery buyers," Sun said.

However, many people believed the matching-fixing which has long plagued China's professional leagues is the real reason that CSLA put off the betting on domestic soccer.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) handed out a series of tough punishments to five second division sides for match-fixing early October, a few days before the pioneering betting was launched.

The five clubs were accused of complicity in allowing baseball- style scores to be run up in the last two weeks of the second division season from late September, as teams tried to grab promotion spots or avoid relegation.

The coaches involved had their licenses revoked for one year while teams were banned from fielding new non-foreign players for two years for "playing games passively" while players who took part in the suspicious matches were banned for a year and barred from transferring to a new club for two years.

The CFA report said the five teams "lacked the spirit of fair play and "tarnished the image of Chinese soccer".

It is also said that the CFA and CSLA fear of illegal force manipulating the controversial professional league if the betting on national league goes too early.

"Our seven-year-old soccer league is still an infant," said CSLA chief Sun Jinfang.

A giant business in future

According to the government's lottery research center, the market for lotteries in China will reach 84 billion yuan (10.12 billion U.S. dollars) by 2010, a massive five-fold increase on last year's sales.

Lottery has expanded in the country since the state-controlled Welfare Lottery was introduced in 1987 and the Sports Lottery in the 1990s.

It is expected to have 30 billion yuan lotteries issued this year, doubled that of 2000 but the lottery research center said that Chinese on average spends six yuan each year on the lottery, the amount placing 97th in the world.

The Ministry of Finance announced 30 percent of the profits of soccer and sports lotteries go to fund sports, including the 2008 Olympics and other sports-related matters while 50 percent for prize rewarding and 20 percent for lottery promotion cost.

The Soccer Lottery has collected 685 million yuan so far with a record 15,756 people winning the first prize and 285,557 fans the second prize in the sixth round of lottery on December 10.

"We are confident that the Soccer Lottery will become a giant business in China very soon," Sun said.

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