Even though the COVID-19 pandemic caused many professional sports events around the world to be canceled or postponed, the nation’s sports lottery sales last year generated revenue of NT$40.5 billion (US$1.42 billion), thanks to a contingency plan enacted by the Sports Administration in March.
Agency statistics showed sales revenue in 2019 reached NT$41.6 billion, while the pandemic caused the revenue to drop by about 11 percent.
Sports lotteries in Japan, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, the Philippines and China all reported much larger declines in sales during the first three quarters of the year, ranging from 30 to 60 percent, the Sports Administration said.
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei Times
The US National Basketball Association (NBA) on March 12 announced that it was indefinitely postponing its games, and professional leagues around the world soon followed suit, the agency said.
That led the Sports Administration to implement a contingency plan on March 16 to minimize the pandemic’s impact on sports lottery sales.
First, it allowed people to bet on professional sports games that had not been disrupted by the pandemic, including those in Central and South America and Africa, as well as electronic sports leagues, the agency said.
Second, the reserve fund for liability was capped at NT$700 million so that people could engage in single game betting or live betting in some of the popular events, the agency said.
Third, as major professional sports leagues resumed games over the summer, contractor Taiwan Sports Lottery introduced betting schemes with higher prize payout rates, the agency said.
That move effectively made up for lost sales during the first half of the year, it said.
Between March 17 and Dec. 31, Taiwan Sports Lottery offered a total of 28,909 games for betting, creating sales revenue of NT$31.9 billion, the agency said.
More than 1,500 sports lottery retailers nationwide also benefited, receiving a total of about NT$199.77 million in commissions, it said.
“We thank the Sports Administration for enforcing the contingency plan and offering relief funds to sports lottery retailers during this difficult time. We continue to improve our service to help the nation expand the economies of scale for sports industry,” Taiwan Sports Lottery said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
RSS