{"id":17608,"date":"2021-05-06T15:27:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T15:27:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=17608"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:46:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:46:48","slug":"japan-online-gambling-drives-betting-on-bicycle-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-online-gambling-drives-betting-on-bicycle-races","title":{"rendered":"Japan: online gambling drives betting on bicycle races"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, bicycle racing ticket sales rose to nearly JPY750bn (US$6.9bn), a 13.6 per cent increase year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japan.- Similar to the effect seen in <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/online-betting-boosts-horseracing-bets-in-japan\">horseracing<\/a>, bicycle racing (known as Keirin) is growing in popularity in Japan due to the <strong>rise of online gambling<\/strong> during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to new data, during the last year, overall<strong>\u00a0ticket sales rose to nearly JPY750bn (US$6.9bn)<\/strong>, a 13.6 per cent increase year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Analysts say that the<strong>\u00a0possibility of watching the races from home fueled online betting<\/strong>\u00a0although some venues have been closed due to new Covid-19 countermeasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are currently\u00a0<strong>43 velodromes for <strong>bicycle racing<\/strong> in Japan<\/strong>\u00a0and most of them are operated by city governments, which use the profits to invest in the expansion of public services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/japan-horseracing-off-track-betting-facilities-suspended\">Horseracing off-track betting facilities<\/a>\u00a0have been suspended in Japan as well as the presence of spectators at races in\u00a0<strong>Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo<\/strong>\u00a0prefectures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2020, bicycle racing ticket sales rose to nearly JPY750bn (US$6.9bn), a 13.6 per cent increase year-on-year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Japan's bicycle racing (Keirin) sector experienced a significant 13.6% year-on-year increase in ticket sales, reaching JPY750bn (US$6.9bn) in 2020. This growth is primarily attributed to the surge in online gambling during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite the closure of some physical venues and suspension of off-track betting for horseracing. Profits from Keirin, largely operated by city governments, are reinvested into public services.","focusai_entities":"City governments","focusai_location":"Japan, Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (0.9), compliance_legal (0.8), operator_casino (0.85), tech_data (0.8), marketing_crm (0.85), payments_fraud_aml (0.85), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Online Growth Sustainability?","query":"What are the projections for sustained online betting growth in Japan's Keirin market post-pandemic, and what regulatory adjustments might be anticipated to manage this digital shift?"},{"label":"Public Service Funding Impact?","query":"How does the increased revenue from Keirin ticket sales, particularly from online channels, impact the funding allocation for public services by city governments, and are there plans to expand this model to other gaming verticals?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16338,158],"tags":[4138,233,23935],"class_list":["post-17608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-news","category-east-asia-news","category-slider-home","tag-online-gambling","tag-sports-betting","tag-sportsbook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17608"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17636,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17608\/revisions\/17636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}