Where have you gone, Evgeni Malkin? Local bettors turn to obscure Russian hockey league

Even while all major North American team sports are shut down because of the coronavirus, Pittsburgh continues to add to its reputation as a hockey town.

While gamblers usually would be making wagers on the NBA and NHL playoffs and the early part of the MLB season at this time of year, they’ve been reduced to betting on whatever sports happen to still be playing.

That means obscure endeavors such as Ukrainian pingpong, Belarussian soccer and Russian short-game ice hockey.

Rush Street Interactive, the company that oversees BetRivers.com, the online arm of the Rivers Casino’s sportsbook, has noticed regional preferences developing in the wagers they receive.

New Jersey enjoys soccer. Indiana prefers pingpong.

And Pittsburgh loves ice hockey, even if it’s the short-game Russian variety, in which teams with names like Reaktivatori and Broneboytsy square off in games consisting of three 10-minute periods.

“Pittsburgh is a hockey town,” said Mattias Stetz, COO of Rush Street Interactive. “Even whenever the major sports are on, we saw differences between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, for example, even though it’s the same state. Hockey is proportionally bigger in Pittsburgh. Basketball was proportionally bigger in Philadelphia.

“The Pittsburgh public is most familiar with hockey and has had a lot of success in recent years, not so recent as well. I think that has (a lot) to do with it.”

While brick-and-mortar casinos are suffering the financial effects of being closed since March 15, their affiliated online sportsbooks have been able to at least keep their heads above water. Stetz said his company has avoided furloughing employees so far.

The main reason for that is the presence of online casino games. Western Pennsylvanians who can’t visit the Rivers, Meadows or Lady Luck casinos can play slot machines, video poker and table games on their phones.

But wagering on offbeat sports, surprisingly, has been somewhat popular.

“If you would have asked me two months ago what sport would be No. 1 across our network, I probably wouldn’t have bet on pingpong if I had a hundred different options to choose from,” Stetz said.

Stetz has identified one factor making odd sports popular among gamblers: As soon as it became clear traditional sports would be on hold, his company pursued streaming rights for as many pingpong, tennis and hockey leagues as possible.

Bettors can place a wager and watch the match in the same place.

“We have a decent menu of live sports compared to ESPN right now,” Stetz said.

To a bit of ballyhoo, ESPN this week began showing live broadcasts of Korea Baseball League games. While the games cracked the top 10 of most wagered-on events online, Stetz didn’t expect they would make a big difference to the overall handle.

That’s because games start between 1 and 5:30 a.m. in the Eastern time zone. Russia short-game hockey, conversely, starts in the evening on the East Coast.

Stetz expects the return of the UFC, which was scheduled to run three shows in Jacksonville, Fla., between Saturday and May 16, to make a much larger impact.

Under normal circumstances, he said, a Conor McGregor fight might be the most bet-upon event on a day’s gambling menu.

Under these circumstances, he predicted Saturday night’s UFC 249 card could have the largest handle of any mixed martial arts event in the website’s history.

“People,” he said in the understatement of the year, “are hungry for live sports.”