One of the main reasons that bandy is popular to bet on is that it holds similarities to other famous sports like ice hockey, football, and most especially, soccer. The game, like football, is divided into two 45-minute halves. Bandy is not as harsh as ice hockey since there is less collision between participants and no barriers to bash opponents against. Players pass, dribble, and shoot like in soccer, with play only stopped when the ball is sent out for a goal throw, corner stroke, penalty stroke, stroke in, or by the referee.
The red and blue card system maintains discipline - red means you can't play for the rest of the game, while blue is a 10-minute penalty (three Blues in the same game result in a red).
With such obvious parallels between these two games, bettors who are familiar with either soccer or hockey may translate their betting talents to bandy. Despite the early love for the game, it eventually lost most of its appeal at the expense of ice hockey and football. Bandy was too bulky of a game to follow when ice hockey relocated indoors.
However, the sport is still performed in around twenty-five nations. It is believed that 7 million individuals play bandy professionally throughout the globe. Bandy has remained popular in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Finland, and Kazakhstan, and has lately been adopted effectively in Hungary, Italy, India, Mongolia, and the United States.
In Sweden, for example, bandy is a national sport, and the yearly championship game draws 30,000 or more fans. The Swedish Elitserien is the most renowned league in the world. The Elitserien has been regarded as the peak of domestic bandy since its inception for the 2007-2008 season. Today, the greatest threat to bandy seems to be global warming. Outdoor games are becoming increasingly difficult to organize in Sweden, but less so in Russia. As a result, there is an urgent need to construct indoor bandy facilities.