Paddy Power taking Street Fighter bets

By Kyle Orland Published 27 April, 2010

Could set a new trend, reckons bookmaker.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has started taking bets on an upcoming Super Street Fighter IV bout.

The best-of-three match, set to take place Thursday evening at Capcom's European headquarters, will pit 1/3 favorite Ryan Hart against 2/1 underdog Femi Adeboye. Paddy Power says it's the first time public wagering has been allowed for a gaming competition.

According to Capcom, the event marks an important step towards "recognising the game as a legitimate spectator event, as fiercely contested as any sanctioned boxing match".

Paddy Power has promised to open up other videogame competitions to wagering if this initial bout proves popular with betters.

Hart has reportedly won 450 of the 700 fighting game tournaments he's entered since 1994. He is well known in fighting game circles for his 2009 Capcom UK and Capcom European titles, and for his recent record-setting defeat of 169 straight Street Fighter IV challengers (he also plays a mean game of Tekken).

Abedoye, who goes by the moniker F-Word in the fighting game arena, is less well known, but you can scope out his skills in an impressive Rufus/Vega match on YouTube.

Comments (16) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • feistycheese #1 2 years ago

    Paddy Power cant get you that ridiculous bet on Vega back, but we can get you your money back . . .

    This week Paddy Power will refund all losing bets if I ever manage to beat Gouken on hard . . .

  • Cpt.Hindsight Verified Certification Project Lead, Electronic Arts #2 2 years ago

    @EarlBassett http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7cW2nMf1...

    Truely is the stuff of legends!

  • pacifika #3 2 years ago

    must mean they think sf4 is balanced well then, unlike my impressions.

  • mcwildcard #4 2 years ago

    I once beat Ryan Hart with a perfect in the first round on a game of KoF '96. I don't recall what happened in the rest of the match *ahem*

  • AllenSpawn #5 2 years ago

    Lost some serious money betting on mario kart 64 with my mates( damn their lucky lightnings).

    Won it all back and more on pro evo tho:)

    There should be more betting on games..... FIFA or pro evo would be perfect spectator betting.... I know our mates used to get right into us betting £20 a pop on mario kart.

  • RobotRocker #6 2 years ago

    must mean they think sf4 is balanced well then, unlike my impressions.

    SF4 is really well balanced. The only characters with really bad match-ups are Fei-Long and Dan (Because he's Dan) and even "low tier" characters can be leathal in the right hands. Try youtube-ing Combofiend's Abel, Sanford's Cammy, Valle's Sakura or Mike Ross's Honda. Some players are finding a lot of Gen and Fuerte tricks as well. Hell, for fun. J.Wong's Fei is beastly.

    If SSF4 brings everyone up to scratch (and it seems so, T.Hawk is apparently lethal and the only one that might not be amazing is Hakan but Hakan has some sick tricks like his super delay and Oil Combination Hold is one of the quickest and near unstoppable Ultras in the game) it would certainly be a balanced game.

    Of course, the other recourse is to stop sucking and stop playing flowchart ken :p

  • chrisola #7 2 years ago

    The EVO championships streamed live from USA last year, was pretty good to watch the fights with commentary. It wasn't just SF IV it had a few other games that streamed aswell.

    I wonder if the gaming TV channel on sky will ever come back, i rememebr seeing a Team Fortress Classic match on it once (long ago!)

  • rudedudejude #8 2 years ago

    I hope they win a Golden Joystick

  • BoffBoff #9 2 years ago

    @ #10: I know RushHD (Channel 460/472 or something like that) have had a few gaming programs on there in the past.

  • Ranger101 #10 2 years ago

    Hmmm, I'm going to be in the gym opposite Capcom on thursday... I wonder if I could pop in.

  • Ranger101 #11 2 years ago

    I watched a mean J. Wong Dan take on Mike Ross' Sagat yesterday, live on GameTrailers Hour One event. J.Wong devestated him. Dan really is mid-tier in Super.

  • RobotRocker #12 2 years ago

    I watched a mean J. Wong Dan take on Mike Ross' Sagat yesterday, live on GameTrailers Hour One event. J.Wong devestated him. Dan really is mid-tier in Super.

    Wong has become a monster in general though. He used to be boring as shit to watch at evo since he tended to turtle and play footsies/use pokes a lot. Then he switched to Marvel and became so much more aggressive and better that really made him a beast at SF4 (Even with Diago's complaints its a much more aggressive game than 3S and SSF4 ups the offensive play more).

    If I can still cancel Super Taunt into Ultra to catch Ken scrubs, I will rotate Dan in Super. I love the goofy bastard.

  • Boomerang #13 2 years ago

    This thread (and posts like that ^) make me safe in the knowledge that i'm not THAT geeky :)

  • RobotRocker #14 2 years ago

    @ Boomerang

    Competition slang is not hard to pick up and Capcom is integrating it into the game. You don't have to be geeky to pick up competition SF either.

    Play To Win™ :p

  • Nephirion #15 2 years ago

    Is Power his real surname? if so thats awesome ...

  • kingmong #16 2 years ago

    @Nephirion: it's a very common name in the south east of ireland