Hollywoodbets and SABC Sport Gamification

Hollywoodbets and the SABC joined forces to help bring millions of South Africans the magic of the Springboks’ Rugby World Cup triumph in France as well as Bafana Bafana’s heroic third-place finish at AFCON 2023. In helping deliver these two showpiece events to the broader South African public, Hollywoodbets had a hand in shining the spotlight on some of the country’s finest athletes performing on a global stage.

Turning the tide

The likes of Teboho Mokoena and Ronwen Williams have become household names after some gallant performances in Ivory Coast for the National Team. Bafana haven’t always got the most positive press over the last few years, but they are starting to turn the tide of public opinion. A promising World Cup qualification campaign coupled with their Bronze-medal finish at AFCON has the South African football public dreaming once again.

One thing really punctuated the recently-concluded AFCON 2023 in a South African context. And that is just how competitive South African footballers – who ply their trade in the DStv Premiership – can be against some of the world’s biggest stars.

Take Ronwen Williams, for example. The Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper has been the standout no1 in the DStv Premiership for several years. Even during his time at SuperSport United, the 32-year-old was consistently competing for silverware with the Tshwane outfit before moving to their Choorklop neighbours.

And while his distribution and shot-stopping abilities are lauded, it’s his penalty-saving ability that has catapulted him into the limelight. According to Transfermarkt, he has faced a total of 58 spot-kicks in his professional career (not including penalties taken in shoot-outs). He’s saved a staggering 13 of those which works out to around 22.4% – he saves almost one in four penalties. To put that into perspective, Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois who is widely acknowledged to be one of the best shot-stoppers in the world, only has a penalty save percentage of 18.75%.

Now you can step up from 12 yards

Fancy having a pop from 12 yards out? Now you can with the Hollywoodbets-sponsored CR7 Euro Penalty Kicks game on SABC Sport. Click here to give the game a try. How high can you climb up the national leaderboard?