The Pin Hoogeveen. Screenshot: The Pin
Visitors to the satirical news platform De Speld read remarkable news from Hoogeveen on Wednesday morning: from now on, the Hoogeveensche Courant also places bereavement predictions in addition to obituaries.
For that, the newspaper have entered into a partnership with betting company BetCity.
‘We are extremely proud that BetCity is now our official grief prediction partner’, the (fictional) editor-in-chief Gerben Rots tells De Speld. ‘Together with the company, we will predict twice a week who might die in the Hoogeveen area in the near future. The nice thing is: our readers can also take a chance and bet a small amount!’
In addition to the date of death, according to this belated April 1 joke, readers can also wager money on the manner of death and the location for the funeral. In addition, there is the ‘Boomerbet’, where users can bet on the number of people present at the funeral.
De Speld is not the only satirical medium that makes fun of Drenthe. For example, their colleagues from Nieuwspaal.nl have been targeting Meppel for years.