Euro 136 billion wagered on FIFA World Cup football

FIFA and its service provider Sportradar have announced that the World Cup football championship held in Russia earlier this year generated wagers of Euro 136 billion in total, and that there were no incidents of “suspicious behaviour”.

Figurers presented by the football governing body show that the average match had an estimated global betting turnover of Euro 2.1 billion with the final, between Croatia and France, generating an estimated Euro 7.2 billion in betting turnover worldwide.

In a statement this week, FIFAS observed:

“Croatia had the highest average betting turnover per match, and in all likelihood, would have been a very profitable team for bookmakers globally with:

Opening odds of around 34.0;
Being the underdog in their victories against Argentina and England;

Round of 16, Quarter and Semi Final matches all being decided during extra time or by penalty shootout. Since bookmakers settle all match winner bets based upon the result after 90 minutes, the three draws in those matches would have been the least favoured by bettors;

Besides various measures taken by FIFA to prevent and address potential situations of risk associated with match manipulation prior and during the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, the competition was closely monitored for any instance of suspicious betting patterns around matches, in order to preserve fairness for fans, players and the tournament itself. Sportradar’s Fraud Detection System monitored over 550 betting operators worldwide, generating some alerts during the competition, which are easily explained by markets adjusting the opening odds after the first match or two were played.”

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