This year’s World Cup is likely to have been the most betting company-friendly in recent history, according to a report from City Bet Club.
The tipster service, founded by betting industry veterans, stated that the Qatar-based tournament has quite possibly been the best ever in terms of margin for bookies, with not a single day during the group stages seeing all favourites winning their games.
David Brown, Co-founder of City Bet Club, said: “In reflecting on this year’s World Cup, and taking my personal industry experience of every tournament since Argentina 1978 into account, this is by far the most bookie-friendly competition in terms of results that I’ve ever known.
“I’m also picking up whispers from around the industry that ‘like for like’ turnover is down significantly on Russia 2018 levels. Now, part of this could be down to the results and timing, but it is also likely to be an effect of the compliance hoops both bookmakers and punters must go through now.”
Operators saw significant revenue netted far earlier than usual in the competition, with early shocks such as Saudi Arabia beating Argentina, Germany’s defeat to Japan and Tunisia overcoming France.
Higher than expected revenue for bookmakers was compounded further with multiple 90-minute draws during the knockout rounds.
The group highlighted that as a result of this, the World Cup is likely to point towards a significant margin-win for betting operators, and early-stage wipe-outs for many punters.
However, with a finite spend for bettors, City Bet Club also predicts that turnover levels will have been ‘significantly impacted’ during the knockout stages of the tournament, with publicly listed operators’ January 2023’s earnings reports likely to downgrade many financial analysts’ expectations.
Brown concluded: “All eyes are now on the return of the Premier League. City Bet Club can really help to empower recreational punters with pro punter insight. We complete this research so that our members don’t have to, and we can’t wait to keep fueling a high level of sports betting engagement in the new year.”
