Scientific Games OpenBet sports book channels processed more than 177 million bets during the 2018 soccer World Cup, the company said in a press release.
The company said the high traffic in betting showcased the stability and performance of OpenBet. The number of sports bets placed per minute through the OpenBet platform for a single sportsbook operator peaked at 18,000, the company said in a press release.
The company pointed out that this year’s World Cup had several strong lines for betting interest including a high number of penalties, own goals and bettors turning to new teams as several favorites were eliminated from contention early in the tournament.
“The World Cup is an undeniably popular event with global impact, and we’re glad to see our partners perform so well,” said Keith O’Loughlin, SVP sportsbook and platforms at SG Digital in a press release. “Factors such as a favorable time zone, own nation’s participation and some of the favorites being beaten out early on have led to a great success story with our European customers, with some seeing peaks over 200 per cent as compared to a normal Premier League Saturday. In partnership with operators, SG Digital’s OpenBet ensured the scale and flex required to ensure a truly entertaining experience for the punters.”
In a related story, despite the high amount of bets, Russian bookmakers did not see a high return as heavily favored France eventually won the World Cup title.
Russian gambling analytics portal Bookmakers Rating estimated that bets worth up to $4 billion were taken in Russia during the tournament, including at illegal or unlicensed bookmakers. The country did attempt to combat unlicensed sites, reportedly blocking more than 12,000.
Early upsets in the tournament seemed to be helping legal bookmakers, but France’s predictable victory reduced the profitability to 8-9 percent as most of the handle was bet on the favorite, the report said.
All major Russian bookmakers, however, reported high betting that easily outpaced previous World Cup and championship soccer matches.
