Q&A: Sportradar on Euro 2024’s triple-digit growth compared with the 2020 edition

EGR: Did you notice a dip in markets when host nation Germany were knocked out this year compared to four years ago when the tournament was held across multiple countries? 

Darren Small (DS): Germany weren’t insignificant, but they just weren’t right at the top of those totals. Whereas England and France were, and as teams, both were particularly poor in terms of their scoring ability and entertainment on the field. We didn’t see any change in Germany other than the fact we actually saw quite a bit of interest in Spain when they met in the quarter-finals. A lot of punters were really backing Spain at that stage to beat Germany.

EGR: Was that the same for 2020, in terms of there being a particular market players bet on? 

DS: No. Between the two tournaments we saw quite a significant growth between 2020 and 2024 and that’s partly made up of inflation and the growth of our business. However, it was very different in terms of the tournaments and how they played out. We saw a lot of results that went the way of the punter in the group stages. The group stages were actually a little bit horrific in terms of the results for our sportsbooks, which meant that the customers had a fair bit of money and confidence going into the knockout stages.

Whereas in Euro 2024, we saw the complete opposite bar the first three games. All the rest of them were pretty tough going for the punters as there were lots of draws. We saw 13 score draws in the competition and 19 draws in total, which meant that the punters went into the knockout stages a bit safer and a guarded about what they were going to do next. Although we saw a 200% increase in the trading from 2020 to 2024, from semi-final to final we only saw a 100% increase. We felt that there was a much more defensive position of the punter going into those last three games than there was in the previous stages of the competition.

EGR: You mentioned performance between 2020 and 2024. Looking at the figures there were huge increases in bets at 172%, turnover at 191$ and profit at 142%. You previously mentioned inflation as a reason but what else was a key reason for the change?

DS: In between then and now, growth of the number of customers we service during that period of managed turn has been on a very good trajectory, which will partly contribute to that. The industry as a whole, and most of the leaders in the industry, would have seen significant improvements from 2020 to 2024.

EGR: Why do you think bet builders were so popular throughout tournaments like Euro 2024?

DS: They’re good soundbite bets. People talk about them and if you listen to a lot of podcasts, particularly sporting ones around football, they tend to drive a lot of these ‘in the bar’ type bets and discussions. Sometimes because they’re sponsored to do so but other times, just because it’s general discussion. They’re also part of how the consumer tends to look at the game.

Although the biggest turnover from our perspectives are the core markets, which are who wins the match, like the 1X2 and totals, both teams to score, etc, talking about those things in the pub or among your friends aren’t that interesting. But talking about Harry Kane scoring in the first half and Bellingham in the second half, England winning 2-1 and there being 15 corners, that is just a really fun way to talk about the event.

EGR: With profit increasing 142% between Euro 2020 and Euro 2024, what was behind that growth?

DS: From what we’ve seen, the main big results were from France, Belgium and England in the group stages. For example, England failing to beat Slovenia [0-0] was significant. Slovakia defeating Belgium was probably the biggest shock in the tournament and actually resulted in the biggest return from our bookmakers. Those were quite notable. And what was more notable was the final Golden Boot standings finished with six players tied for three goals. It’s never been a runaway competition for the Euros but that was quite significant, having so many players on the same goal tally. Kylian Mbappe only scored one goal, one of the big guns, Cristiano Ronaldo scored no goals and if you look at his statistics, he was probably due to score four [goals] based upon the number of chances that were created for him.

There was a big shock in terms of that under-delivery, and it was reflected in the way that the customers bet. They actually bet upon Ronaldo and Mbappe to be lead goalscorers and it didn’t fall their way. The three-way result didn’t help people backing Harry Kane to be top goalscorer because it means that they didn’t get paid out anywhere near as much as they would have hoped. But we then look at the performances in the final three matches and they were the three worst results combined for us in the competition. All three results were negative for us. We had both teams scoring, over two-and-a-half goals, a favourite going on and winning which turned what could have been quite a high return, percentage wise, into a very good return, but still not as high as we would have been only a week before those three results came in.

EGR: Overall, how positive was Euro 2024 for operators?

DS: The results that we had, even after the final, with the favourites winning and England scoring as well as Spain, and three goals in the game […] even after those results, this was still a really good result from a bookmaking perspective. I can’t imagine many bookmakers having it too different to the way that we perceived it because of the size of the managed trade services and what we’re doing. We’re talking about a 13.5% margin on the actual tournament, which is an excellent return for a single tournament. We probably overperformed our theoretical hold by about 20%, so it was a really strong return. If we look at the way 2020 rolled out, it was almost a great way for a tournament to roll out from a bookmaking perspective. You give a lot of customers confidence. You give them the wins early. You keep them happy. Everything’s spinning, everyone’s really happy and then as the competition rolls down, you still walk out with about the same type of profit, but the makeup is slightly different.