All comes down to this: betting patterns from big tournament finals

Fans are just about getting ready to pack for the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar to root for their favourite team, the facilities in Qatar are going through final touch-ups, and the world’s most incredible football players are pumped and ready to play.

In previous posts, we covered betting patterns, what you can expect from new, casual bettors, and how to win the tournament with nothing more than your betting app. This time we wanted to look at how players bet on the final. To do that, we dove deep into our extensive historical data to find some interesting bits.

World Cup 2018 versus Euro 2020

We pulled historical data from recent peak football events which means tens of millions of player touchpoints during the previous World Cup in 2018 and the recent Euro 2020. The data shows that the average bet amount per player has risen during the world’s last two major football events.

From the World Cup 2018 to Euro 2020, there has been an increase of 17% in average bet amount on the final and 34% on all the other tournament games (group games and knockout stages).

Bets placed on the 2018 World Cup Final were 63% higher than any other game during that tournament, and there was a 42% increase in the average bet amount during the Euro 2020 Final.

Average bet amount

Bet amount spikes during Finals

Will it shock you if we said the Final match drives higher betting sums? Probably not. Your gut feeling is absolutely right. But as always, it’s good to back that hunch with hard data and understand players’ behaviour during these past events.

The average bet size during UEFA Euro 2020 was $12.36 during all regular games, but the average bet amount during the Final was an impressive $17.59. That’s quite the spike.

In the FIFA World Cup 2018, the average bet amount during all regular games was $9.20, and the Final? The sum ballooned to a $15 average bet size.

The value of an average bet on a regular game versus average bet on Final

For sportsbook operators, the numbers paint a clear picture: players love betting on the World Cup, particularly on the Final. Use these insights to create effective campaigns.

In the mobile versus desktop final, mobile won big

Once again, your hunch is probably spot on. Mobile betting is growing; desktop is shrinking. Takeaway? Focus your pre-match and live betting efforts during the Final on mobile; this is where the action is, big time. Fifty-two percent of total bets during the finals were placed using mobile devices, and during UEFA Euro 2020, a massive 74% of bets were placed on mobile. It’s fair to assume that the 2022 Final will put both to shame.

Number of bets per platform

The Final is the icing on your World Cup cake

The secret to winning the tournament for any national team is to peak at the right time, which is the Final. The secret for marketing teams? The exact same thing. Of course, the Final is just one match, so you must get it right. Use the tournament to enhance your understanding of what’s working. Is mobile up from previous tournaments? Is the average bet amount affected by economic uncertainty? Use these insights in your Final game plan.

Optimove is the leading CRM marketing platform, empowering brands to personalise CRM journeys at scale with customer insights, AI-led orchestration and all the channels they need in one place. With a CDP at its core, Optimove leverages AI to autonomously surface valuable customer segments, orchestrate self-optimising CRM journeys and accurately deliver the marketing interaction of highest incremental impact across email, mobile, web and more.

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