Most Bets Placed on Croatian Matches at 2018 World Cup in Russia

(HNS)

Over €136 billion was bet on all matches in the 2018 FIFA World Cup with Croatia having the highest turnover per match. 

Games which Croatia played in during the tournament attracted the most money from bets from all the other teams, according to a betting analysis.

“Following the conclusion of the 21st edition of the FIFA World Cup, an analysis of betting turnover was carried out by FIFA and Sportradar. This analysis found that total global betting turnover for the tournament was an estimated €136 billion and no match manipulation behaviour was detected,” FIFA announced.

Bettors seemed to flock to Croatia’s matches and were likely a very profitable team for bookmakers globally. 

“The average match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia had an estimated global betting turnover of €2.1 billion with the final, between Croatia and France, generating an estimated €7.2 billion in betting turnover worldwide. Croatia had the highest average betting turnover per match,” FIFA explained. 

€7.2 billion in betting turnover for the final (HNS)

Croatia was fruitful for a number of reasons, including being the underdog in their victories against Argentina and England, and their Round of 16, Quarter and Semi Final matches all being decided during extra time or by penalty shootouts as 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.

Croatia was underdogs against Argentina (HNS)

“Following an in-depth, qualitative analysis of the overall volume and movement odds within the betting market, no matches at the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia were found to be suspicious of match manipulation or betting fraud,” FIFA concluded.