For the 2018 event, Arjel said €381m was wagered with its 12 locally licensed online sports betting operators, while a further €309m was wagered with the 27,000 points of sale of the Française des Jeux (FDJ) retail betting monopoly. FDJ separately claimed that its total retail/online World Cup betting handle was €333m.
The World Cup’s group stage matches generated betting handle of €363m, while the later rounds attracted €310m, with the remaining €17m attributed to prop wagers (ultimate tournament winner, top scorer, etc.).
It will probably come as no surprise that the final match between Croatia and the eventual winners France attracted the highest betting volume of any single match, and it wasn’t even close. The €67.2m wagered on that match was nearly twice the second-highest match volume of €35.2m on France’s semi-final against Belgium.
All told, the French team’s seven matches attracted total betting handle of nearly €180m, more than one-quarter of the tournament’s overall handle.
Source: GMB / Calvin Ayre
