The Bookies Expect Online and Mobile Betting to Shine During the World Cup

United Kingdom sportsbooks are looking forward to World Cup expecting online betting to beat land-based for the first time.

The World Cup in Brazil is just a week away and the excitement is growing by the hour. Surely fans are expecting their teams and players to perform to the best of their abilities. But punters are really looking forward to making money from betting on the World Cup.

This year’s World Cup is expected to beat all records when it comes to mobile betting. Online sportsbooks have been growing steadily and are now eating away profits from land-based shops, but the new craze is mobile wagering. And now with huge numbers of mobile penetration in all parts of the world the smartphones and tablets are regarded as main tools for wagering on World Cup.

Betting in Britain

There’s a huge number of punters who bet on sports in the United Kingdom, the country’s bookmaking market is extremely well-developed with bettors enjoying all sorts of option to place their money on sports. This year’s World Cup will be crucial to betting operators targeting the UK population.

British bookmakers expect huge profits from World Cup betting
 
• Online sportsbooks in United Kingdom will overtake land-based shops

• Mobile and live betting will play an important part in revenues this year

• Some bookies expect their turnover to double compared to 2010 World Cup

The recent changes to British gambling laws now require all foreign-based operators to be licensed in the country in case they want to reach and advertise to the local population. These changes have long been advocated by UK bookmakers who rightfully felt that off-shore operators were paying fewer taxes, but were profiting on the same levels as locally-registered operations.

Now, the online betting market has been leveled in the UK, and the bookies are now facing tougher regulations and tax regimes. One of the main options to gain competitive advantage left for bookmakers is having their mobile offering up-to-date with the current trends. Mobile betting apps will be used not only by professional gamblers in 2014, but casual and beginner bettors as well.

Majority of the big operators do offer mobile betting services to their clients. Most of them regularly update the betting apps, compatible with a wide range of current mobile devices. Whoever is not investing enough in the mobile wagering sector will be at a disadvantage.

What are the bookies counting on during the upcoming World Cup

Terry Pattinson, the Trading Director for one of the biggest UK bookmakers, William Hill, revealed that for the first time ever the operator is expecting to make more money online than from high-street betting shops during the World Cup.

Currently, around half of Will Hill’s profits comes from horse racing betting, with football profits still lagging behind. But of course during the World Cup the situation will change drastically. And while lots of patrons will still make their way to betting shops to have a chat with their mates over World Cup matches, there will be a much more significant number of bettors placing their wagers online both in pre-match markets and on live betting events.

As for the mobile betting, William Hills application has already crossed the magic mark of 2 million downloads and is growing on a daily basis. The operator is expecting to more than double their turnover from the digital wing compared to 2010 World Cup. Thanks to the popularity of their mobile app, the expected turnover will grow to a whopping GBP 200 million figure.

Here’s what Pattinson had to share with the media: “In play betting has been the biggest growth aspect from William Hill online over the last four years and it’s about half of what our sports book is right now, back four years ago it was about half of our sportsbook. Most of the popular bet types are around players, whether they score goals, get yellow or red cards. How many corners in a match. It’s about action.”