Do Online Casinos Wagers Drop during the World Cup?

As we gear up for the World Cup in Moscow, we’re all very focused on football. This is a very big time for sports betting sites, but does this impact the number of wagers elsewhere? Let’s take a look at the facts and figures to find out!

Participation in Online Gambling

During the World Cup, gambling on football reaches a fever pitch. It’s really not surprising that this is the case, as we see adverts and sponsorships all geared towards the big matches. With everyone from Pringles to Coca Cola using the tournament as their advertising campaign, most football fans eat, sleep and dream about the World Cup.

While they watch the football, the games are interspersed by advertisements for betting sites and sponsorships of shirts and grounds. This is a fuel for players to get involved and using promotions. This creates a buzz around the industry, in which 70% of all gambling bets are based on football, according to analysis from the BBC.

Within this pool of players, many of them also play on casino games too. This means that their wagers will be split between football and casino during the World Cup. With so many football themed promotions and the prominence of this on television, it makes sense that they will spend more on this genre.

Analysis suggests that the average bettor spends £25 or less on gambling in a month. This isn’t a massive amount, but there are outliers that spend a lot more than this. For those that tend to bet conservatively for most of the year, the World Cup can represent a chance to really splash out.

This may mean they spend more money, instead of splitting their bets between sports and casino. They may also structure their time to bet on certain matches and play on casino games in between times. For this reason, we see many casino sites offering both, with promotions that make the most of their active bettors during this period.

Clever Promotions in Casinos

Casinos can actually use this to their advantage, if they create relevant and timely promotions. We’ve seen a lot of these over the years and they can inspire sports bettors to split their cash more towards the casino side. Many sportsbooks also have a casino section these days, which they can use to cross sell to sports bettors.

There are games that can be used for this, such as football themed slots which is a casino game. This is an easy sell for a sports fan, as they’re able to branch out from sports betting while they wait for new matches to begin. If you’re an avid casino player, you’ll find that many of these football games gain top prominence during this time too.

This all creates a more cohesive environment for the bettor to switch from sports betting to casino while still being retained by the site. The only demand on players from there is whether they have the time to play on both, in which case wagers may dip in the casino sector as it’s just not as timely.