Italian Olympic betting up 83% on Beijing
Volleyball edges out football as the most popular sport for online betting.
More than 19.7m was bet online on the London Olympics by Italian punters, contributing to a total turnover, including retail, of 42.1m, an increase of 83% on the Beijing games four years ago.
Volleyball edged out football as the most popular sport in online bets placed, with the two sports recording 5.8m and 5m respectively, although the latter came out on top when offline bets were taken into consideration.
The disparity may have been affected by the fact that Italy’s men’s and women’s football teams failed to qualify, while the country’s men’s volleyball team won bronze at the London games.
Only two other sports, tennis (2.9m) and basketball (2.6m) generated more than one million Euros in online bets, while the 130,490 wagered on Italy’s gold medal match defeat against Croatia helped water polo record fifth place.
The London Olympics compared favourably to Beijing in the overwhelming majority of sports, with only five: rowing, pentathlon, fencing, triathlon and tennis, recording a decline.
The 19.7m online total is comparable to that of France, where 19.2m was wagered on the games, but naturally lower than the estimated £80-100m (101.7-127.2m) bet in the host country.