Kindred reported that pre-match betting on the World Cup has risen above 50%

Kindred Group, a Swedish gambling operator, reported that, following years of development in the live betting category, pre-match activity has returned to exceed 50% of all bets in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Kindred believes this is because the World Cup has drawn a far larger client base than the business has traditionally attracted, with more casual bettors.

The Unibet operator suspected that the time zones in which the games were played may have also influenced the outcome.

Because of the schedule of the matches in Qatar, only the late games are inside European working hours, whilst all games in North America and Australia are either at night or during the work day. Customers may have been influenced to participate in pre-match betting as a result of this.

Builder of Bets

Bet builder products could also be a factor in the comeback of pre-match bets. Kindred stated that it has changed its offer selection in its bet builder platform, which has helped activity expand.

Kindred attributes the increase in bet builders among pre-match bets from the group stage to the knockout stage to clients choosing multiple-like bets with a decreased frequency of matches. In addition, bet builders accounted for 29% of all legs in Kindred's World Cup bets.

"The product is particularly popular for teams with a high number of football players, like as Brazil and France, because the huge names draw users' attention to the player props, which are included in 45% of all Bet Builders and are the third most popular bet type," Kindred explained. "The under/over lines are the most popular bet type in the Bet Builder, appearing in two-thirds of all Bet Builders, with the 12 coming in a close second."

Betting on the World Cup

Many bookmakers anticipate that the tournament will be the most important betting event of the year. Leading online retailer Flutter indicated prior to the competition that it expected to stake £300 million on its UK and Ireland brands alone.

Because the United States and Australia qualified for the World Cup, the company expected that engagement in its FanDuel and Sportbet brands would increase.

"The World Cup is without a doubt the largest betting event of the year, and everyone at Flutter shares our clients' excitement as the tournament begins," said Flutter group chief trading officer Dom Crosthwaite.

By fLEXI tEAM