Entain PLC (LON:ENT) is expecting betting on the delayed UEFA European Championships to be at roughly twice the level seen during the World Cup in 2018.
The tournament, still billed as the 2020 championship, will kick off tomorrow and last for a month.
The global sports betting and gaming entertainment operator says UK punters have been most keen to have a flutter on the tournament, with almost half of them putting money on France to lift the trophy.
Entain noted that roughly as many UK-based punters are betting on England, which could just mean that punters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been mad keen on France’s prospects.
This lack of patriotic fervour/self-delusion (delete as applicable) follows a World Cup where just 9% of UK-based fans backed England to win the tournament.
UK punters appear to be at odds with gamblers in countries such as Belgium, Croatia, France, Spain and Germany, where the national team has tended to attract most betting interest.
Despite that, and largely because of Britain’s love of “having a flutter”, England is the second most heavily backed team to win the tournament, with 20% of punters who have bet on the tournament winner going for “Ingerlund”.
France is the punters’ favourite worldwide, with 28% of bets going on them while serial disappointers Belgium and its ageing golden generator the third favourite with 12% of bets.
Entain said 47% of bets have been on which nation will win the Euros, with the next most favoured bet being on who will win the tournament's Golden Boot. England’s Harry Kane is attracting marginally more support than the second-most backed striker, Romelu Lukaku. Lukaku is the favoured choice to win the Golden Boot of punters outside of the UK.
"Most betting will be after the tournament starts, and we expect to see roughly twice as many fans placing bets on the Euros as in the last World Cup, reflecting the growth of our business in the past three years," said Jette Nygaard-Andersen, the chief executive of Entain.