As the quarter-finals of the first winter World Cup beckon, the two days without games have given us time to reflect and analyse what we’ve seen at the halfway stage of an unpredictable tournament with plenty of twists and turns.
Firstly, a big tournament is always a fun, hectic and exciting time to be working at Kindred. This has been amplified this year with the launch of our improved Unibet Bet Builder and a new landing page just in time for the year’s biggest event. One of the new features that has been delivered with the new landing page is a top picks lobby, where our customers can also see who their fellow countrymen are backing to win, which is a fun insight during such a big tournament with many feelings and sympathies involved.
Bet Builder is booming
The improved selection of bet offers in the Bet Builder has been very well received by our customers. The pre-match activity has increased by 35 per cent from the group stage to the knock stage, which is more than twice the rise compared to the EUROs. The real strength of the product comes to shine as the tournament progresses leaving fewer matches to place a classic combination bet on by the round. The Bet Builder has accounted for 29 per cent of all legs in the customers World Cup bets.
The product is particularly popular for teams with many football stars like Brazil and France, as the big names drags the customers attention towards the player props, which are included in 45 per cent of all Bet Builders and the 3rd most popular bet type. The most popular bet type in the Bet Builder is the under / overlines, which are found in 2/3 of all Bet Builders, while the 1x2 is very close 2nd.
Pre-match is regaining popularity
A trend that is being enforced by the Bet Builder is the growth prematch betting vs. live. After many years of growth in the live segment, we are now seeing the pre match activity increasing again in football and the pre match acitivty is now back above 50 per cent.. The trend becomes very clear during a big event like the World Cup where we attract a much broader customer base.
The time zone also makes a difference with only the late match being played outside European working hours, while all matches are played during the night or working hours in North America and Australia.
Backing the underdogs
The many upsets during the tournament have led to an interesting change in betting behaviour, as customers have started to back the underdogs to a much larger extent than usual. This has even left us in the unusual position of cheering some favourites on when they have gone down a goal. This is something we otherwise only experience in politics or one-off events like a celebrity boxing match.
Looking at the teams that have been most backed we find France with 31per cent of all bets, while Brazil, Argentina and Portugal are all tied for 2nd at 11 per cent each. However, Morocco emerged as favorable underdog to back for winning the entire tournament. Can they go all the way? They would certainly be a popular team in Qatar, with a lot of local support!
Payout on our biggest promotion ever?
The backing of the underdog is only true for the neutral fan, as we still see the local national teams being heavily backed in their home markets and especially the Dutch seems to be gaining faith in the teams’ chances of going all the way. Should the Netherlands go all way, then we will be paying out €5.000.000 for all our Dutch customers who have participated in the promotion to share, which would be an early Christmas present that we will be happy to give this year.
