Across all major football events this year, including the UEFA Champions League, the current UEFA Euro 2024 Championship Finals have surpassed all others by nine percentage points, according to the SOFTSWISS Sportsbook, with a betting margin of 17.3%.
The most popular betting markets are the match winners and total goals scored, with the latter having a margin of 15.5%.
Alexander Kamenetskiy, Head of SOFTSWISS Sportsbook, says: “This data suggests that bettors are primarily interested in straightforward, outcome-based wagers and performance-based metrics.
“These markets are likely attractive to bettors because they are simple and easy to understand. However, despite their straightforward nature, the high margins indicate that predicting the outcomes can be challenging.”
As of the conclusion of the Group Stage, the Top 5 margin matches were Netherlands vs France, Belgium vs Slovakia, Austria vs France, Denmark vs England and Netherlands vs Austria.
These matches can be analysed further to understand the factors contributing to their high profitability, such as unexpected outcomes, high margins on certain types of bets, or significant deviations from public expectations.
Interestingly, three of these matches also ranked among the Top 5 by number of bets placed, which were Austria vs France, Netherlands vs France, Germany vs Hungary, Spain vs Italy and Belgium vs Slovakia. Such high public interest is likely due to popularity of the teams, star players or historical rivalries.
The majority of bets (77%) were placed via mobile devices, confirming an ongoing trend, and combination bets account for 40% of all bets, with a margin 4x higher than single bets. Despite the average single bet being twice the amount of a combo bet, the higher margin on combo bets makes them crucial for profitability.
Alexander Kamenetskiy adds: “The difference between tournaments of this level and others is the high number of new bettors, who bet only on the Euros and then stop until the next World Cup.
“This is why operators carefully design introductory bonus programs, showing new players all their available features.
“And since combination bets have far higher margins, encouraging them through special offers or loyalty rewards can be very profitable.”
The SOFTSWISS Sportsbook team has introduced a FREE resource for businesses planning to start a sports betting venture, the Sportsbook Budget Calculator, which you can find the HERE
