Vegas Online Casino Weekly

Sportsbooks around the world especially in Europe have seen record-breaking levels of betting throughout this year’s World Cup soccer tournament. The FIFA World Cup has been an unparalleled success so far. There were apprehensions about host nation Russia’s capability of running a tournament of this magnitude in a smooth manner, but they have unquestionably exceeded all expectations. The World Cup only comes around once every four years and is always exceedingly anticipated as a significant amount of money is ventured on the given games. People in England, for example, are likely to wager about £2.5bn ($3.3bn) during this year’s World Cup – an increase of 50% compared to 2014.

World Cup gamesters in France are also setting new records, with punters wagering more than £321m ($427m) in the group stages alone. This figure not only doubles what was betted on the group stages in 2014, but it also surpasses the amount bet by French punters on the entire 2014 World Cup. There does seem to be a growing trend of sports betting in France. The 2016 UEFA European Championships, held throughout the French, saw £263m ($350m) wagered during this entire tournament. Retail sports betting in France is currently run by the state monopoly Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), which has 27,000 different outlets of sale across the country.

Of France’s total World Cup wagers, £141m ($187m) was placed via FDJ, with the residual £180m ($239m) wagered through the dozen Arjel sports betting offerings. Francaise des Jeux also has a lottery section, and the French government is currently selling its 72% stake in the company for around £2.65bn ($3.5bn). As you would guess, the World Cup group games that France was involved in received the utmost volume of bets, with about 11% of the total revenue coming from bets on these games.

The sports betting market in Europe is constantly mounting, with the United Kingdom clearly ahead of everyone. However, the likes of France are starting to catch up, but controls on their domestic sports betting are positively stricter than they are in the UK. Sports betting operators have been running all sorts of promotions and advertising campaigns in the lead up to this World Cup, with advertisements that feature many luminaries. These ads – oftentimes very much in-your-face – have led to the formation of a group of members of parliement looking to introduce stringent measures to control the way sports betting companies advertise their offerings.

Everywhere a person looks in sports today, they are overwhelmed with sports betting product placement, whether through the kit sponsorships – various big-name sportswear companies and top international stars at the helm of high-profile launch events-  that many football teams in England have, or through half-time ads or billboard placards in the stadiums.There are concerns that young people are being unprotected to this type of behavior from a young age and are led to believe that gambling is part and parcel of everyday life, something of course which can lead to problem gambling down the line. With England and France having now reached the semi-final stage of the tournament, this strong trend of wagering looks set to continue.

The buildup is spreading across these nations, and people are looking to put their money where their mouth is, believing that their team is going to go all the way. In a matter of weeks, the final figures will be reported as to just how much was wagered throughout the entire World Cup. It is almost definite that these figures will smash past anything that has ever been seen before. Thanks to monetary growth, people on average have more disposable income to spend on the likes of sports betting. However, there are still numerous people who are scraping by but have an issue with gambling that is only worsened by the constant salvo of advertisements and promises of prosperity. It is likely that sterner regulations will be introduced in countries like the UK in the near future.