The World Cup of Soccer does not kick off until June 9, 2006, but Internet punters are already placing their bets. Within one month--from June 9 to July 9--more than US$2 billion will be cashed by the sports betting operators.
Based in the participating countries are the heavy punters of Japan, Korea, Germany (the home organizer), the Netherlands, England, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, France, Spain, the Czech Republic, the United States, Mexico, Australia, Argentina and Brazil.
For many worldwide bookmaking operations, the FIFA World Cup is the biggest sports betting event on the 2006 calendar.
Austria-based international sports betting company Betandwin, the biggest bookmaker in continental Europe, is already advertising on Pan-European Eurosport TV and on the German TV channels.
Even without these advertising channels available during the 2004 European Soccer Championship, Betandwin put up some impressive numbers. The company reported that additional business created during the tournament (13.6 million euros) was a major factor in boosting its second quarter betting turnover from 44 million euros in 2004 to 89 million euros in 2005 (an increase of over 100 percent). Adjusted for third-party turnover, the increase in turnover was $56.2 million euros (170.8 percent).
The company reported, "The 2004 European Soccer Championships were more successful than expected: 56,000 new registrations; 41,000 active new customers; 8,000 reactivated customers; high customer frequency: up to 32,000 active customers daily; 1.3 European Soccer Championship bets a second."
Now, two years later, the event is in Germany, and with advertising on German TV and an event that is much bigger than the 2004 tournament, the World Cup 2006 should easily lift Betandwin over the 100 million euros mark.
According to an article in The Times, the World Cup finals could generate £100 million of bets for William Hill, doubling the amount generated during the last tournament four years ago.
And the Bad News . . .
There's always a snag somewhere. It appears that WC soccer gambling sites are in breach of trademark laws. The European Trademark Office, OHIM (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market), confirmed on Nov. 4, 2005 that FIFA has all the rights of the 2006 FIFA World Cup trademarks. The OHIM stated: "Only FIFA's commercial partners may use FIFA's event marks, including the words 'WM 2006,' 'World Cup 2006,' 'World Cup Germany,' 'Germany 2006,' and 'Word Cup 2006 Germany,' for any commercial purposes in Europe, including host country Germany."
More on this development later this week. . . .