Focus on FIFA World Cup 2022: Insights from Uplatform

Football is one of the games that garner the most interest from viewers throughout the globe. Therefore, it should not be surprising that bettors worldwide like betting on the game. The FIFA World Cup is the biggest football event and attracts a lot of viewers, fans, and bettors. In this article, sports betting and iGaming platform supplier Uplatform provides a complete guide with insights about the FIFA World Cup and what will help operators to acquire players and retain their engagement, thus increasing their revenue.

Why this World Cup is unique

Consideration was given to increasing the number of competing teams at Qatar 2022 from 32 to 48. However, it was finally decided to keep the number of teams at 32, with an expansion to 48  beginning with the 2026 World Cup, which would be co-hosted by Canada, the United States, and Mexico. However, This year's World Cup is unique because, unlike past tournaments, it will be held in November, beginning only a week and a half after the domestic leagues' break and concluding only eight days after the final. One must also consider the fact that bookmakers often expect a lot of business at this time of year. The domestic leagues in Europe are at their apex, domestic cup fixtures are taking place, and the wildly popular Champions League and Europa League are still going strong, and that's not even mentioning other sports like the Formula One season, which is coming to a close and also attracts a great deal of interest and engagement. So, we're looking at when bookmakers will have enough opportunities to increase player participation during and after the World Cup. This series of events occurring within a short period will significantly increase the number of occasional bettors who bet simply for recreational reasons. 

The World Cup's impact on betting

The World Cup is by far the largest sporting event on the calendar, as nations from around the globe compete for the prized trophy. It is among the most popular tournaments worldwide, if not the most popular. The global audience is a feature associated with such massive sporting events. Everyone would want to watch their national teams and other games featuring some of the tournament's favorite countries. This attention will lead to a lot of betting, giving bookmakers a perfect chance to bring in new players, keep loyal players, and try to reactivate dormant accounts. 

A quick look at the viewership statistics of the 2018 FIFA World Cup:  

About 1.6 billion people in Asia saw World Cup coverage on TV, digital platforms, or out-of-home broadcasts. This is 43.7% of the total number of people who saw the tournament worldwide. Three of the top five territories that contributed to the global reach were in Asia (China PR, Indonesia, and India). China PR, with 655.7 million viewers (18.4% of the world's viewers), contributed the highest reach percentage. Africa and the Middle East amounted to 16.6% of worldwide reach, powered by MENA broadcasting, which produced 261.2 million viewers (44.3% of the total for the area). In terms of hours, Europe and Asia spend the most time watching the World Cup.

Proportionately, most viewers were captured in South America and Europe. 

It shows that Asia contributed the most viewers to the total reach (including all viewing). 

The regions in which the highest proportion of potential viewers were reached were South America (96.6%) and Europe (86.1%). Meanwhile, Asia (+29.4%) saw the highest regional increase, owing to 10 live matches that took place during prime time for East Asian viewers.

The most media attention was gotten from Asia (10.66 billion viewer hours). China accounted for 41% of regional consumption, with only six regions accounting for 50% of the total value(Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, India, Korea Republic, and Thailand). Europe had the second-highest overall consumption (9.67 billion viewer hours), but more people watched live matches in Europe than in Asia (7.92 billion viewer hours against 7.80 billion). This is because kick-off times were better for Europe. Broadcasters in the American continent produced 26.2% of consumption (compared to 43.5% of total coverage hours). Brazil was responsible for 31.3% of all hours used in the two regions. 

Live (or in-play) betting is a top betting activity during the World Cup, so given the number of viewers and the massive popularity of the event, it’s easy to draw conclusions on what regions you should focus on and tailor your offer to. Take into consideration that the top-3 favorites this time are Brazil, France, and England, which will attract a lot of bettors from these countries. As we can see from the statistics, South America and Europe remain regions where almost all the population is watching and somehow involved in the games. While it’s not a surprise, the Asian region showed the highest increase in popularity among viewers. Therefore, offering World Cup betting is essential for these regions. However, in order to stand out from the competition, acquire new bettors, and increase retention, operators should have a diverse and localized offering, which includes more markets, unique markets and bets, detailed statistics, and so on. To take advantage of the TOP betting event, the operator should have an ULTIMATE offering rather than a basic one.

How Uplatform may help

Uplatform is a dynamic sportsbook provider that offers the most extensive sports collection in the market. Their advanced solutions for the FIFA World Cup feature:

1000+ betting markets for every game in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, including:

• special bets
• bets on a particular player's performance in a match
• the timing of the scores
• the number of yellow/red cards
• when injuries happen
• the number of headed goals and many others

Continually and constantly updated markets and odds during the live events thanks to in-house bookmakers.

A unique live zone featuring real-time 2D, 3D, and a multi-live feature that supports multiple bets simultaneously in a single window.

Detailed statistics on matches, teams, and tournaments. 

Simple navigation on the match-page to keep players on your site and makes it easy to bet.

A broad range of betting options - Uplatform sportsbook offers a variety of multi-bet combinations, such as Accumulator, Lucky and Chain, one-click betting placed for sporting events, unique bets (Bettors can bet on a player, make player-player or team-player bets.), bet builder (Players can slip out of many events in a single match), bet constructor, etc. 

Localization - Uplatform's solutions and tools let you regionalize and tailor content for each player with options such as:

• Relevant sorting of national teams according to the user’s location, 
• 65+ languages, some of which are quite rare like Khmer or Icelandic. 
• Various odds - fractional, decimal, Moneyline, Indonesian, Hong Kong, and Malay
• Different views - European, Italian, Asian

All of these features and more are included in iFrame and Turnkey solutions. With Uplatform's Sportsbook API, you can add the most comprehensive sportsbook on the market to your iGaming brand. At the same time, with Turnkey, you can launch a new brand or enter a new market with all the necessary tools, a stable platform, and 300+ PSPs.

Summary

As the 2022 FIFA World Cup approaches, operators are excited as they anticipate generating large revenue from the event. However, this is only possible if your players are delighted with your content. With Uplatform’s comprehensive features, enhancing player satisfaction and experience is assured.

Contact professionals at Uplatform at [email protected] for expert advice on how to generate more revenue during the FIFA World Cup 2022.