SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Ahead of tonight’s crunch encounter against Uruguay, support for the Three Lions has seen one plucky Welsh customer stake £10,000 on England to win the competition outright.
Money has also been flooding in on Roy Hodgson’s men to beat Uruguay in their second game of the tournament, where they are current 11-10 favourites, said Coral’s John Hill.
“Considering the expectation on England has been at an all-time low with the media for this World Cup, it has not put punters off backing them to lift the trophy. The support is even outside of this country as shown with our customer in Wales who placed a 10k bet on them this morning.”
Meanwhile, William Hill Press Officer, Joe Crilly, expects the encounter to attract upwards of £5m and potentially up to 5000 bets per minute at the busiest times.
“England are the favourites and have been backed by 73% of the UK (77 in England, just 62% in Scotland).
“England are our worst result with liabilities of around 2.5m should they win the World Cup,” he added.
Patriotic punts have seen England cut into 20-1 (from 25-1) with Coral, while Germany, Holland, and Chile have also sneaked their way up the market, following spectacular first round results. Liverpool teammates Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez are tipped to score anytime, at 13/8 and 17/10 respectively. Paddy power added that 78 per cent favour an England win, while only 18 per cent believe the South Americans can rescue their campaign, following a shock 3-1 loss against Costa Rica.
