888Sport top for World Cup betting
Leading tipster site bettingexpert.com follows up last month’s customer service deep dive with a data-led analysis of the top bookies for World Cup betting
Few international sporting events attract the level of interest as the FIFA World Cup, intensified by the fact it comes around just once every four years. There are also few events that come close to the World Cup in terms of money wagered.
While events such as the NFL Super Bowl and Cheltenham racing festival draw millions of professional and casual punters each year, the World Cup is a month-long betting bonanza, with bookmakers offering deep menus of odds on tournament outright markets as well as individual match markets.
But which bookmakers are offering the broadest range of markets and best odds across the tournament’s most popular markets for this year’s World Cup? In this article we will consider the markets on offer from 20 of the world’s biggest bookmakers:
888Sport
Bet365
Betfair Sportsbook
Betfred
Betsafe
BetVictor
Betway
Boylesports
ComeOn
Coral
Ladbrokes
Marathonbet
Matchbook
Paddy Power
Sky Bet
Sportingbet
Titanbet
Unibet
William Hill
Winner Sports
In this analysis, we evaluated and ranked each bookmaker across the following categories:
Range of World Cup betting markets
• Tournament outrights
• Player performance markets
• Specials
• 1st half & 2nd half markets
• Scoring markets
• Match handicaps
• Time of goal markets
• Traditional match markets
• Team performance markets
• England specials
Odds for traditional outrights & match markets
• 1X2 match result
• Double chance
• Over/under goal totals
• Both teams to score
• Draw no bet
• Handicaps
• To win World Cup
• To win Group
• To qualify for knockout stage
To assess each bookmaker on the first group of categories based on their their range of betting markets, we determined the number of unique bet types available. So for example, while some bookmakers may list the following as five discrete markets…
Over/under 0.5 goals
Over/under 1.5 goals
Over/under 2.5 goals
Over/under 3.5 goals
Over/under 4.5 goals
..we chose to list them as one bet type ‘Alternative Over/Under goal totals markets’ and so on.
For the second group of betting odds categories, we calculated the margins across the most popular match markets as well as the most popular tournament outright markets, including tournament winner, group winner and knockout stage qualification.
All data was collected between 19 April and 4 May, 2018. Of course, by the time this article is published, a number of bookmakers may have both increased the range of markets available as well as cut their margins on popular World Cup betting markets as the battle for punters’ attention and money intensifies in the build-up to kick-off on 14 June.
Best bookmakers for World Cup betting
So who did we crown the best bookmaker for World Cup betting? After collecting and sorting our data, we found 888sport to be the number one bookmaker in 2018. 888sport ranked highly for outright, player and special markets on offer, including their range of specials for the England team.
In additional to popular outright markets, 888Sport offers a range of exacta markets for both group play and tournament betting as well as for player performance including top goalscorer, goals scored by top goalscorer, top player for assists, top player for cards received, as well as player markets for individual teams, such as the team player to score most goals and who delivers the most assists. 888sport are also offering 44 individual player goal total over/unders as well as team vs. team match bets for tournament progression.
888Sport also ranked highly when it comes to odds for the most popular World Cup betting markets, particularly for odds on group winner betting as well as tournament winner betting.
In second place we have Unibet. Much like 888Sport, Unibet ranked well for outrights, specials and player markets. In particular Unibet are offering 12 team v.s team tournament progression match bets as well as 33 player goal totals over/unders. Unibet are also offering seven squad selection markets as well as a range of Messi vs. Ronaldo tournament match bets, as well as a strong range of traditional tournament bets and popular match markets.
In third place we have bet365. While bet365’s offering for tournament outrights is limited to mostly traditional markets, the menu of markets available for World Cup match betting is still far superior to the majority of its rival bookmakers, offering twice the number of bet types than most competing bookmakers. Bet365 is also offering arguably the best range of match betting markets for the 2018 World Cup and in terms of odds, decent margins on most popular World Cup betting markets.
Best for range of markets
Based just on the range of markets available, we determined Titanbet to be the best bookmaker for World Cup betting. Titanbet ranked highly across scoring betting, handicaps, traditional match markets as well as team performance markets, half betting and timing of goal markets. Titanbet also offers a number of England team specials as well as a reasonable number of outrights and player specials.
In second place comes bet365, which consistently ranked among the top bookmakers in each category, particularly outrights, player performance markets, scoring markets, handicaps, timing of goals, traditional match markets as well as team performance markets. Ultimately there wasn’t much separating bet365 from Titanbet when it came to their range of betting markets for the World Cup.
In third place we ranked Winner Sports, which scored well on half betting, scoring markets and traditional match markets. It also offers a decent range of handicaps, timing of goal and team performance markets.
Best for tournament outrights
Our number one ranked bookmaker for tournament outrights is Sky Bet, which is offering traditional outright markets such as tournament winner, group winners, knockout stage qualification and stage of elimination, but go further with a range of exacta markets for tournament and group betting as well as on total points won at group stage and tournament winner double chance betting.
In second place for outrights we ranked 888sport with BetVictor in third.
Best for tournament player performance
For player performance betting, we again ranked 888Sport as number one.
The bookmaker came out well ahead of the competition when it comes to tournament player performance betting, with 44 individual player goal scoring over/under markets available as well as five top goalscorer player vs player tournament match bets and top assist deliverer player vs. player tournament match bets.
In second place for player performance betting, we ranked Unibet with Betsafe in third.
Best for team match performance
For betting on team performance in any given World Cup match, William Hill offers bets on virtually any aspect of team performance in a given match including traditional bets such as whether a team will scored in a half of a match, keep a clean sheet, will win a match after trailing, will score first or last, as well as team total goals over/unders, time of first goal etc.
In second place for team performance betting, we ranked Titanbet with Winner Sports in third.
Best for England specials
For England specials, we ranked BetVictor as number one across our 20 bookmakers. BetVictor are currently offering 13 England team specials including markets on whether an England player will be sent off during the tournament, England player to score a hat trick, Harry Kane to score over 3.5 goals through the group stage, Jamie Vardy to score during the tournament, England to score an own goal, England to win the World Cup on penalties and Jamie Vardy to score the winning goal in the World Cup final just to name a few.
For general specials, we ranked 888sport as number one with Skybet in second place and Unibet in third.
Best for time-of-goal betting
Bet365 are currently offering the strongest range of markets for time-of-goal betting including markets on goals scored within the 1st half, 2nd half, goal scored over/under minutes played in the match, the match result 1X2 at 10-minute intervals and a market for betting on the accumulated minutes of each goal scored.
In second place we ranked William Hill with Titanbet, Winner Sports and Coral tied for third.
Best for traditional markets
For traditional markets such as 1X2 match result, both teams to score, goal totals over/unders and handicaps, Titanbet and ComeOn came out on top for this World Cup, delivering a deep menu across each match.
Tied for third place for traditional markets we ranked bet365, Winner Sports, Coral and Ladbrokes.
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