Sports betting supplier SOFTSWISS reflects on this summer’s showpiece European footballing event, providing data and insights. What did we learn?
By Tim Poole
Growing Interest in Sports Betting
Major sporting events always serve as powerful platforms for launching new sports betting projects. The Euro 2024 Championship was not an exception. In the month leading up to UEFA Euro 2024, the Softswiss Sportsbook launched 18 new projects. Main sporting events like this attract a large inflow of new players, making it a perfect opportunity for entering the industry and launching new ventures. However, it’s crucial to distribute bets across various sports to ensure the project’s resilience against unexpected outcomes.
The UEFA Euro 2024 also performed well in terms of attracting new players, with 8% of bettors placing bets on projects for the first time. It is vital for operators to retain this audience by continuing to engage them and introducing them to the product through various bonuses for other sports. This will help players gradually transition from betting solely on football, where they started their interaction, to other sports such as tennis, basketball and other sports that begin their seasons in the fall. Ensuring diversification across different sports is key to maintaining a stable and profitable operation.
Euro 2024 Peculiarities
Euro 2024 proved to be quite profitable, with an overall margin of 12.4%. The top 5 most profitable matches for sportsbook were matches between Portugal and Slovenia, Netherlands and France, Belgium and Slovakia, Austria and France, Denmark and England, all demonstrating high profitability. The match between Belgium and Slovakia stood out with a remarkable margin of 61.4%.
Around 77.5% of bets were placed via mobile devices, with desktop usage trailing behind. Interestingly, the margin was approximately the same across both device types, with the desktop showing a slightly higher margin.
This is curious, as more experienced or analytical players typically use desktops, often making larger or more strategic bets.
Combo bets, as usual, performed exceptionally well in terms of profitability, with a margin of 32%. Despite the average combo bet being nearly half the size of a single bet, the high margin made combo bets more profitable overall. This makes promoting combo bets more advantageous for operators; although they promise higher winnings for players, the lower frequency of successful combo outcomes ultimately favours bookmakers.
Alexander Kamenetskyi, Head of Softswiss Sportsbook, concluded: “The key distinction between such tournaments and others lies in the inflow of new players who typically bet exclusively on the Euro and then remain inactive until the World Cup. To capitalise on this, operators meticulously craft their introductory bonus programs to showcase all available features to these newcomers. Given the higher margins on combo bets, incentivising them through targeted offers or loyalty rewards can be especially lucrative.”