Betting data from Betfair has revealed that Gareth Southgate’s side have been the most popular to back at the 2018 World Cup.
Confidence in the England football team has soared with a 11.21% majority of backing bets. This is up 27% on the 2014 World Cup.
The Three Lions booked their place in the quarter-finals on Tuesday with a dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Colombia – the first time in World Cup history that our nation has won via spot kicks. Football fans took twitter by storm, tweeting their admiration for the team:
Melissa Reddy, Senior Football Correspondent, tweeted: “This is not a drill. England have won a penalty shootout. I repeat. England have won a penalty shootout.”
Gareth Southgate’s side are set to take on Sweden in the quarter-finals at the Samara Arena on Saturday. Many punters will have vast interest in the match as Betfair have revealed that 11.21% of total UK bets on the 2018 World Cup winner are on England – more than any other nation competing in Russia.
These back bets are from UK and were placed before the matches began, so any results after the World Cup started didn’t influence the result.
Football stat man, Barrie's View, says: “The increase in confidence is coming off the back of a successful qualifying campaign and results against the likes of Germany and Brazil in friendlies earlier this year. We also have superstar Harry Kane up front!”
This is also echoed internationally, with punters backing England (9.51%), followed by Germany (9.12%), and Belgium (6.93%).
Germany A Wurst Bet
Germany followed Gareth Southgate’s side with 9.12% of the total bets. However, the 2014 winners were eliminated at the group stage this summer.
Interestingly, Germany were only backed by 4.5% of Betfair’s customers four years ago, whereas runners-up Argentina were the most popular bet in Brazil – with 10.94% of the market.
After struggling to reach Russia this summer, Argentina saw much less backing this time around as only 4.54% of punters backed Jorge Sampaoli’s side. They were eliminated 4-3 by France in the second round on Saturday.
Along with England, who saw an increase from 8.81% to 11.21%, Croatia (1.19% to 4.65%), Russia (1.37% to 4.26%) and Portugal (3.64% to 6.56%) have all seen a big increase in bets from four years ago. And like Gareth Southgate’s side, Croatia and Russia will be competing in the quarter-finals this weekend. The two nations face each other to determine who will play England or Sweden in the semi-finals.
Fellow quarter-finalist Belgium were the third most popular bet pre-tournament. Roberto Martinez’s side take on favourites Brazil on Friday.
