SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The World Cup semi-final between France and Belgium came out as the top match in 2018 across the bettingexpert tipster community.
The match finished 1-0 at the Krestovsky Stadium, as Barcelona’s Samuel Umtiti scored the only goal to take Les Bleus into the final.
As part of the Better Collective Spotlight series, SBC News also learned that France’s subsequent victory over Croatia produced the longest odds win of the year, as one bettingexpert player correctly tipped the final 4-2 scoreline at odds of 150.00.
Meanwhile, Germany’s nightmare World Cup campaign in Russia was reflected in the tipster activity, as the pre-tournament holders became the subject of the shortest odds flop on bettingexpert after a shock defeat against South Korea.
One tipster took odds of 1.04 on Germany in the Draw No Bet market, only for Joachim Löw’s side to lose 2-0, and exit at the first round stage for the first time since 1938.
Over the course of 2018, data collected by bettingexpert showed that Real Madrid were the team that caused the most lost tips, despite profiting from a pair of Loris Karius errors to lift the Champions League trophy for a third year in a row.
The team’s talismanic striker Cristiano Ronaldo – who scored 450 goals in all competitions for Los Blancos over just nine seasons – subsequently made a big-money move to Juventus, who came out as the most popular team for tips placed across the network.
The data also revealed the most popular team to bet against across the top three sports leagues in the US, as well as the Premier League.
This unwanted accolade went to Baltimore Orioles for MLB, Oakland Raiders in the NFL and Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA, while Brighton were seen as the ‘whipping’ boys in the Premier League – a surprising finding given that the Seagulls finished in 15th place.
