SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Online odds comparison site, Oddschecker has revealed that the market for Manchester United’s next manager was its third most popular of 2018.
The only markets that Jose Mourinho’s successor trailed on was the Grand National and Eurovision, with Oddschecker analytics detailing 43% more traffic on the Manchester United manager page than the highest viewed market during the Cheltenham Festival in March, the Gold Cup.
In spite of the role only being vacant for less the 48 hours, the volume of bets on who would take the role trumped that of England’s World Cup semi-final game with Croatia, seeing a 26% increase on Oddschecker.
In fact, basing statistics solely on the UK and Ireland, the managerial market was 48% more popular than Eurovision, a typically major market for betting.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the most popular bet on site by quite some distance, attracting 42% of all bets since news broke that Mourinho had been sacked.
The next most popular punt in the market was Frenchman Laurent Blanc with 16% of all bets, followed by Mauricio Pochettino with 9% share of all bets.
Oddschecker spokesperson George Elek commented: “Manchester United may not be living up to past glories on the pitch, but their popularity cannot be questioned as can be seen by the scramble to find out who would be replacing Mourinho.
“Whether people were placing bets themselves or just monitoring how the market moved during the day, people remain fascinated with the goings-on at Old Trafford.”
