Women's World Cup: An exclusive behind-the-scenes Trading insight
Oliver Lester, Marketing Intern, sat down with John Crowley, Trading Manager, to discuss Trading team insights, challenges faced, and how to continue the momentum behind Women's football.
Intro
Hi, I’m John Crowley, Trading Manager here at OpenBet’s BetBuilder arm, SportCast. Our role during the Women's World Cup was to deliver an industry leading BetBuilder product to our sportsbooks. In particular, we offered 5 forms of stats to supplement our strong core offering: Shots, Shots on target, Assists, Tackles & Passes – all applying to player, team and match markets. Our internal football division is spread across the UK, Greece and Australia, which welcomed a healthy rivalry during the Lionesses vs Matilda’s semi-final fixture! A great tournament, solidified by super strong global efforts from our Trading teams.
Across our sportsbooks, what markets have been the most popular with players?
Players have really taken to the Full-time result market, which was most favourable by around 40%. These predictions tend to be a mixture of fans backing the favourites, or simply sticking to what they know. To score in 90mins was welcomed as the second most preferred market, with Both teams to score as the third most popular.
Fan Favourites
The most popular backed teams were England, Australia and Netherlands. Alessia Russo gained top spot as England’s most backed player, with Georgia Stanway and Lauren James in second and third respectively. Outside of the Lionesses, eventual World Cup winner Aitana Bonmatí dominated the To score a hat-trick market, despite only having scored 3 goals across the entire tournament. Bettors worldwide also showed a liking to Netherlands forward Esmee Brugts, as she finished pole position in number of bets backing her to Score outside the box.
Backing the World's Best on the Biggest Stage
Over the last few months, our Trading teams have worked together tirelessly around the clock to deliver the markets best sportsbook solution. One challenge we faced was in the pricing stats markets, especially on some of the lesser known teams & players where there is less data available. Great work from our Trading Solutions team to model projected values, and help drive our pricing. Our industry leading stats markets yielded strong returns for clients, as well as a more engaging product for punters.
Increases across the board
Across one of our leading UK sportsbooks, we’ve seen a +15% increase in betting volume compared to the 2019 Women's World Cup. A number that signifies substantial growth both on and off the field.
Off the field, how can we continue the momentum behind Women's football?
This is a really important point, and it would be great to see the momentum gathered across the tournament translate into sustainable, long-term support. With media coverage increasing across the women’s game, it is becoming easier to get invested and stay in the loop. Furthermore, we are seeing a younger generation gaining inspiration by the performances of so many teams at the tournament, which may well lead to a surge in both interest and funding at grassroots level. We encourage fans to support their local teams, attend fixtures, keep up with media coverage, and follow the game on social media, where you can engage with all of the big stories and talking points.
3 players who you think will be at the top of their game in 3 years?
Lena Oberdorf, Lauren James, and Eva Navarro!
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