Chinese bettors wagered 83.3 billion yuan ($11.6 billion) through the state-run China Sports Lottery during the six-week FIFA World Cup, averaging nearly $2 billion a week despite the country’s national team failing to qualify for the tournament.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that the World Cup drove strong demand for legal sports betting products and attracted record audiences across television and digital platforms.
The China Sports Lottery and the China Welfare Lottery are the country’s only legal gambling products, although China also has a large illegal betting market that includes offshore sportsbooks, underground bookmakers and online betting agents targeting Chinese customers.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates China’s illegal gambling market exceeds $145 billion annually, which suggests that the total amount wagered on the World Cup was likely significantly higher than official lottery figures.
According to CCTV, its World Cup broadcasts, special programming and news coverage generated more than 70 billion cumulative cross-media views by the eve of the final.
The World Cup final between Argentina and Spain drew a cumulative audience of 282 million viewers, with peak real-time viewership reaching 41.23 million, according to the broadcaster. The figures represent cumulative views across television and digital platforms rather than unique viewers.
Most legal football betting during the tournament was placed through Jingcai Football, the sports lottery’s football betting product, which allows wagers on match winners, handicaps, correct scores and other outcomes.
Unlike commercial sportsbooks, China’s sports betting market is operated exclusively by the state, which determines the matches offered and payout structures. The lottery has an overall return-to-player rate of about 73%.
China’s enthusiasm for football has not translated into success on the pitch. The national team finished fifth in its six-team World Cup qualifying group, including a 7-0 defeat to Japan, and has qualified for the World Cup only once, in 2002.
President Xi Jinping pledged in 2015 to turn China into a football superpower capable of hosting and winning the World Cup, but the national team’s fortunes have declined despite heavy investment in the sport.
