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With an average of 4.9 million viewers tuning into the first few games of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a 108 percent increase has been observed over the same period during the 2006 World Cup in the US.
The two-hour U.S. vs. England game on ABC drew 13 million viewers and a 7.3 household rating. Another 3.8 million watched on the Spanish-language Univision network.
This was the 5th most watched World Cup game in the US after three World Cup finals and a '94 U.S. vs Brazil match.
"The 2010 FIFA World Cup is off to a tremendous start for ESPN," said John Skipper, ESPN executive vp, content. "Strong viewership on television and other platforms - including the best first round rating in 16 years - and the overwhelmingly positive reaction we are receiving from fans demonstrate the enormous popularity of this global sports event and how ESPN is uniquely positioned to cover it."
The US audience was just a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of people who watched in the United Kingdom.
TV1's coverage of England's 1-1 World Cup draw with the USA peaked with nearly 20 million viewers. Of those 20 million, a good chunk watching the HD broadcast missed England's only goal since ITV1 HD's coverage of the match suffered an embarrassing fault when it cut to an ad break.
Earlier, BBC1's coverage of Argentina's 1-0 win over Nigeria averaged 4.322 million viewers and a 38.9% share, by comparison.
Las Vegas was one of the strongest markets for the game and bookmakers there have reported brisk business.
Web traffic for the Gambling911.com website is up an astonishing 100 percent over this period last year. This trend has continued since the start of the month with traffic first soaring since coverage of the Joran van der Sloot murder investigation began June 1. This coupled with extensive World Cup betting coverage has resulted in record breaking summer traffic numbers that show no sign of declining.
Gambling911.com is one of the leading providers of 2010 FIFA World Cup betting odds news. Follow us on Facebook here.
Payton O'Brien, Gambling911.com Senior Editor
