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Some 700 million people across the globe were believed to have watched the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands Sunday according to football's world governing body FIFA. Likewise, bookmakers in the UK and across the world say this was the most bet on event in history.
Graham Sharpe of William Hill said: "Not even England's unexpected early demise prevented the World Cup producing a record betting turnover and fortunately for us Spain's early defeat by Switzerland seemed to dampen enthusiasm for backing them, which worked in our favour".
Earlier in the tournament most of the future bets were indeed placed on Spain however. As such, there was plenty of pain to go around.
Stan James, in particular, made a pre-tournament offer to refund all losing stakes on the outright market if Spain won the World Cup in South Africa.
Charlie McCann, Head of PR at Stan James, said: "The final was a double whammy in that we paid back all losing bets on the goal-scorer markets given the game went into extra time but all our punters who backed a nation other than Spain pre-tournament will have their stake back in their account this morning.
As for the overall viewership numbers, Niclas Ericson, FIFA TV director, told reporters yesterday: "I think the audience for the final will be bigger than 2006, when it was watched by 700 million people."
He added record viewing figures were reported in Germany for Wednesday's semi-final with Spain - an average of 31.1 million viewers and an 83.2-per-cent share on public-service broadcaster ARD.
The audience is the first to break the 30 million mark in the history of German television. Ericson also said sports broadcaster ESPN in the United States boasts a 50 per cent increase in overall figures compared to 2006.
A record audience for a sports broadcast in Spain was anticipated for Sunday's final and an audience share of more than 90 per cent in the Netherlands was widely expected as well.
Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
