Online betting for World Cup games has never been bigger.  In fact, the 2006 World Cup may end up becoming the largest single betting event in the history of online gambling.  With over two weeks of soccer action remaining, online sportsbooks and land-based bookmakers are preparing for a continued surge of visitors, most of which are making real-money bets on their favorite teams.

While it is not a recommended strategy of seasoned sports bettors to be a biased gambler, and to only place bets on their favorite teams, football fans are so devoted to their clubs that even if the odds are not in their favor, taking a bet against their home team would be felt as an act of betrayal.  And when the stakes are as high as the World Cup, many fans who normally do not make bets, are finding themselves at online sportsbooks putting money on their favorite team.

The case has never been more apparent than in the United Kingdom, where the largest news conglomerates like the BBC have been broadcasting live World Cup games around the clock (apologies to the non-Brits, for the broadcasts are only available to Englanders). Statistics compiled by Nielsen/Net Ratings since the start of the games show that approximately 2.5 million Britons have gone online to gambling sites, which is a sharp increase in online bettors for this time frame.  Of the UK-based online sportsbooks, Ladbrokes has received the most traffic, bringing in over 114,000 unique online visitors, while BetFair managed to keep visitors logged online for the longest duration at an average of one hour and ten minutes per visitor.  The standard average is thirty-nine minutes.

As for popular UK sportsbook and casino, William Hill, they too are getting in on the action.  A spokesperson for Will Hill was reported saying that UK bookmakers will be netting over £1 billion over the course of the World Cup games (double from 2002), which amounts to online bettors accumulating £1.3 million in winnings every hour of tournament action.

Not only is the accessibility of online betting a large factor in this increase, but so is the new mobile and live gambling technology that was not in existence in 2002.  Online bookmakers who offer mobile phone and interactive television betting have become besieged with last-minute bets all the way up to the final seconds of games.  For instance, in the England/Paraguay match, the Sporting Index reported they received over 12,000 bets in the last fifteen minutes of the match, when it looked like Paraguay was going to score.