Whistle Blows

William Hill are expecting a real betting boom when the European Championships kick off on Friday. The firm are predicting that £100million could be placed by the time the full time whistle blows in the Final in the Olympic Stadium in Kiev – £3million of which is expected to be staked on England’s first game on Monday. Spain are the 11/4 favourites to win the tournament with Germany 3/1. England are 12/1 fifth favourites and despite the fact that they are the longest price ever to win a major tournament, that has not stopped Hills racking up a £1million liability should Roy’s boys lift the trophy.

The Euros is the first major football tournament taking place since William Hill launched their app and they are expecting that up to £15m will be punted by mobile punters with almost 100,000 bets being placed on the England/France game via smart phone.

“Our punters have been chomping at the bit since the season ended and we have seen a steady stream of money coming in for the Euros since then,” said Hill’s spokesman Joe Crilly. “That steady stream is set to become a torrent in the next few days as the tournament gets going and we are expecting a nine figure turnover over the course of the next three weeks with an unprecedented 15% of that on mobile.”

On the day that England face France, Hills are expecting to take over 200,000 bets in their shops alone and could take over 50,000 bets on the match in-play equating to over £1million.

Germany’s Mario Gomez is the 8/1 favourite to win the Golden boot and given the expansive way in which the energetic and youthful German side play, they could well reach the Final (6/4) and score plenty of goals along the way. Gomez is followed in the betting by 10/1 Robin van Persie and 12/1 Cristiano Ronaldo, who had two of the most remarkable goalscoring records in world football last season. Being banned for the first two matches of the tournament, Wayne Rooney is 33/1 to end the tournament as top goalscorer while Thomas Muller, who won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup, is 25/1 to do the same in Poland and Ukraine.

FACTS:

– William Hill expect to take over £100m on the tournament on the whole
– England’s first game could attract over £3m (£1million in-play)
– Over 200,000 bets will be staked in shops alone on the day of England’s first game against France
– £15m to be staked on mobile on tournament and 100,000 bets to be placed on the England/France game via app

Euro 2012 winner: 11/4 Spain; 3/1 Germany; 6/1 Holland; 10/1 France; 12/1 England; 14/1 Italy; 20/1 Portugal; 20/1 Russia; 50/1 Ukraine; 50/1 Poland; 50/1 Czech Republic; 50/1 Croatia; 66/1 Sweden; 66/1 Greece; 80/1 Republic of Ireland; 100/1 Denmark
Top Goalscorer: 8/1 Mario Gomez; 10/1 Robin van Persie; 12/1 Cristiano Ronaldo; 14/1 Fernando Llorente; 14/1 Karim Benzema; 14/1 Klaas Jan-Huntelaar; 14/1 Miroslav Klose; 18/1 Fernando Torres; 20/1 Robert Lewandowski; 25/1 Mario Balotelli; 25/1 Lukas Podolski; 25/1 Thomas Muller; 33/1 Cesc Fabregas; 33/1 Wayne Rooney; 33/1 Antonio Di Natale; 33/1 David Silva; 33/1 Wesley Sneijder; 33/1 Alvaro Negredo; 33/1 Rafael van der Vaart; 33/1 Antonio Cassano; 40/1 BAR
Joe Crilly
Press Officer

Twitter: @footy_joe

T: 0208 918 3746
M: 07850 518 164
E: jcrilly@williamhill.co.uk