Football is still the ‘King of betting’ according to SoftSwiss Sportsbook, although the platform provider also revealed that the most popular league for its users was a basketball tournament. 

Publishing its results for 2021, SoftSwiss Sportsbook revealed that 38.14% of bets on its platform were placed on football/soccer matches, with basketball following at 22.62%; tennis at 16.11%; ice hockey at 9.01%; American football at 8.95%; and volleyball at 5.17%.

However, the National Basketball Association (NBA) was the most popular league for bettors using the SoftSwiss Sportsbook platform, with the three football leagues in the top six tournaments – the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga – coming at third, fourth and fifth place with 16.78%, 13.35% and 12.28% of total bets respectively. 

Meanwhile, the National Football League (NFL) and National Hockey League (NHL) ranked second and fifth place, with 18.13% and 11.13% of bets. Although the top two leagues were American sports, soccer accounted for a total of 42.41%, leading the pack in terms of overall bet numbers. 

Alexander Kamenetskyi, Product Owner at SoftSwiss Sportsbook, said: “Football is the king of betting, as our statistics once again prove. Basketball and tennis, as usual, share second place depending on how well represented they are in client projects given the region of operation. The popularity of each particular sport affects the leading tournaments accordingly.”

Additionally, with cryptocurrency on the rise across a number of sectors including sports betting, SoftSwiss was also able to cast some light on the popularity of the payment method for wagering. 

Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin topped the league table for crypto-betting, with 54.73% of wagers placed on sports via crypto using the currency, followed by Litecoin (44.22% and Ethereum (1.05%).

Recently announced, SoftSwiss intends to bolster its crypto offering with the addition of another digital coin, NEO – albeit only for its SoftSwiss Online Casino Platform. The company’s suite of crypto payment methods now numbers over 20 different coins. 

“We closely follow the development of cryptocurrencies and are systematically expanding the list of those that our Online Casino Platform supports,” said Vadim Drozd, Head of Payments at SoftSwiss.

“The integration of NEO was, therefore, a logical decision as part of the development of the SoftSwiss Crypto Casino Solution.”

Lastly, SoftSwiss also examined demographic data with regards to betting as well as technology usage, detailing that male bettors accounted for 97% of the sum of all bets and women for 3%, whilst men made 94% of all bets on the SoftSwiss sportsbook and women 6% in 2021.

This also demonstrates that male punters were more likely to wager larger amounts than their female counterparts, with over 55% of the Total Bet Sum originating from men in the 41 to 50 age bracket, although 31 to 40-year-old players accounted for the most bets at 37%. 

Kamenetskyi added: “Our product confirms the prevailing theory that the sports audience is predominantly male. This pattern is easy to interpret and culturally related to spending time together watching sporting events, which is less characteristic of the female segment of gamblers. Men are more often interested in sports and consequently more likely to become betting site visitors.”

Lastly – perhaps unsurprisingly given the shift from retail towards online betting, accelerated by the pandemic – mobile phone bets took up 65.5% of all placed, although players spent more money on desktop devices at 62.6% of the total sum. 

Some key highlights for SoftSwiss during an expansion of its Sportsbook bonus offers, included the addition of its Hunting, Freebets, No Risk, AllWin and OnlyWin products, and launching its N1Bet.ng project in Nigeria in collaboration with N1 Partners Group. The most recent development saw it link with Oddin.gg, with the later powering an expansion of its esports wagering offering. 

Kamenetskyi concluded: “All of the enhancements as part of the Sportsbook’s development in 2021 were aimed at exploring new markets, expanding the gambling offering and attracting players. 

“The partnership with new odds provider Oddin.gg will help attract a younger audience who are keen on eSports. The launch of new bonuses, in turn, was a great tool to build and strengthen the loyalty of existing players. 

“Our clients have already been able to appreciate new Sportsbook features and put them into action. Despite last year’s achievements, our team has even more ambitious plans ahead.”