During the six-week FIFA World Cup, Chinese bettors placed wagers totaling 83.3 billion yuan (approximately $11.6 billion) via the state-operated China Sports Lottery, averaging close to $2 billion weekly, even though the national team did not qualify for the event.
According to state broadcaster CCTV, the World Cup significantly boosted the demand for legal sports betting options and attracted unprecedented viewership across both television and digital media.
The only legal gambling products in China are the China Sports Lottery and the China Welfare Lottery. However, there exists a substantial illegal betting market in the country, which includes offshore sportsbooks, underground bookies, and online betting agents catering to Chinese players.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that China's illegal gambling market surpasses $145 billion each year, indicating that the actual total wagered on the World Cup could be much higher than the official lottery numbers suggest.
CCTV reported that its broadcasts of the World Cup, along with special programming and news segments, amassed over 70 billion cumulative views across various media platforms by the time of the final.
The final match, featuring Argentina against Spain, attracted a cumulative audience of 282 million viewers, with peak real-time viewership hitting 41.23 million, as per the broadcaster's data. These figures reflect total views across all platforms rather than unique viewers.
Most of the legal football betting during the tournament was conducted through Jingcai Football, the sports lottery's dedicated football betting service, which offers options such as betting on match winners, point spreads, correct scores, and other outcomes.
Unlike private sportsbooks, China's sports betting framework is entirely state-run, with the government controlling the matches available for betting and the payout structures. The lottery maintains an overall return-to-player rate of about 73%.
Despite a strong interest in football, China's national team has struggled on the international stage. They finished fifth in their qualifying group for the World Cup, which included a heavy 7-0 loss to Japan, and have only qualified for the World Cup once, back in 2002.
In 2015, President Xi Jinping vowed to transform China into a football powerhouse capable of both hosting and winning the World Cup, yet the national team's performance has declined despite significant investment in the sport.