With 2020 having a host of challenges for sports betting suppliers, BETBY collated the information and trends from across its collection of markets, analysing how popular each sport was throughout the year with bettors, with some surprising results.

While football was naturally the most popular to start the year, accounting for over 52% of the company’s betting volume, the sporting shutdown that occurred in March saw dramatic changes to the most popular sports between punters.

By mid-April, amidst the closure of many sporting leagues, football still accounted for over 46% of activity, while basketball had seen its popularity halved to just over 11% of volume.

However, this period also saw the launch and growth of the supplier’s Betby.Games range of esports titles, with it already rivalling basketball for BEBTY’s second most popular product.

By the end of 2020, even with the return of live sports globally, the picture had changed dramatically. Football is still BETBY’s most attractive product, with over 40% of action taking place on the beautiful game, but the company’s FIFA18 24/7 title now accounts for over 35% of bets placed, while the entire Betby.Games range, including Basketball, Rocket League and Football, is collectively responsibly for over 58% of the provider’s betting handle.

Commenting on the staggering success of the Betby.Games range, CEO Leonid Pertsovskiy said: “2020 presented significant and well-documented challenges throughout the sports industry, so we are very proud of our response. Our agility and willingness to pivot our offering, allowing us to roll-out the Betby.Games range, was a huge success and today the results speak for themselves.

“With FIFA18 24/7 performing particularly well, our offering continues to grow and we’re delighted to see an innovative product that we put so much time into take the industry by storm.”