The biggest betting event of the year is underway – the FIFA World Cup. And the first round saw nothing that would sway a savvy bettor except for Wednesday’s shocker in which Spain lost to Switzerland, 1-0. Soccer is hands-down the biggest sport in the world and the huge action taken already by the Ladbrokes and Paddy Powers of the world has already been well documented. But, surprisingly, every book we spoke to in the Caribbean and Central America is also seeing a lot of action, not only from their existing customer base, but from new bettors as well.

BookMaker, based in Costa Rica told us that “From the initial figures the turnover has exceeded even our highest expectations based on historical data.” Throughout Costa Rica books are experiencing high volume and U.S. facing books are seeing an interesting phenomenon. Though teams like the U.S., England and Germany expect to draw large handle, “the World Cup is the only international tournament where your roots mean more than your birthplace/citizenship”, added Bookmaker’s senior sportsbook manager. Apparently, throughout North America, players are betting with their heritage and teams like Italy, Brazil, Argentina and Spain also have a large amount for futures for winning the Cup.

We also have heard the ‘live’ betting or ‘in-game’ betting has been a big draw. 5Dimes mentioned that the “highest growth we have seen is in our World Cup InPlay” (their brand of live betting). Not surprising from U.S.-based players who can bet on quarters in basketball, first 5-innings in baseball and instant-gratifying props galore during the NFL season.

As expected, the Spain upset proved profitable offshore. WagerWeb commented, “obviously the match with Spain vs Switzerland was a HUGE decision for us.” The 1-0 upset for the Swiss has been the biggest shocker so far. Not to mention that the inordinate amount of ties and low scoring in the first several days of competition also increased bettors woes. The biggest match on the board so far ended in a bookies dream decision. When the U.S./England match ended in a tie, offshore operators were dancing in the street. Surprisingly, 5Dimes and several other books had a large decision fall their way when the host country South Africa drew against Mexico, who were the favorites going into the match.

However, the tournament has not been all peaches and cream for the bookmakers. Sportsbooks across the board got hammered in the Germany vs. Australia match. The spread was between -1.0 and -0.5,-1.0 goals while the action was all on Germany. The emphatic 4-0 win took much of the profits made in early matches off of the table.

It looks like we finally will get to see some scoring and most likely some increased action as the weaker teams get weeded out. Every sportsbook we spoke to expects to see increased handle as the competition becomes better and the odds grow tighter. If some of the more powerful teams like England and Spain can get back into form, bettors can expect a wild ride in what has been a muddled start to the World Cup.