May 24, 2006, 9:54 GMT
Bangkok - More than 850,000 Bangkok residents will be betting an estimated 56 million dollars on the upcoming World Cup football matches in Germany, with most of them convinced that Brazil will emerge the champions, an opinion poll disclosed on Wednesday.
According to an Assumption University ABAC opinion poll of 1,584 people in Bangkok and its surrounding suburbs, 63.8 per cent of those surveyed said they intended to watch live broadcasts of the World Cup that will be held in Germany from June 9 to July 9.
That may prove bad news for employee productivity in the Thai capital as the live broadcasts will be keeping many people up all night, thanks to the six hour time difference between Germany and Thailand.
The ABAC poll estimated that some 850,173 of the Bangkok football fans, aged over 13, would be gambling on the games, with total bets calculated at 2.14 billion baht (56.3 million dollars).
Of the self-professed gamblers, some 83 per cent said they liked to bet on the games because it added excitment to their viewing pleasure, while 32 per cent they did it to sharpen their analytical skills.
Nearly half, or 57.9 per cent of the respondents, said that Brazil was most likely to win the tournament, while 19.6 per cent were betting on the UK and only 12 per cent on Germany.
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