What is the Wrexham effect and how is it impacting sports betting?
Wrexham AFC’s meteoric rise to fame, thanks to the docuseries ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ has caused sports betting to skyrocket in a phenomenon that has been dubbed the ‘Wrexham Effect’.
Gambling giant Entain’s UK sportsbook reported a nearly 60 per cent surge in bets during the National League’s 2021-22 season compared to 2017-18 – the 2019-20 season making a poorer comparison point due to Covid.
Bets on rival club Notts County FC, which placed silver behind Wrexham AFC’s gold in the 2022/23 National League season, increased 89 per cent from the previous year.
Wrexham across the pond
Since Hollywood legends Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought the Welsh football club in November 2020, Wrexham AFC has soared to heights of global stardom that its owners could only dream of.
Across the pond in the US, the number of Betmgm bets placed on any Wrexham game skyrocketed by 3818 per cent from the 2020-21 season to the 2022-23 season.
Google Trends data even revealed that Wrexham AFC became one of the most searched for teams in the US, surpassing the nation’s largest soccer league, Major League Soccer (MLS).
The Wrexham Effect has even made it to Australia. Entain said bets on the club’s football games between 2019-20 and 2022-23 grew 781 per cent.
Premiering last August, ‘Welcome to Wrexham’, is an American series documenting Reynolds and McElhenney’s journey learning to run the world’s third oldest professional football club.
Rated an impressive 91 per cent on movie and TV review site Rotten Tomatoes, it’s not the only sporting docuseries to score a hit with audiences worldwide.
NBA bets shot up 46 per cent after Netflix’s ‘The Last Dance’ aired in 2020, while Formula 1 drove a 142 per cent US betting increase following the popularity of ‘Drive to Survive’ series on Netflix in 2022.
Dominic Grounsell, chief commercial officer at Entain, hailed the shift in sports engagement.
He said the success of behind-the-scenes style sporting docuseries “highlight the importance of finding new and innovative ways for fans to interact with sports and support their favourite teams,” which they can extend with a bet.
“At Entain, we’re constantly monitoring how this movement is evolving, listening to our customers, and creating content that resonates with them,” he added.