50% of all World Cup bets will be placed online

Around half of all World Cup wagers will be placed online, according to a London-based marketing firm.

Alex Hoye, chief executive of marketing and research company Latitude Digital Marketing, made the prediction speaking to Bloomberg’s Businessweek magazine.

The Businessweek article went on to state that web-gambling is much less profitable for bookmakers. Last year, William Hill’s gross margin at its betting shops was 17.7 percent, compared with 6.6 percent from online wagering.

According to Ireland’s biggest bookie, Paddy Power, UK bookmakers’ worst-case scenario at the World Cup would be for England to beat Spain in the final.

"If Fabio Capello’s team wins, we’re all basically stuffed," a spokesman for the firm said, according to Businessweek. "If Spain, the favorites, were to succumb to England in the final, we’d have lost money every step of the way."

With more than 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) predicted to be wagered on the tournament, the 2010 World Cup may yet be the biggest-ever sports-betting event.