THE WREXHAM EFFECT

Has the Hollywood takeover of Wrexham impacted the popularity of non-league football betting? Gambling Insider explores...

There was shock around the football world in 2020 when actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney purchased non-league football club AFC Wrexham. It has been one of the biggest talking points outside the Premier League in British football for the last few years.

This has resulted in huge worldwide coverage for Wales’ oldest football club: sponsors such as TikTok are now appearing on the front of its shirts, A-list stars are coming to watch its games, matches are being shown on ESPN and major sporting networks around the world. And Wrexham is the only non-league team in the UK that has appeared on FIFA video games, with an 18-part documentary (Welcome To Wrexham) being created to showcase the whole process as streamed worldwide on Disney Plus. With the huge amount of media attention that has surrounded the team, it is almost surprising to remember that, for 15 years up until the end of the 2022-23 footballing season, Wrexham has played its football in the National League, the fifth division of English football; and the start of what is called ‘non-league’ football, the threshold between professional and unprofessional standards in the sport. As a result, the very word ‘Wrexham’ has changed, going from being just a noun, to a verb to showcase when a smaller team gets investment from high places.

To “do a Wrexham” is now a dream of most football teams in the UK. But what has the effect of this Hollywood takeover been on the betting activity in non-League football? Has non-league football wagering – in effect – had its own Wrexham effect?

Perhaps it would be fair to assume the increase in media attention will be directly reflected in the attention towards the amount of betting. But it is not as simple as that. We spoke to Alan Alger, betting industry expert who spent several years working for Betway owner Super Group, to find out more. Indeed, Alger suggested that, while the National League has been popular for sports betting this year, it is less about the star power of the team and more due to the nature of football betting. The ‘accumulator’ continues to be one of the most popular ways to bet on football. With a huge list of games taking place all over the world, bettors can pick several teams to win and build up bigger odds.

With Wrexham enjoying a huge increase in funding, it is the wealthiest team in its division and subsequently won the 2022-23 National League. It was a league with one or two teams that are much stronger than the rest of the division. In this case, The National League is very similar to Scottish football, where it is heavily dominated by two teams, Rangers and Celtic. Teams like these are big hits with bettors – in this case, Wrexham and Notts County are the two most dominant in the division, providing the perfect mix for accumulator inclusion.

In the 2022-23 season, both Wrexham and Notts County had fantastic seasons, scoring over 100 points each. This made them a regular addition to most punters’ weekend accumulators. They were the new bankers – particularly league champion Wrexham. However, Alger argues that this has not had a huge effect elsewhere in the league: “I think the change in traffic has just been reflected by punters noticing Wrexham and Notts County are almost bankers for accumulator bets. The punter has so many more choices now in terms of foreign leagues and lower leagues. All they’re really looking for is a team that’s in a winning habit and seems to be returning a tick on their accumulator each week.”

It is hard to say with complete certainty how many bets elsewhere in the league are a direct result of the spotlight that has been placed on Wrexham. Alger tells Gambling Insider: “I don’t think it’s benefited the league overall in terms of people.” But it has certainly resulted in Wrexham being a hugely popular option for betting for the overall League Winner market, having odds of 6/5 at the start of the season and being a strong favourite. Alger even added that “most betting firms reported Wrexham was getting Championship-level amounts being wagered on.”

When asked whether there would be any increase in betting in League Two next season, Alger replied:

“The National League over the last two full seasons of Hollywood involvement at Wrexham has seen quite incredible statistics. There was an amazing stat that after the Liverpool v Arsenal 2-2 in April, the interactions on social media after the game with both clubs were lower than the Notts County v Wrexham interactions after the game the same weekend.

“That includes full-time interactions with posts from the clubs and even score updates during the matches. Now that is quite incredible because Twitter is global. There’s no real restriction to what and where you can consume. The tweets from the clubs and the fact that they were much higher than two firmly established global clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal really shows you how many eyeballs were actually on the league. But I’m not entirely sure that will translate to betting interest. I think Wrexham will carry a little bit through to League Two next year. I think people are interested in seeing their title price.”

It is hard to judge what betting activity is directly caused by Wrexham simply being the most famous club in the league and whether this is because it is in fact one of the best teams in the league. In the United Kingdom, BT (soon to be TNT) televises around 20 to 25 games in the division each season. As a result of this, it is hard for fans to gain full knowledge of a team they may only have access to watch just once a season. Therefore, bettors don’t have the knowledge to necessarily place confident bets in the league. But this is no longer true of Wrexham. Incredibly, Wrexham is already the favourite to win League Two (its new division) in the 2023/24 season, with odds of 7/2. While this is a fair reflection on form, it will have been influenced by the increase in exposure around the club (as well as the funds available to it). Even compared to the clubs in top divisions, there is a huge amount of publicity, but when you compare this to that of the teams that are in the same league, it is astronomical.