Taipei, July 16 (CNA) Taiwan saw record-breaking sports lottery ticket sales as a result of a betting bonanza during the 2018 FIFA World Cup held June 14-July 15 in Russia, the Taiwan Sports Lottery Co. reported Monday.

The Taiwan Sports Lottery generated NT$7 billion (US$233 million) in sales from the World Cup, with Sunday's final between France and Croatia alone creating a record NT$850 million in sales, according to the company.

The sales of NT$7 billion broke the Lottery's own record for any individual sports event sales set in 2014, when sales from the World Cup that year totaled NT$2.4 billion, which was around three times as much as the World Cup in 2010, according to the company.

Bets exceeded NT$400 million per game in the semifinals, according to the company.

Thanks to its windfall, the company is expected to inject NT$700 million into a sports development fund, it said.

Among the biggest winners was a better in Taichung who spent NT$5,000 and won NT$1.17 million, while another lucky winner was a man who serves as an honorary chairman of a parents association at a vocational high school in Tainan who bet NT$100 on the final, which netted him NT$13,000. The man has donated his winnings to the school.

(By Lung Po-an, Yang Sz-ruei and Evelyn Kao)
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