As it did in many areas around the world, the 2018 FIFA World Cup soccer championship series provided some financial assistance to Taiwan. The country’s sports lottery saw a serious boost in sales in June, increasing by 73% to reach total revenue of $170 million. Even better, for the first half of the year, sports lottery sales were quadruple that amount, increasing by 11% year-on-year to reach $667.9 million.

The improvement follows a trend that began in 2013. According to information from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), sports lottery sales revenue has increased every year since then. The sales in the first half of 2018 was 60% of the total sales for last year, $1.08 billion.

The majority of the lottery sales – 81% – came from physical gambling locations, while only 1% was generated online. All proceeds, according to the DGBAS, from the lottery sales go directly for sports development in the country.

Around the world, the World Cup helped boost revenue for a number of countries. For example, France reported that sportsbooks covered $336 million in World Cup-related bets, almost double what was seen in 2014. In the UK, over $3.2 billion was gambled, over twice the amount bet in the previous World Cup matches.