The Fifa World Cup really grabbed the attention of football fans and gamblers in China, according to data from the state broadcaster and sports lottery.CCTV, the state broadcaster, shared that its tournament broadcasts, special programming and news coverage reached a cumulative cross-media audience of more than 70 billion individual views by the eve of the World Cup final.During the final between Argentina and Spain, the broadcaster revealed that live cross-media broadcasts reached a cumulative audience of 282 million, peaking with a real-time viewership of 41.23 million.It was not just casual football fans who enjoyed the World Cup – gamblers also watched with heightened tension as China’s sports lottery market experienced a surge in sales during the tournament.Official China Sports Lottery data showed that weekly sales for single-match betting games across the six weeks from the opening match on June 8 to the eve of the final on July 19 were 6.87 billion yuan (US$1.014 billion), 15.15 billion yuan, 16.27 billion yuan, 17.20 billion yuan, 16.84 billion yuan and 10.98 billion yuan.Lottery sales peaked in the first week of the knockout stage, at 17 billion yuan. Photo: ShutterstockThe total amount spent on gambling across the period was 83.3 billion yuan.