Odds are, they're betting on FIFA

China's national soccer team didn't make it to the World Cup finals, but that hasn't stopped the country's soccer fans from placing record bets on the outcome of the event.

According to the National Sports Lottery Center, the industry regulator, more than 150 million yuan ($24 million) in sales were recorded on June 12, the tournament's opening day.

And in the first five days of the event, nationwide match-betting ticket sales reached 748 million yuan, up 482 percent from last year, while regular lottery sales only went up by 1.54 percent over the same period.