Icelanders bought nearly 183 thousand litres of alcohol for the play-off match on Friday, thereof 86 thousand litres of Christmas beer which was being launched that day.
In comparison, only 116,000 litres of alcohol were sold the Friday before, RÚV reports.
ÁTVR’s liquor stores start selling Christmas beer on November 15th each year. Last year, 81,000 litres of Christmas beer were sold during the first two days of its distribution, 29 thousand litres on the Thursday and 52 thousand litres on the Friday.
Last Friday marked not only the launch of Christmas beers but also Iceland’s most important day in football history thus far: the first leg of the World Cup play-offs.
It showed in a customer increase of 26% on that day, compared to November 15th 2012. Overall, there was a 15% increase in ÁTVR’s sale figures last weekend, compared to the same weekend last year.
The second leg of the play-offs takes place in Croatia on Tuesday evening, when Iceland might become the smallest nation to secure a seat in the World Cup.
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