The FIFA World Cup is a cultural phenomenon. It draws viewers from across the globe, many of whom are not traditional football fans or regular bettors. It taps into national pride like no other sporting event and with this year’s expanded format of 48 teams instead of 32, the 2026 World Cup is expected to be the most viewed tournament ever, and the biggest ever for sportsbooks.

The World Cup always drives a spike in sportsbook activity and the last tournament in Qatar in 2022 attracted an audience of over five billion people across all platforms.

With this year’s tournament featuring matches played across the United States, Canada and Mexico, it gives operators the opportunity to tap into the growing interest in ‘soccer’ in the US and Canada, and to expand their reach in South America due to viewer-friendly match times.

In this series of articles, the industry’s leading operators and suppliers speak to Gaming Intelligence about the importance of the tournament from a customer acquisition and engagement perspective and explain what the sportsbooks have planned for what is expected to be their biggest betting event.

In part one of our supplier series, we hear from Sportradar and Kambi.

Sportradar

“You can’t underestimate the importance of the FIFA World Cup to the betting industry,” says Darren Small, senior vice president of Managed Trading Services (MTS) at Sportradar. “The global popularity of football means that it’s one of the few sports events that drives a tangible increase in betting activity.”

From Sportradar’s perspective, the FIFA World Cup is the most valuable football content that the company offers to its network of 800 sportsbook operator clients.

“We see the revenue generating potential that this summer’s expanded tournament offers to clients which is why we’re putting up full coverage for each of the competition’s 104 matches. This includes up to 190 pre-match betting markets and up to 200 in-play betting markets,” Small explains.

“Every four years we see how the World Cup brings fans from the same country together to support their national team and this tends to lead to an increase in patriotic betting amongst recreational bettors.

“What we typically see with recreational bettors is a preference for action-based bets involving favourites and high scoring events. Given the competition is now made up of 48 teams with some nations making their debut, there could be matches in which customers really chase goals to be scored.”

During the 2022 World Cup, Sportradar saw bettors often back multiples on the three matches played each day rather than larger accumulators over the entire Group Phase, with the company processing more than 75 million multi bets on behalf of its clients via MTS.

“The momentum behind multi bets and bet builders bets is likely to continue into this year’s World Cup,” adds Small. “In anticipation of this we’ve enhanced our Bet Builder offering, extending coverage to more than 120 pre-match markets and more than 80 live markets, while there are dynamic new UX features including AI personalised pre-built bets and multi-match combos.”

Small notes that technology has evolved significantly since the last World Cup, with greater use of artificial intelligence within the betting industry.

“Ahead of the Qatar competition we introduced Alpha Odds, our AI-driven odds personalisation technology which delivers bespoke pricing for betting operators and recalculates financial exposure in real time. At the time of launch Alpha Odds was available for operators to use in soccer on pre-match markets only. Since then, we’ve developed the product significantly, extending the AI capabilities to live betting markets as well.

“We anticipate a greater number of Alpha Odds integrations ahead of the World Cup as operators seek to maximise profits and efficiently manage risk on a tournament where more than $150 billion is expected to be wagered by bettors worldwide,” he says. “What this means for operators, for example, is that if one team is heavily favoured to win a match, Alpha Odds helps clients manage risk in real-time and continue to accept bets as goals are tallied and the scoreline grows.

“Additionally, while a conventional odds service leaves operators vulnerable to a matchday of customer friendly results, such as all the favourites winning by two or more goals, Alpha Odds’ predictive capabilities enable instant adjustments, safeguarding sportsbooks against significant losses, as a match unfolds.”

Sportradar also has other innovations lined up for this year’s tournament which will help operators tap into the growing fandom around individual players.

“We’re expecting high level of interest in live player markets for the World Cup, particularly when player markets, or player props as they’re known in North America, drive such high levels of engagement in the United States.

“We fully understand that our clients want to meet this increased consumer demand, so we’ve developed a comprehensive range of players markets to help operators engage more deeply. Live player markets available at the World Cup will include player assist, player to score outside the box and player to be carded.”

The last World Cup was a record breaker for Sportradar, setting a single-day turnover record of approximately €150 million for clients of MTS, as well as record single day profit of over €25m as both Quarter Final matches went to a penalty shootout – a huge result for MTS and the industry.

“Given the sheer number of matches being played during the 2026 expanded format, I would fully anticipate those records to be broken,” Small concludes. “The most popular bet type in 2022 was 1X2 followed by Totals. However, we expect to see a significant increase in Custombet/BetBuilder activity in the upcoming FIFA World Cup.”

Kambi

The core ambition driving Kambi’s approach to the 2026 World Cup remains the same as it would for any major sporting event says Danny Skelton, Kambi’s head of soccer.

“Our mission is to provide our more than 50 partners with the depth of offering, quality of product and strength of risk management which empowers them to grow faster than the market. We’ve consistently demonstrated reliability and performance during the biggest sporting moments, and that trust is critical for operators and players alike.

“The 2026 World Cup affords a rare opportunity for sportsbooks in a tournament which will draw billions of viewers and global fan engagement. Being hosted in part in the US and Canada, where football is not the dominant sport (unlike in fellow host Mexico), operators have real potential to drive engagement in a sport which is growing but has far from peaked,” he explains. “With 104 matches featuring 48 nations it will be one of the biggest ever drivers of global betting activity, and for operators with the depth and quality of sports betting products to rise to the occasion it promises unprecedented potential for building customer acquisition, brand loyalty and long-term share of wallet.

“With a major international tournament in any sport there are always intricacies in betting behaviour which must be taken into account. Global events such as the World Cup are capable of capturing the imaginations of fans all over the world, offering sportsbooks robust customer acquisition opportunities.

“Given it is such a large tournament with teams of varying strengths, it will be vital for sportsbooks to have a deep range of stats bets and player props. These are becoming as popular as the traditional 1×2 market in some cases. To offer an example, during Euro 2024 player props accounted for 35% of Bet Builder turnover on the Kambi network, a trend we anticipate will accelerate during the World Cup.”

Skelton emphasises the importance of a top-quality penalty shoot-out product for major tournaments like the World Cup, especially with such a large field which has been expanded to 48 teams and will feature 32 teams in the knockout rounds.

“In the Euro 2024 match between Portugal and France, for example, Kambi’s penalty product drove 17% of total bets, despite the shoot-out accounting for 8% of total match time,” he says. “Enabling bettors to bet not only on whether a penalty will be scored, but also the manner in which it might be missed – be that saved, hitting the woodwork or missing the frame of the goal entirely – Kambi’s penalty offering is proven to drive extensive spikes in betting activity.”

“From a commercial perspective, the expansion in Kambi’s product portfolio, growing beyond our full Turnkey Sportsbook to encompass a range of standalone solutions, means we have a product suite which can adapt to any operator’s strategic requirements. Taking our Odds Feed+ product as an example, any operator aiming to enhance their soccer offering ahead of the World Cup can access Kambi’s entire library of actively traded odds through a single API integration.”

“In any technology-driven sector to stand still is to be left behind, and at Kambi we are always looking to build on our product capabilities from a position of strength,” Skelton adds. “Key players such as Harry Kane, Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé will be the focus of plenty of discussion, and we will be expanding our offering with a wide variety of player matchups – for example, giving customers the opportunity to bet on whether Kane or Yamal will score more goals in a match between England and Spain.

“Markets such as ‘goalkeeper saves’, ‘player shots’ and ‘player assists’ have proven extremely popular in pre-match and will be further expanded across our live product. We are also going to be enhancing our award-winning Bet Builder product with even greater live functionality, enabling in-play bets on markets including corners, cards and ‘player shots on target’.

“The rise and rise of the bet builder is well documented and the pronounced growth in popularity and ability to keep bettors engaged was on display during the 2022 World Cup. This has only intensified in the years which have followed. During the 2022 tournament a quarter of all pre-match coupons contained a bet builder, while bettors who placed a combination bet were 23% more likely to be retained throughout the tournament.

“When comparing the 2024 UEFA European Championship and Copa América with previous incarnations the growth is even more evident. A total of 8% and 10% of bets on the Euros and Copa América in 2021 were bet builders, outstripped by figures of 18% and 24% respectively on the 2024 tournaments.

Skelton concludes: “Offering extensive market coverage, cash-out across both prematch and in-play, as well as the opportunity for partners to create bespoke ‘specials’ without the need for direct input from Kambi, our Bet Builder will provide operators with the deep combinability they need to meet customer demands throughout the 2026 World Cup.”