The World Cup Challenge? Adapting to the Clock
With World Cup matches taking place across North America, many kick-offs will fall late at night or early in the morning for fans in Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. This shift means sportsbooks must rethink how to keep players active and engaged when most of their audience is offline, explains Sergey Tsukanov, Chief Product Officer at BETBY.
Te 2026 World Cup will be the biggest in history, featuring more teams, more matches, and, for the first time, three host countries: the US, Canada, and Mexico. But while its scale will bring huge global attention, it will also create one of the tournament’s biggest operational tests: time-zone disruption.
To succeed, operators will need to plan early and adopt tools and strategies that turn this time gap into a new source of engagement rather than a loss of it.
In most major tournaments, betting activity peaks when fans are watching games live. During the World Cup in Qatar, for example, European audiences enjoyed midday and evening fixtures, perfect times for live betting. In 2026, the situation will be very different.
A typical group-stage day could see matches starting at 11 pm, 2 am, and 5 am CET, pushing the main betting windows into hours when most European users are asleep. Tis could lead to fewer in-play bets, shorter sessions, and lower activity around key moments.
For instance, during the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Reuters reported that British bookmakers recorded lower betting volumes than during the previous European Championship, largely due to early-morning kick-offs. Meanwhile, SportBusiness noted that European TV audiences were “stifled by the time-zone effect.” Together, these examples show how simple timing can influence engagement long before the first whistle.
RETHINKING THE LIVE EXPERIENCE
To reduce the impact of overnight kick-offs, operators need to rethink what “live” really means. Success in 2026 will depend on giving
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players ways to stay involved before, during, and after matches, even if they can’t watch them in real-time.
How? Tools such as Auto Cashout and Early Payout are key enablers here. Tese features allow players to set profit or risk thresholds so bets can settle automatically, removing the fear of missing out or losing a bet while asleep.
As Sergey Tsukanov, Chief Sportsbook Officer at BETBY, explains: “European bettors won’t stay up for every 3 am match, but if they trust your tools to manage their bets, they’ll still engage. Auto cashout and early payout can turn passive hours into active engagement.”
Similarly, pre-event customisation - scheduling in-play bets based on predefined scenarios - lets players stay active even when offline. For instance, “Place a bet if Brazil concedes before halftime” or “If odds on Morocco to win rise above 3.0, place a €10 bet.”
In this sense, automation isn’t just convenient but also a guarantee of continued engagement.
KEEPING OFF-HOURS ACTIVE
Another way for operators to increase activity in their platforms is through content scheduling. By aligning push notifications, bet suggestions, and highlighted content with users’ waking hours - not the match times - sportsbooks can reframe the whole experience.
BETBY’s AI-powered personalisation engine is built exactly for this. It surfaces relevant events and insights dynamically, adapting in real- time to each player’s timezone and behaviour. Instead of waking up to missed games, players wake up to context: results, recommendations,
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