ICE PREVIEW
World Cup 2026 presents a safe bet for sportsbook operators
As we look forward to the biggest ever FIFA World Cup being staged next summer across the US, Canada and Mexico, Rainer Lichtmannegger, SVP Sports Content Products at Sportradar explains why he believes it presents a great opportunity for betting operators globally to attract new fans from a whole host of countries.
T
he 2026 soccer World Cup will be the first ever to be hosted by three nations and has the potential to be the most bet upon
tournament ever.
The largest ever number of groups – 12 in total – will feature 48 teams and offer an extra 40 games, extending the tournament by a week, providing many more moments for customers to bet compared to the last event.
It will be interesting to see how this World Cup lands from a betting perspective in the US. The highest-profile global sporting tournament is taking place on home soil and may help to change the landscape in the US to engage more bettors in soccer, opening additional revenue streams.
Perhaps the widest selection of South and Central American and Caribbean teams to qualify will be of deeper significance. Columbia, Equador, Uruguay, Curacao, Haiti and Panama are now confirmed alongside giants of the footballing world such as Brazil and Mexico, with Argentina as the defending champion having won its third title in 2022. And the time zone is the best that fans in these countries could wish for, with the exception of hosting the tournament themselves.
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENTS Additionally, since the previous World Cup four years ago, it’s fair to say that technology has changed the world of betting and the customer experience that goes hand-in-hand with that. So, it raises a valid question, just how successful can the tournament be for operators this summer? From a Sportradar point of view, we see the revenue generating potential this extended
tournament offers our clients which is why we’re putting up full coverage for each of the competition’s 104 matches. This includes pre-match betting markets and in-play betting markets. What’s more, we know that live betting delivers significant returns for operators, particularly in soccer, so we will have a selection of micro markets available to engage bettors and further enhance the live sport experience. For the World Cup in 2022, the biggest percentage of bets at 16.2 per cent was driven by which team would win, player markets also delivered a robust 7.3 per cent.
Player props markets will be significant this time around. It used to be that players emerged during a World Cup as people had not heard of them before, but now fans are already familiar with them due to the changing nature of sports media consumption and fan engagement. This has shifted from following a team to following a specific player as social media and other factors help to build their profile outside of the game.
INCREASING ENGAGEMENT To really dial-up the engagement with soccer bettors during the competition, operators need to have an effective bet builder product in place. With 48 teams from across the world competing in next year’s World Cup, bet builders allow bettors to show off their football knowledge and team insights in a strategic way. Allowing bettors to customise their bets in this way can drive much needed engagement and open fresh revenues for operators.
Bet builders emerged during EURO 2024 as bettors took greater ownership of their football betting experience and this will only scale upwards for a World Cup. The impact will be
26 DECEMBER 2025 GIO
seen next year for the first time. To give an idea of popularity, during a big, televised football match, a Sunday Premier League fixture in the UK for example, I estimate that up to 30 per cent of pre-match Gross Gaming Revenue comes from bet builder bets. And I would certainly expect to see increased levels of activity during such a high-profile tournament this summer. Traditionally, global betting turnover is significant in even years featuring a major football tournament like the FIFA World Cup or European Championships, as the rest of global soccer is on hold while the competition takes place. The last World Cup in 2022 generated turnover of approximately €13 billion on behalf of clients through Sportradar’s Managed Trading Services (MTS).
CUSTOMER RETENTION We’ll understand the scale of any success operators have enjoyed once the World Cup has been and gone, but one key factor that then comes into play is how to retain new customers. Bettors may have come in purely as a result of the global tournament which now features their team or takes place on their time zone for the first time in many years.
One way of fostering loyalty with new customers is to provide different content that may appeal to them. If a bettor is only interested in the big sporting events or just one sport, they may not come back to a sportsbook for several weeks or even longer. Offering them alternative content in the form of casino games may be one option to retain them. Sportradar now offers a casino cross-sell tool that sits on an operator’s site and provides click-based evidence of what sort of games an individual customer is interested in. If the player clicks on any of the game icons they are served up, the tool registers that click and enables the operator to tailor a more personalised experience by offering similar games, for instance crash games instead of roulette games.
The forthcoming World Cup presents a significant opportunity for sportsbooks next summer and Sportradar is determined to help its clients make the most of it. For more information find us at ICE Barcelona 2026, January 19-21.
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