Expanded 2026 World Cup sets record betting surge before knockout stage
Flutter expected 10 million customers and 100,000 bets a minute as the 48-team World Cup pushed global wagers past $50 billion.
The tournament opened on Thursday, June 11, in Mexico City, and is scheduled to end on Sunday, July 19, at MetLife Stadium in New York New Jersey, with 104 matches spread across 16 host cities in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
FIFA confirmed a record 1,248 players representing 48 nations on June 2. Flutter Entertainment expected about 10 million customers across its platforms and peak traffic of 100,000 bets a minute globally. Flutter’s brands include FanDuel, Paddy Power, Betfair, Sisal, Sportsbet and Sky Bet, and it said staking could be at least double what it saw in Qatar in 2022.
Macquarie put total global World Cup wagers above $50 billion, well ahead of the more than $35 billion handled in 2022. The jump from 32 teams to 48, the addition of 40 matches, and broader legal betting access in North America helped push the figure. Macquarie also estimated that legal sports betting now reached about 65% of the U.S. population, compared with roughly 40% during the 2022 tournament.
The early U.S. and Brazil matches already showed how concentrated that demand became. FanDuel said those games were its top two soccer matches ever by active customers, while DraftKings said they were the biggest events in its sportsbook history by handle and active customers. Handle is the total amount wagered by bettors, while active customers are registered bettors placing wagers.
The larger betting market raises the risk of illegal operators, match-fixing and financial-crime exposure, especially around a global event with massive public attention and heavy online traffic. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime called for coordinated action from governments, regulators, betting firms and sports bodies, and Brazil’s government intensified crackdowns on illegal online betting while directing seized funds toward public security.
Kalshi and Polymarket both saw surges in World Cup-related trading.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
