World Cup betting could hit record $60 billion globally in 2026

Sportsbooks opened the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a six-week growth campaign, not just a soccer tournament. H2 Gambling Capital projects global legal betting handle at $60 billion, a figure that would make the event the largest gambling market of its kind and lift worldwide wagering 71% from 2022 and 185% from 2018.

The United States is set to be one of the biggest pieces of that surge. Industry estimates put legal U.S. sportsbook handle for the tournament at about $2.82 billion to $2.9 billion, more than double the roughly $900 million to $1 billion wagered legally on the 2022 World Cup. Another estimate puts global wagers above $50 billion, still far beyond the more than $35 billion that flowed through the 2022 event in Qatar.

The American Gaming Association said 20.5 million American adults, or 8%, planned to bet a total of $1.8 billion on the 2022 tournament, which it described as the first World Cup with widespread availability of legal sports betting in the United States. That legal footprint has only widened since then. One industry estimate counted 22 states with online wagering in 2022, while the 2026 tournament will unfold in a far larger regulated market and with a 48-team field that promises more matches, more betting windows and more opportunities for operators to chase new customers.

North America could account for a meaningful share of the global take. H2 analysts estimated that the United States, Canada and Mexico together could generate about $5.7 billion in World Cup betting handle, nearly 10% of worldwide volume. That would put the host countries near the center of the event’s gambling economy, not at its edges.

For DraftKings and FanDuel, the World Cup is also a market-share test. Recent data show DraftKings has regained the U.S. handle lead from FanDuel, with DraftKings at 35.8% and FanDuel at 32.0% as of March 2026. Together, the two books controlled 67.8% of regulated online sports-betting dollars, a level of concentration that makes the tournament a crucial proving ground for acquisition spending, marketing and retention.

The scale of the event also raises the stakes for regulators and responsible-gambling systems. A month of relentless betting traffic on a global tournament will not just measure demand for soccer wagers. It will show whether the legal market, now deeply embedded in American sports culture, can absorb another record-setting rush without losing control of the risks that come with it.