SANTA CLARA, California — The 2026 World Cup is already rewriting the record books for sports gambling, and the knockout stage hasn’t even started yet. With more teams, more matches, and a growing legal betting market in the United States, industry insiders believe this tournament could go down as the largest betting event ever recorded.
The expanded tournament — featuring 48 nations and 104 matches — is expected to blow past the wagering totals seen during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Industry leaders point to a more regulated U.S. gambling market, richer product offerings, and the sheer scale of the American sports betting industry as key factors driving that growth.
Flutter Entertainment, whose portfolio of brands includes FanDuel, Paddy Power, Betfair, Sisal, Sportsbet, and Sky Bet, said the larger tournament format is boosting engagement not just in the U.S., but also in markets like Britain, Spain, Brazil, Australia, and Canada.
“We’re expecting the World Cup to be the biggest betting event of all time given the extended format as well as the benefit of it being partly hosted in our key market, the U.S.,” a Flutter spokesperson said.
The company — the world’s largest online betting operation — anticipates roughly 10 million customers across its various platforms, with up to 100,000 bets processed per minute at peak moments during the tournament. “Overall, we expect staking to be at least double what we experienced in Qatar,” the spokesperson added.
Financial firm Macquarie projects total World Cup wagering to surpass $50 billion worldwide, compared to $35 billion during the 2022 edition. A major factor behind that jump is the shifting legal landscape in the U.S., where access to legal sports betting has climbed to 65% of the population, up from roughly 40% in 2022.
The opening matches for both the United States and Brazil ranked as FanDuel’s top two soccer matches ever in terms of active customers. Those same two games were also the biggest events in DraftKings Sportsbook history, both for total money wagered and number of active customers.
Greg Karamitis, executive vice president and general manager for sports at DraftKings, described the early response as showing “tremendous engagement” and a massive surge in volume compared to the opening rounds of the Qatar tournament.
“We’ve seen a 3x increase in first-time predictions customers and an increase of 87% in predictions trading volume since the start of the tournament,” Karamitis said. “On the Sportsbook side, we’ve seen a 5x increase in handle compared to the 2022 World Cup.”
Deutsche Bank has set a base projection of $3.3 billion for World Cup handle in the U.S. alone — led by FanDuel and DraftKings — which would be nearly double the projected figures for this year’s Super Bowl.
Entain Group, whose brands include Ladbrokes, Coral, BetMGM, Sportingbet, bwin, and Sports Interaction, said game times and host locations are critical factors for betting companies. The group is benefiting from its presence in the U.S. and Brazil, though its CEO Stella David had earlier this year warned of a “rollercoaster ride” early on, due to the increased number of teams and high-scoring, lopsided matches.
Entain said it’s still too early to assess overall performance, noting that some surprising results — such as Spain’s scoreless draw with Cape Verde — were offset by dominant wins from top teams and goals from stars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, and Erling Haaland.
Some betting firms have rolled out more generous promotions to attract customers, including enhanced odds and policies that allow bets on specific players to carry over to their replacement if they are substituted during a match.
Britain’s bet365 reported paying out £30 million (approximately $39.5 million) in just the first 11 days of the tournament. Those payouts were driven in part by substitute players making an impact, including Crysencio Summerville scoring and recording an assist for the Netherlands against Sweden, and Marcus Rashford coming off the bench to score for England against Croatia.
William Hill, also based in the UK, said it made a six-figure payout tied to Messi’s first goal of the tournament, and a seven-figure payout within an eight-minute stretch to customers who had backed co-host Mexico to score first in the opening match against South Africa. The firm’s in-play player card betting also drew heavy interest during that game, which saw three red cards issued.
England’s 4-2 victory over Croatia was William Hill’s single largest betting event to date, with opening matches for Mexico, Brazil, and France also ranking among the most popular wagering contests.
“We’ve been encouraged by the level of engagement. We are over 20% ahead of where we predicted to be after the first round of fixtures,” said William Hill spokesperson Lee Phelps, though he noted that not all kickoff times were convenient for bettors in the UK.
Despite the record engagement, Macquarie cautioned that the 39-day tournament is primarily a customer acquisition opportunity for betting companies rather than an immediate revenue windfall. “The ultimate financial impact will depend on converting these players into repeat, multi-sport bettors,” the firm said.
