The 2026 World Cup has already set betting records before the knockout stages have even begun, with the number of teams increasing and favorable market times raising industry expectations that it could be the biggest betting event ever.
The expanded 48-nation, 104-match World Cup is set to far surpass the betting numbers for the 2022 tournament in Qatar, according to some industry leaders and experts, helped by more regulated gambling, deeper product offerings and the size of the business in co-host the United States.
Flutter Entertainment, whose brands include FanDuel, Paddy Power, Betfair, Sisal, Sportsbet and Sky Bet, said that, beyond the US, the big tournament meant greater participation in markets where it has a strong presence, including the UK, Spain, Brazil, Australia and Canada.
“We expect the World Cup to be the biggest betting event ever due to the expanded format as well as the benefit of being hosted in part in our main market, the United States,” a Flutter spokesperson said.
The world’s largest online betting company expects to have around 10 million customers across its various platforms and handle 100,000 bets per minute worldwide at peak World Cup times.
“Overall, we expect the involvement to be at least double what we got in Qatar.”
