With the expanded tournament expected to generate more than $50bn in betting turnover, Sportradar’s Rainer Geier says operators are turning to automation and real-time analytics to manage risk and capture new audiences.
The 2026 World Cup will be the largest in history in terms of teams and geography. How is Sportradar scaling its infrastructure to meet that demand?
I’ve worked in this industry for more than 25 years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sports event generate this level of interest and excitement – it’s remarkable. Analysts suggest that betting turnover on the tournament will surpass $50 billion worldwide, which is quite staggering.
The hope for operators is that the high level of interest will translate into significantly higher volumes of betting activity. From a Sportradar perspective, while there will undoubtedly be an increase in the number of betting tickets we process on behalf of our clients through Managed Trading Services (MTS), the service can scale to meet demand.
This means that our clients will always be able to get their tickets processed regardless of an events popularity. To give you an idea of the volume of betting tickets we handle through MTS, last year we processed more than 10 billion betting tickets, of which approximately 70 per cent were for soccer.
What lessons have been learned from previous major tournaments that are shaping preparation for this year’s edition?
One general trend during the last World Cup in 2022 was seeing customers often back multiples on the three matches played each day rather than larger accumulators over the entire Group Phase. Over the course of the 2022 tournament, Sportradar processed more than 75,000,000 multi bets on behalf of its clients via Managed Trading Services (MTS).
We expect to see greater engagement with multi-bets and bet builder bets over the course of the tournament as they provide operators with an effective means of engaging the new and casual bettors that find a World Cup so attractive to bet on.
These products make the tournament more accessible to those recreational punters as the bet types require less knowledge of the sport, teams or odds.
In anticipation of this we’ve enhanced our Bet Builder offering, extending coverage to more than 120 pre-match markets and more than 80 live markets, while there are dynamic new UX features including AI personalised pre-built bets and multi-match combos.
What role do is AI and automation likely to play for Sportradar this tournament?
While global sports events like the World Cup present significant commercial potential for operators, the biased or one-sided betting behaviours displayed amongst customers present significant risk and higher liabilities.
For example, operators see high levels of patriotic betting during a World Cup, with bettors getting behind their national team to win a match regardless of the odds.
We’re using advanced automation and artificial intelligence to directly address the liability and risk concerns that operators have. Operators can use Alpha Odds, our AI-driven odds personalisation technology. to recalculate their financial exposure in real-time, during a game. This allows operators to manage their liabilities with greater precision while reducing risk and enhancing profitability.
What this means for operators, for example, is that if one team is heavily favoured to win a match, Alpha Odds helps clients manage risk in real-time and continue to accept bets as goals are tallied and the scoreline grows.
Over the course of 2025, the Alpha Odds model delivered an average profit increase of 10% across soccer. We anticipate a greater number of Alpha Odds integrations ahead of the World Cup as operators seek to optimise their performance this summer.
Additionally, while a conventional odds service leaves operators vulnerable to a matchday of customer friendly results, such as all the favourites winning by two or more goals, Alpha Odds’ predictive capabilities enable instant adjustments, safeguarding sportsbooks against significant losses, as a match unfolds.
What impact, if any, do you think this World Cup will have on the convergence between media, betting and advertising through real-time data activation?
Real-time data activations are becoming increasingly popular as a means of engaging fans during live sport and I can see operators increasing marketing budget allocation towards this form of advertising throughout the World Cup.
I think this is the first World Cup tournament where the technology has existed to process, analyse and act on live sporting events at low latency. This allows ads to be synchronised with game moments, enhancing their impact and relevance.
When fans experience triumph or heartbreak in real-time, they become highly receptive to messages that resonate with their emotional state. I can see a World Cup where brands, not just betting operators by the way, are seizing on these ‘moments that matter’ to unlock new revenue opportunities.
What advice would you give to marketers looking to maximise the World Cup opportunity for their sportsbook?
This year’s expanded World Cup represents a significant acquisition opportunity for operators, particularly in the nascent markets of host countries Canada and the U.S.
We see operators invest heavily into acquisition campaigns, using AI-driven solutions, like Sportradar ad:s, to onboard customers with personalised and contextually relevant adverts.
Given the high levels of engagement expected over the course of the 40-day tournament, operators will have a depth of customer insight that can be used to deliver personalised retention campaigns that address an individual’s preferences.
It’s the increased availability of AI-driven tools that are helping marketers to make sense of the data and deliver effective and efficient CRM campaigns. For example, Sportradar offers World Cup 2026 tailored insights which can be used to improve prediction accuracy of player churn probability, wagering amount and number of active days.
One other consideration is the reactivation of players. Every operator has a database that is inactive. These are customers who have done the hard work in terms of creating an account, depositing and placing a bet. By using reactivation models, personalisation rewards and offering of outright markets, operators can engage their lapsed customers with tailored offers to yield positive ROI.
These are critical insights that operators can use to improve retention at a time when volumes are very high and even marginal performance increases can be crucial.
The post The Data Race Behind World Cup 2026 appeared first on G3 Newswire.
With the expanded tournament expected to generate more than $50bn in betting turnover, Sportradar’s Rainer Geier says operators are turning to automation and real-time analytics to manage risk and capture new audiences. The 2026 World Cup will be the largest in history in terms of teams and geography. How is Sportradar scaling its infrastructure to…
The post The Data Race Behind World Cup 2026 appeared first on G3 Newswire.