From 20-somethings to baby boomers and avid fans to casual followers, few events tap into the psyche of the public like the FIFA World Cup.
However, the 2026 edition in the United States, Canada and Mexico will be like nothing ‘the beautiful game’ has seen before, heralding an unprecedented opportunity for sports betting providers worldwide.
The last time the World Cup visited North America was in 1994, when new benchmarks were set in terms of attendance, viewing figures and commercial success. Indeed, a cumulative audience totaling roughly six times the population of Earth tuned into broadcast coverage of the US showpiece – a record that still stands to this day.
A new betting benchmark
Such engagement is set to surpass these levels next year, with a tournament marking a watershed moment for betting in a World Cup year. With 48 teams, the number of competing nations is jumping by 16 and will have doubled since 1994 – extending what was a 29-day, 64-game competition for the 2022 edition in Qatar into a sprawling 39-day carnival of 104 matches.
The volume of betting opportunities is rocketing – but so is the number of nations engaged in the tournament.
For sportsbook provider Kambi, “the scale of the 2026 World Cup makes it unlike anything before”, with more teams, players and opportunities for sportsbooks to engage, acquire and retain customers.
“From Kambi’s perspective, the fundamentals remain the same as major sporting events like this are exactly what Kambi was built to deliver,” Kambi’s SVP Trading, Simon Noy, says. “We’ve consistently demonstrated reliability and performance during the biggest sporting moments, and that trust is critical for operators and players alike.”
Engaging markets
From soccer powerhouses like England and Brazil to first-time-in-a-generation qualifiers such as Austria and Scotland, this World Cup will truly drive global interest. As a result, sportsbooks will have an opportunity to make inroads into a larger number of regulated betting markets than ever before.
“Soccer isn’t the dominant sport in the US, so this presents a rare acquisition opportunity for sportsbooks in a market where interest is growing but far from peaked,” Noy adds.
“Meanwhile, Mexico and Latin America will see very high levels of engagement, as soccer is by far the biggest sport in the region. The recent launch of Brazil’s regulated market adds another layer of opportunity. For sportsbooks, the ability to deliver a flexible, localised product offering tailored to each country will be crucial to success.”
On the flipside, though, more mismatches – particularly in the group stages – look inevitable. The expanded tournament has opened the door to footballing minnows like Haiti, Cape Verde, and perhaps most notably of all Curaçao which, despite being a familiar name in gambling circles, is the smallest country to have ever qualified.
The potential for landslide results will help to shape strategies as operators aim to optimise their World Cup betting offerings for greater engagement and retention.
“The expansion looks great on paper – more games mean more engagement – but there’s a risk that the quality of matches could be diluted,” Noy explains. “For sportsbooks, this makes depth of offering absolutely critical to keep bettors engaged throughout the tournament where either a match is of lower quality or where the outcome is all but a foregone conclusion.”
Player props on the rise
As part of a varied sportsbook offering, player props have become an indispensable part of the product mix.
Player props accounted for 35% of Bet Builder turnover on the Kambi network during the Euro 2024 international football tournament. The provider anticipates this trend to accelerate during the World Cup.
More broadly, Kambi expects further growth with its Bet Builder, with the product having accounted for 22% of pre-match bets during the 2022 World Cup and 31% during Euro 2024 on the Kambi network. During this year’s Nations League finals, Kambi saw that figure increase to 57% which gives some indication as to how popular Bet Builder could be at the 2026 World Cup.
“Bet Builder itself has arguably been the biggest industry game-changer in recent years,” Noy says. “Our product offers unmatched depth of combinability, plus live and cash-out functionality which are features that could prove useful for player engagement, especially if we see more uncompetitive games.”
As the tournament progresses, the big names will clash in the knockout stages – and highly competitive fixtures that lead to extra-time and possibly penalties will be likely. These high-drama moments, though, will bring obvious challenges.
“Managing these moments is complex: large sportsbooks must settle hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pre-match and live bets from normal time while simultaneously handling a surge in new betting activity,” Noy adds. “Only sportsbooks with elite trading expertise and high-performance technology can do this seamlessly without compromising the user experience.”
AI-powered pricing
The depth of offering will be essential for a sportsbook to retain engagement throughout the tournament.
This is where Kambi believes its AI-powered pricing and trading capabilities offer a unique advantage by delivering improved efficiency, enhanced risk management, instantaneous market creation and greater pricing accuracy.
Arguably, a more important benefit is that AI trading enables a more expansive product offering than would be possible under solely human control.
“We’re on track for the World Cup to be the first major soccer tournament fully traded by AI,” Noy shares. “For bettors, this means access to rich, engaging markets even for teams and players that casual bettors may not be familiar with. For operators, it means confidence that the offering will scale while also delivering higher margins.”
From Kambi’s perspective, the World Cup is not just a peak event but a gateway for thousands of new bettors experiencing its product or sports betting in general for the first time. This sets a high expectation for future experiences.
Unlike manual-led operators who throw extra bodies and resources at marquee tournaments like the World Cup but struggle to maintain standards during domestic seasons, Kambi’s AI-driven trading enables the sportsbook provider to deliver consistent quality across top leagues year-round. This ensures that the elevated experience bettors enjoy during the World Cup becomes the benchmark for their ongoing engagement.
Risk management
With an increasingly varied product offering, there are inevitable implications for risk management.
Illustrating the challenge, Kambi highlights how player props have increased by a multiple of 12 and there has been a 227% increase in events offered over the last decade. With 24 matches in the first round of games during the World Cup group phase, there is a higher likelihood of low stake, high payout combinations from bettors.
Therefore, it is crucial to ensure pricing and risk management is correct so the right balance can be struck between driving turnover and controlling the significant liabilities generated by such activities.
“At Kambi, risk management is about enabling sustainable growth and finding the sweet spot between maximising profitable opportunities and minimising risk, while maintaining an optimal player experience,” Noy says.
“Our global partner network gives us a significant advantage here. By analysing betting patterns across a vast and diverse player base, we can identify anomalies and risks earlier than operators working in isolation.
“This data-driven approach allows us to optimise trading and risk strategies for each operator’s goals. The insights we derive from the Kambi network enable us to tailor risk controls dynamically, ensuring operators can execute their strategy effectively during the high-volume, high-diversity environment of World Cup 2026.”
Understanding bettors’ behaviour
Data-driven insights are also being used to understand the behaviour of bettors – and what they are likely to do. Kambi operates one of the most extensive and active sports betting networks worldwide, with approximately €17bn (£14.9bn/$20bn) in liquidity processed through its sportsbook, which has more than 50 partners across six continents.
“It’s a truly global and diverse ecosystem, so every bet placed continuously enriches a broad, representative dataset that reflects how different player cohorts behave across markets, sports and moments in play,” Noy says.
“We’re on track for the World Cup to be the first major soccer tournament fully traded by AI”
“The result is a network effect that compounds value for every partner: the more operators and players in the ecosystem, the smarter and more precise we can become, benefiting odds accuracy, product relevance and operational readiness.”
The same data engine is used to guide strategic decisions too.
“It shapes our roadmap towards the markets, features and front‑end journeys we know will resonate at scale during the World Cup, while preserving flexibility to localise experiences across, for example, North America and Latin America, including newly regulated markets such as Brazil,” Noy adds.
“In short, Kambi’s unmatched data capabilities allow us to anticipate what bettors want, where and when they want it, and deliver it at the speed and reliability a tournament of this magnitude demands.”
Preparations and collaboration
Kambi’s preparations for a tournament like the World Cup touch every part of the business and begin as soon as the previous edition of the tournament has concluded.
The multi-faceted process involves rigorous planning and stress-testing to handle the surge in activity associated with 104 matches over 39 days, with underlying models validated to ensure systems can scale during peak periods of demand.
Kambi also stresses the importance of working closely with partners in this build-up phase – collaborating on everything from market depth and promotional strategies to front-end delivery. It is during this process that offerings can be tailored accordingly for different regions, where player expectations and regulatory environments vary.
“Every team at Kambi, whether they are focused on pricing, risk, product development or partner success, plays a role in creating a flexible and high-performance product that can deliver when it matters and ensures our partners are equipped to deliver a world-class sportsbook experience from the beginning,” Noy says.
While there will be winners and losers on the pitch next summer in North America, Kambi is focusing on ensuring the World Cup is part of a growth journey for its clients – rather than a one-off peak.
While next year’s football showpiece represents a unique opportunity to grab the attention of bettors, Kambi is as focused on delivering long-term retention as it is on short-term acquisition for its operator partners. By using AI and data-driven solutions to maintain the same high standards beyond the tournament, the home of premium sports betting solutions is confident of meeting the expectations set during this global event and driving sustainable growth for operators long after the trophy is lifted on 19 July.
Kambi’s SVP Trading, Simon Noy
The expanded 2026 World Cup presents sportsbooks with a powerful opportunity to engage fans in regulated markets worldwide. Kambi’s SVP Trading, Simon Noy, reveals how its technology, trading expertise and global data-driven network is equipping operators for sustainable, long-term growth long after the trophy has been lifted.