Wagering surge expected ahead of the FIFA World Cup
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is expected to become one of the biggest betting events in history, with bookmakers, regulators and responsible gambling advocates already preparing for a wave of casual punters expected to flood into the market during the tournament.
Expanded to 48 teams and 104 matches across the United States, Canada and Mexico, the World Cup is projected to generate unprecedented betting turnover as football’s biggest event collides with the rapid growth of regulated online wagering markets worldwide.
Football betting sites are already seeing major activity in futures markets months before kick-off. According to BetMGM data, France has emerged as one of the bookmaker’s largest liabilities after heavy betting support shortened Les Bleus from 7.00 to 5.50 to win the tournament.
MORE: FIFA World Cup betting 2026
Star forward Kylian Mbappé has also attracted enormous attention in Golden Boot betting, accounting for more than 36% of the total handle wagered on the top goalscorer market.
But while international betting sites are preparing for record engagement, compliance experts warn the real challenge will come from the millions of short-term recreational bettors expected to enter the market during the tournament.
Strategic Advisor at 1xBet Simon Westbury said major sporting events naturally create emotional betting environments that attract consumers who may have little experience with gambling products or odds structures.
“Look, as an operator you naturally get excited about a World Cup — and so does the world,” Westbury said.
“It’s unscripted, dramatic and emotional, and that unpredictability is exactly what makes it so compelling, particularly for fans.”
Westbury said operators would be operationally prepared for the surge in activity, but warned that maintaining safe gambling standards during a World Cup would remain a major test for the industry.
“There will always be challenges to manage. That comes back to the commitment operators have to maintaining a safe environment throughout major sporting events like this,” he said.
The compliance spotlight is increasingly falling on casual bettors who may only gamble during major tournaments and often engage heavily with high-risk products such as same-game multis and long-shot accumulators.
These bet types, heavily promoted during global sporting events, can offer eye-catching payouts while carrying extremely low probabilities of success. Westbury said many recreational punters do not fully understand the mathematics behind those wagers.
“We’ve all seen it — someone in a pub putting £1 on to try to win a million,” he said.
“In reality, the odds are extremely long, but without an understanding of how odds work, that context is often lost.”
The World Cup is expected to drive enormous betting volume across outright winner markets, Golden Boot betting, match result wagering and increasingly complex same-game parlays combining goalscorers, cards, corners and player statistics.
For gambling regulators and operators alike, the challenge will be balancing the commercial opportunity of the world’s largest betting event with heightened expectations around consumer protection.
“We know the tools exist — deposit limits, loss limits, self-exclusion and time-outs are among the most effective measures available,” Westbury said.
“But for casual players, especially those entering the market during a World Cup, the question is whether they fully understand and engage with those tools.”
With betting markets expected to operate at record scale throughout the month-long tournament, the 2026 World Cup is increasingly being viewed not only as football’s biggest global spectacle, but also as one of the gambling industry’s largest compliance tests to date.
1xBet (1xBet review) is expected to be a major player during the soccer World Cup, with this bookmaker one of the fastest growing in recent recents years, including pushing into several regulated jurisdictions.
