THE expansion of the FIFA World Cup to 48 teams has delivered a significant commercial boost for the global sports betting industry, with operators reporting record wagering activity throughout the tournament and strong engagement ahead of Sunday's final between Spain and defending champions Argentina.
According to sports technology company Sportradar, betting volumes have risen by 80 per cent compared with the 2022 World Cup, exceeding internal forecasts despite the tournament's expanded schedule of 104 matches.
"We've seen an 80 per cent increase in the ticket volume," Darren Small, Senior Vice-President of Managed Trading Services at Sportradar, told AFP.
"So, we're seeing more bets and more active customers. We've seen record numbers and we've surpassed our expectations in terms of what we felt we were going to see if we compare it to 2022, which is a little difficult because it was different as it was in the winter."
For the 19 July final, Small said Sportradar expected to process around 8.5 million betting tickets across its network of approximately 250 bookmaker clients worldwide.
While the company anticipated growth because of the tournament's expansion from 64 to 104 matches, Small said broader industry growth had also contributed to the surge in betting activity.
"But we also expected it just because of the industry growth and general growth," he said.
England emerged as the most heavily backed team during the tournament despite falling short of the final, attracting approximately 16.3 million betting tickets. France followed with 15.5 million bets, ahead of Argentina with 15 million and Spain with 14.5 million.
The tournament's biggest betting event was England's 2-1 semi-final defeat to Argentina, which generated approximately 5.8 million betting tickets. England's 2-1 quarter-final victory over Norway ranked second with 5.7 million, while Spain's 2-0 semi-final win against France attracted around 5.3 million.
The larger tournament format also exceeded expectations among bookmakers, many of whom had feared that the expanded field would produce too many one-sided matches during the group stage.
David Stevens, Head of Public Relations at British bookmaker Coral, said those concerns proved unfounded.
"Our fear was there would be a large proportion of predictable results, with the so-called smaller nations offering little or no resistance to their established rivals," he told AFP.
"But in the event, that was not the case at all. Throughout the group stage there were plenty of matches where the result did not go according to the betting."
Stevens singled out Cape Verde as one of the tournament's standout performers after the African nation held both Argentina and Spain to draws before narrowly losing 3-2 to Argentina after extra time in the Round of 32.
"Special mention must go to Cape Verde," said Stevens.
"The Islanders are every bookmakers' new favourite team having held both Argentina and Spain to draws, so I suppose... to a large extent, those fears we had at the start didn't really come back to bite us."
Operators also credited the growing popularity of complex in-play and player-specific betting markets for boosting wagering volumes, allowing customers to combine multiple outcomes within a single bet.
"You could be backing Messi to score with his left foot in the first 25 minutes, Spain to go on to win 3-1 and there to be 15 corners, 2 assists," Small said.
Despite the success of the expanded tournament, bookmakers remain sceptical about proposals to increase the World Cup further to 64 teams, an idea floated by FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
"Would we welcome an even bigger World Cup in four years? 'No' is the simple answer," Stevens said.
"There has to be a point at which fans and punters alike switch off as a result of too many games, and 64 teams feels very much like that point."
"However, Mr Infantino wants it to happen, and therefore, it's probably a safe bet that it will happen, such is his current power over FIFA," he added. - July 19, 2026
