May 29, 2026
The official FIFA 2026 Football World Cup ball is seen during the draw for the tournament taking place in the US, Canada and Mexico, at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, DC, on December 5, 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
Global betting revenue for the upcoming World Cup is likely to be “in excess of $50 billion”, betting expert Darren Small told AFP, for an event he labelled “the biggest circus in town.”
The revenue will be significantly higher than the 2022 edition, partly because the quadrennial football fiesta has been enlarged to 48 teams from the 32 in Qatar.
Another factor according to Small, Managing Director of Managed Trading Services at Sportradar, is punters have become more “interested in the celebrity of a player” than in the old days of betting simply on a team.
