The stars are aligning for World Cup betting in the United States. And, unsurprisingly, there’s plenty of action on the stars and stripes.USA’s opener on Friday against Paraguay is drawing eight times the action of any other match on the BetMGM board, and the Americans’ odds to win Group D have been bet 10 times more than any other team to win its group.“They’ve been betting the USMNT in the futures throughout, and the action on the game is picking up. Everything is building up,” DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello told The Athletic.At FanDuel, 79 percent of the bets and 87 percent of the money on the opener are riding on the Americans to take three points with an outright win in Inglewood, Calif. In Group D futures, 81 percent of FanDuel bets are on the U.S. to win the group.Oddsmakers are expecting a much higher overall handle (total amount of money wagered) than at the last World Cup, thanks to more favorable factors for fans compared with the 2022 event in Qatar. The summer heat forced games into the fall, which coincided with football season; additionally, games aired at odd hours. But this year’s event is tailor-made for the American audience.“The No. 1 factor, besides more games, is Canada, U.S. and Mexico hosting — and the times will be conducive to everyone who wants to watch,” Avello said, also referencing the additional 40 games with the expanded field.Plus, overall interest in the global game is increasing in the States. According to BetMGM, wagering across all soccer leagues throughout the year has increased 90 percent compared with 2022. Part of that is because of expanding legalization, including prediction markets, but Americans are becoming more comfortable betting on soccer.The Language of Soccer - USA“In the last World Cup, of all of our customers, 22 percent wagered on at least one soccer event. This weekend, I am curious what that increases to. Is it going to be 40 or 50 percent?” BetMGM head of public relations John Ewing said.DraftKings is expecting a similar response from the betting public. “It will be like March Madness — a lot of action in the early games and then once we get late in the tournament, the money will get bigger,” Avello said.With this increased interest comes an expanded appetite. Casual bettors are looking for wagers they are familiar with, such as betting on touchdown scorers during football games. “I’m trying to post as many props as possible. Bettors really like to wager on both teams to score and individual players to score. Those are types of wagers they’re already familiar with,” Circa Sports oddsmaker Dominick DeBonis explained, sharing that he is offering odds on every single rostered player in USA-Paraguay to score the game’s first goal. “This is a casual event that doesn’t happen very often, so you will have people that want to bet on the goalkeeper to score the first goal.”Contributing to this expected summer spike are bettors who are eventually coming off riveting series in the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final. DeBonis said he expects this World Cup handle to be roughly 67 percent higher than the previous one for a total approaching $40 million.“I’ve noticed over the years the casual interest in USMNT explodes every four years,” DeBonis said. “This is a team that plays a much more exciting style than you would see from past teams. If they have a good performance against Paraguay and score some goals, you’ll see a groundswell of people getting involved with the team that will drive handle higher.”As is often the case, notable wagers arrived that make sane bettors scratch their heads. BetMGM took a $1,500 bet at 66-to-1 odds on the U.S. to win it all, which pays $99,000. BetRivers also took a $5,000 bet on the USMNT to win it all at 40-1, which pays out $200,000. Other wagers that are highly unlikely to cash are $1,000 on Haiti at 2,500-to-1, which pays $2.5 million, and $1,000 on Iraq at 1,000-to-1 that pays $1 million.As you can see, bettors are all over the USMNT and other long shots. In a sense, those types of wagers signify soccer has arrived in America.