Emily Nicolle, Ira Boudway and Carolyn SilvermanJun 23, 2026 – 10.28amNew York | The World Cup is turning prediction markets into a public ledger of million-dollar bets, exposing big wins and dramatic losses as the tournament attracts more money to the fast-growing industry.More than $US5 billion ($7.1 billion) has been traded on the World Cup across Polymarket’s international exchange and US-regulated Kalshi in 2026, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of Dune Analytics data and company records. The boom has produced multimillion-dollar winners and some painful losses, including a bet-gone-wrong on Belgium to beat Egypt that cost one Polymarket user nearly $US9 million ($13 million).BloombergSubscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles