FIFA president Gianni Infantino pictured at the Rockefeller Center in New York ahead of Sunday's World Cup final.
The Fifa World Cup has "exceeded expectations" with an 80% increase in betting volume compared to the 2022 edition, even taking into account the higher number of matches for a 48-team tournament, a betting expert told AFP.
Although many football fans were sceptical about the increase in the number of teams from 32 to 48, it appears punters have welcomed it.
"We've seen an 80% 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 Sunday's final between Spain and defending champions Argentina, Small expects the company to be handling approximately 8.5 million betting tickets for their 250 bookmaking clients round the world.
