The last time the FIFA World Cup took place, in 2022, it shattered sports betting records. Which made sense. By that time, legal sports betting in the United States was more mainstream. Americans legally wagered nearly $2 billion on the massive football tournament.
And guess what? Sports betting records are about to fall once again during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
This is…not surprising. Sports betting is even more mainstream across the U.S., and elsewhere, than it was four years ago. That part of the tournament will be hosted in the United States only drives additional interest. So, too, does the tournament undergoing historical expansion. FIFA has broadened the participants from 32 teams to a whopping 48. That not only means more matches to bet on, but the added publicity of the expansion will invite more eyeballs and wagers. Even online sportsbook reviews are quick to point out the landmark shift in the World Cup’s structure.
With all of this in mind, the amount of money bet on the World Cup in 2022 is about to be eclipsed by a potentially extreme margin.
Global World Cup Betting Estimates Are Topping $150 Billion
You are reading the above number correctly. The early estimates have World Cup 2026 betting clearing the $150 billion threshold on a global scale.
The folks over at UK Investing recently did an excellent job of explaining why:
“Globally, it’s expected that more than $150 billion will be bet on World Cup 2026, accounting for national and international markets alike. A key factor to consider is that most studies are showing gambling profits of legal markets. In numerous instances, and especially in those studies undertaken in the United States, cryptocurrency gambling is ignored. Hybrid or straight-up crypto casinos become more popular by the day, as cryptos steadily become the norm in everyday life and more people adopt them, and as regulations prevent players from accessing legal or fair markets. This means that, even when it comes to legal gambling revenue, which is already growing by two-digit percentages on a yearly basis, real numbers are likely much higher.”
On top of all this, it remains to be seen whether projections account for regular annualized sports betting growth. Between the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, global gaming revenue apparently grew by approximately 65 percent.
Indeed, this number was of course aided by the United States’ wider-spread legalization. But the U.S. is just a fraction of the world’s gambling population.
FIFA Is Going To Make An Absurd Profit Off The World Cup
The integration of sports betting into FIFA’s World Cup operations is also a factor for which we must account. Partnerships with sportsbooks are more ingrained into the process than ever. That extra exposure will invariably inflate betting volume.
FIFA, of course, will be thrilled by the extra action. It tends to translate to additional eyeballs. And this is caked into their own revenue forecasts.
While it is tough to pin down estimates for how much FIFA will profit off the 2026 World Cup, the proof is in the prize pool. As Adam Crafton of The Athletic noted at the end of 2025, FIFA increased its World Cup prize pool to $655 million. That represents a 50 percent bump from 2022. On top of that, the winning team will get $50 million in total. That itself is almost a 20 percent increase from the $42 million Argentina took home in 2022.
This type of spike doesn’t take place simply because they’re expanding the tournament by 16 teams. That is part of it, to be sure. But they need the revenue to back it up. If FIFA is juicing the prize money by 50 percent, they are likely expecting a revenue windfall commensurate with that amount.
Considering how much they made in 2022, these projections are bound to be insane. According to the University of Michigan, FIFA profited more than $7 billion off the 2022 World Cup. At minimum, then, it feels like the 2026 tournament should rake in over $10 billion for the international association.
The biggest takeaway from all of this? With the exception of regional sports networks, every for-profit layer of live sports is on the rise.
