With 104 matches spread across three countries and multiple time zones, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is bringing a longer betting day, a wave of new customers and heavier demands on the systems handling deposits, fraud checks and payouts.
The biggest FIFA World Cup in history is underway, with 48 teams competing across 104 matches in Canada, Mexico and the US over 39 days.
Its North American setting has created a wide range of viewing times for fans elsewhere. In the UK and Europe, fixtures stretch from the afternoon into the early hours, giving betting operators a much longer period of activity than they would face around a single domestic match or race.
The volume is also expected to dwarf previous tournaments, with more than $50billion forecast to be wagered during the competition.
A betting peak that keeps moving
Sporting events have traditionally allowed payment teams to prepare for a recognisable surge shortly before the action begins. The World Cup schedule is less orderly. One match may be approaching kick-off while another is in play and customers are withdrawing winnings from an earlier result.
Jacob Spencer, CRO of payment orchestration platform BR-DGE, said: “The opening weekend has already given betting and gaming operators a taste of what lies ahead. With matches running from the afternoon into midnight, 2am and 5am kick-offs for European audiences, betting activity is carrying on well beyond the usual trading day.”
The intensity of those peaks will vary throughout the competition. BR-DGE’s analysis of recent sporting events found that transaction volumes during Australia’s Melbourne Cup more than doubled in the final 30 minutes before the main race. At the Grand National, volumes rose by around 50 per cent during the equivalent period, while activity during the weekday Cheltenham Festival was spread more evenly across the day.
The World Cup contains both patterns. Group-stage matches may generate steady activity across several fixtures, while home-nation games, knockout rounds, extra time and penalty shootouts can produce far more concentrated demand.
“Operators cannot plan around one, or even several, predictable daily peaks,” Spencer added. “Activity can rise quickly around team news, kick-off, goals, red cards and final results, before moving straight into the next fixture and time zone – this means that operators, and their payments infrastructure, need to take an ‘always on’ approach to meeting customer demand.”
The race for new customers
Major football tournaments bring occasional bettors back to dormant accounts and encourage new users to download betting apps. Operators are supporting that acquisition drive with advertising, welcome offers and free bets, placing added weight on what happens when a customer attempts to deposit.
A payment failure shortly before kick-off leaves little time to resolve the problem. The customer may try another method, abandon the bet or open an account elsewhere.
BR-DGE’s figures from other high-profile sporting events show that new customers can represent up to 15 per cent of transactions around headline fixtures. Payment preferences can also change as the event approaches. During the Grand National, Apple Pay’s share of traffic increased from around 15 per cent earlier in the day to 25 per cent at the peak.
Spencer said: “The tournament is also attracting first-time bettors and bringing dormant customers back into betting apps. Our data from other major sporting events shows that new customers can account for up to 15 per cent of transactions around headline fixtures – we expect this to be much higher for the World Cup. Operators have invested heavily to bring those players in, and a failed deposit, missing payment method or slow checkout can waste that acquisition spend in seconds.
“Operators need enough flexibility in their payment set-up to reroute transactions, retry failed deposits and offer the payment methods customers expect when volumes climb. At the same time, every transaction still has to pass the appropriate responsible gambling, fraud and regulatory checks.”
That pressure comes as some consumers are already concerned about tournament spending. MoneySuperMarket research reveals that 26 per cent of UK adults expected to make impulse purchases on takeaways, alcohol or betting during matches, while 23 per cent anticipated relying on credit cards or borrowing to cover World Cup-related costs.
Could crypto become part of the sportsbook cashier?
Promotions are one way to attract customers, but payment choice may also influence where they place their bets. Research from payments platform Paysafe suggests that cryptocurrency could become a more prominent part of the US sports-betting payment mix, although its use remains restricted by state regulation.
Paysafe surveyed 2,550 people of legal gambling age across nine states with regulated online sports betting. Every participant either already bet online or intended to begin within the following 12 months.
Some 83 per cent expressed an interest in funding bets with cryptocurrency where permitted. Crypto was selected as a preferred deposit method by 45 per cent, behind digital wallets at 55 per cent and debit cards at 50 per cent.
Colorado and Wyoming explicitly permit crypto deposits, while Illinois and Virginia can give operators specific approval for crypto-to-cash funding products. The remaining states covered by the research – Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania – currently prohibit them.
Interest extended to payouts, with 85 per cent of respondents saying they would like to withdraw winnings in cryptocurrency, an option currently unavailable in every US state. Paysafe also found that 71 per cent felt digital asset transactions would improve their overall betting experience, while the same proportion could leave a sportsbook following a poor crypto payment experience.
Zak Cutler, president of global gaming at Paysafe, commented: “While crypto payments are only currently permitted in a relatively modest cohort of US states, our latest research indicates that there’s strong player appetite for crypto at the cashier in not just these jurisdictions but across the broader market.
“As regulation evolves and as more iGaming markets embrace digital assets’ impressive value at the cashier, we’re confident that crypto will not just become an important payment method, but arguably pivotal to the industry’s transactional future.”
Promotions blur the fraud picture
The promotions designed to attract World Cup customers are also affecting the types of behaviour fraud teams need to assess.
Research from fraud prevention company SEON found that 43 per cent of 588 US adults surveyed were at least somewhat likely to bet on World Cup matches. Free bets and promotions were the leading reason respondents would try a new platform, cited by 36 per cent, followed by ease of use at 31 per cent and better odds at 27 per cent.
Among Generation Z, 44 per cent selected promotions as their main incentive. Across the full sample, 22 per cent admitted opening multiple betting accounts to access offers, 20 per cent had clicked a betting link received through social media or a messaging service and 17 per cent had used an account belonging to a friend or family member.
The survey also revealed a confidence gap. While many respondents intended to bet, 45 per cent lacked confidence that platforms could protect their personal and financial information during a high-traffic event.
Matt DeLauro, president, GTM, at SEON, said: “The World Cup is going to put enormous pressure on betting platforms, and not just because of volume. We work with some of the largest betting and gaming operators in the world, and what we hear consistently is that the challenge isn’t just catching bad actors. It’s distinguishing between a real customer chasing a promotion and a coordinated fraud ring doing the same thing at scale.
“Consumers plan to bet, yet they don’t fully trust the platforms they’re betting on, and nearly a quarter are already engaging in behaviours like multi-accounting that make fraud harder to detect. That combination of high volume, low trust and blurred intent is what makes events like this so difficult to protect.”
Younger UK bettors report greater fraud exposure
Research from credit reference and risk information company TransUnion points to similar concerns among British bettors.
Its survey of 1,000 UK adults found that 43 per cent of people aged between 25 and 34 planned to bet more frequently during the World Cup. Their average reported stake was £16.56, compared with £9.54 across all bettors surveyed.
Among 25-to-34-year-olds who had used online betting, 12 per cent said they had previously fallen victim to fraud after using an unknown betting site. The proportion stood at 10 per cent among those aged between 35 and 44 and five per cent among people aged from 45 to 54.
Security remained high on bettors’ list of priorities, with 91 per cent of online punters saying they valued a secure experience and 60 per cent saying they valued it “a lot”.
Chad Reimers, international vice president of fraud solutions at TransUnion, said: “The football World Cup is one of the biggest betting and social events of the year and fraudsters know it. Younger fans are the most enthusiastic punters, but that can bring heightened risk if they are not stopping to check the legitimacy of the provider. The gap between trusting a brand and checking whether it’s legitimately regulated is exactly where consumers get caught out.”
The rush to withdraw
Payment demand does not end with the final whistle. A decisive result can bring a sudden increase in withdrawal requests at the same time as customers begin looking at the next match.
Paysafe’s research found that brand trust was the leading factor when respondents choose a new sportsbook, cited by 36 per cent. Smooth crypto withdrawals followed at 29 per cent, ahead of the ability to use a preferred payment method at 28 per cent and smooth crypto deposits at 26 per cent.
BR-DGE’s Spencer also commented: “The job also carries on after the bet settles. A big result may bring a rush of withdrawals, often while customers are already looking ahead to the next fixture. Slow payouts at that point can undo the work that brought them to the operator in the first place.”
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