Navigating the new 2026 FIFA World Cup format: key insights for sportsbooks

With more teams, more matches and three host nations, the 2026 FIFA World Cup represents an unprecedented opportunity for sportsbooks — and a new test of technology, trading and product depth

The countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now on. It’s less than two months until this international sporting juggernaut kicks off with an expanded format, multiple host countries and more match days than ever before, culminating in what promises to be the largest betting event in history.

For sportsbooks, this creates unprecedented opportunity alongside new operational and product challenges. From Kambi’s perspective, however, the fundamentals remain the same: delivering reliability, performance and engaging experiences at scale is exactly what we were built to do.

Bigger than ever: more teams, matches and opportunities

The most obvious headline change for 2026 is expansion. FIFA has increased the tournament from 32 teams to 48, pushing the total number of matches from 64 to 104. The competition will run for 39 days — 10 days longer than Qatar 2022 — with a brand-new Round of 32 added to the knockout phase. To lift the trophy, the eventual champion will now need to play eight matches instead of seven.

For sportsbooks, this translates directly into more betting moments, more match days and more opportunities to acquire, engage and retain customers. Quite simply, the 2026 World Cup will be the biggest sports betting event ever.

At Kambi, major sporting events like this are our bread and butter. We’ve consistently demonstrated reliability and performance during the world’s biggest betting moments, handling extreme peaks in traffic and turnover without compromising user experience. That trust is critical for both operators and players, and it will matter more than ever in 2026.

A World Cup across three countries

Another first for 2026 is the host setup: the United States, Canada and Mexico will jointly stage the tournament across 16 cities, with 78 of the 104 matches played in the US. Mexico becomes the first nation to host or co-host the men’s World Cup three times, while Canada hosts the men’s tournament for the first time.

From a betting perspective, this geographic spread is hugely significant. Kambi is live in all three host countries, giving us deep experience across these markets.

The US, in particular, presents a rare sportsbook acquisition opportunity. Soccer may not yet dominate the American sports landscape, but interest is growing rapidly. A summer World Cup on home soil — returning for the first time since 1994 — could act as a major catalyst for long-term customer growth.

Meanwhile, Mexico and Latin America are expected to see extremely high engagement, as football is by far the region’s most popular sport. Add in the recent launch of Brazil’s regulated market, and the Americas look set to drive a substantial share of global World Cup betting turnover. Successfully navigating this landscape will require flexible, localised product offerings tailored to each country’s audience, betting habits and regulatory environment.

Depth of offering will be critical

On paper, expansion looks universally positive. In reality, there is a potential trade-off: with more teams, some matches may be lower quality or have outcomes that feel close to a foregone conclusion. For sportsbooks, this makes depth of offering absolutely critical.

Player prop markets are an increasingly important tool here. These markets can maintain engagement even when the overall match narrative is less compelling. At Euro 2024, Kambi’s Sports Betting Trends Report 2025 shows that player props accounted for 35% of Bet Builder turnover on the Kambi network, and we expect that trend to accelerate further during the 2026 World Cup.

Bet Builder itself has been one of the biggest game-changers in the industry in recent years. It represented 16% of pre-match turnover at the 2022 World Cup and 25% at Euro 2024 across the Kambi network. But not all Bet Builders are created equal. Kambi’s award-winning Bet Builder stands out through its depth of combinability, as well as live and cash-out functionality which are features that can be especially powerful if the tournament produces a higher number of uncompetitive games.

Extra time, penalties and operational excellence

The introduction of a Round of 32 increases the likelihood that more knockout games will go to extra time and penalties. These moments are high-intensity from both a fan and betting perspective but they are also operationally complex.

Sportsbooks must settle enormous volumes of pre-match and in-play bets from normal time, while simultaneously managing a surge in new betting activity during extra time and shootouts. Furthermore, the shootouts themselves can drive peaks in betting if the accompanying product offers the depth and quality to capitalise. Underlining this, Kambi’s penalty product generated 17% of total bets on Portugal-France at Euro 2024, despite the shoot-out accounting for 8% of total match time. Kambi’s offering enables customers to bet on not only whether a penalty will be scored, but also how it might be missed, be that saved, hitting the woodwork or flying past the frame of the goal entirely.

Only operators with elite trading expertise and high-performance technology can manage these peaks seamlessly. This is where experience truly matters.

Promotional mechanics, such as early payout offers when a team goes 2–0 up, will also be interesting to watch, particularly if match quality varies across the expanded field.

New rules, new betting dynamics

FIFA and the International Football Association Board (IFAB) have also introduced several in-match rule changes for 2026, designed to increase ball-in-play time and reduce time-wasting. Five-second countdown on throw-ins and goal kicks, quicker substitution exits, mandatory injury time-outs and expanded VAR powers to review second yellow cards and corner kicks could all subtly influence match flow, pricing models and live betting behaviour.

Add in summer heat, tactical cooling breaks, enhanced offside technology and referee body cameras, and the 2026 tournament will feel different on the pitch as well as in betting markets.

In summary, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is not just bigger than previous editions; it is more complex in almost every dimension. For sportsbooks, success will depend on scalability, true localisation, product depth and unwavering reliability.