How Kambi is delivering a premium product for partners during World Cup 2026

 Ahead of the upcoming World Cup, we sat down with our Head of Trading Ryan Hughes to explore what this landmark tournament means for Kambi’s sportsbook offering. From the full rollout of AI-powered trading to the growing importance of data, player props and Bet Builder, Ryan shares insights into how we’re preparing for the biggest event in football — and where they see the biggest opportunities for both operators and players.

As Head of Trading, what makes you most excited about the tournament?

What excites me most about the upcoming World Cup is the opportunity to put our AI trading capability to the test in what will be the first major competition where we’ll price and trade the entire life cycle in the platform. What that will bring is the most expansive offering to date, as well as combinability running right through the event, allowing more continuity between pre-match and live.

What makes this World Cup different to any that came before?

First and foremost the format, with 48 teams competing in a 39 day World Cup, with many more lesser-known teams in the competition. Not new to this World Cup, but I think we’ll see data come to the fore in terms of the end users making use of data to guide them in bet placement, but also sportsbooks in terms of using rich data sets to produce the most expansive and compelling offering to date. For Kambi, it’s about producing the premium product to allow our partners to capitalise on what is the biggest event in our industry.

What do you see as being the product battlegrounds for the World Cup?

The evolution of data has led to a huge array of bet offers, largely in way of player props and combinability, so we’ll see both player props and Bet Builder come to the fore once more. I see a continuation in terms of markets such as player shots on target being among the most popular markets in the Bet Builder. Something that is even more prevalent in a World Cup where the best players are on show. When it comes to Bet Builder, whilst it’s very much an established sportsbook feature, our data demonstrates that the popularity is continuing to grow and we actually see the percentage of bets attributed to Bet Builder increase when it comes to international matches. Once again, the fact that we will see uncompetitive matches in the group stages, This will only enhance the need for a strong player prop and Bet Builder offering.

Which countries do you expect to perform well at the World Cup?

For me France, by far the strongest I think across all positions, particularly with a wealth of options in attack. I also think Portugal will go deep into the competition with a very strong starting 11, and my dark horse for the tournament would be Ecuador. Very resolute and organised and I think they could pose larger nations some problems in the knockout phases.