SerpApi.Org
The 2026 FIFA World Cup marked one of the biggest sports betting events of all time, surpassing records set by the Super Bowl.
United States-based sportsbooks and prediction market companies are catching their breath after the World Cup came to a close over the weekend, with Spain defeating Argentina 1-0 in the final in New Jersey.
The match marked the 104th and final game of the tournament, which expanded to 48 teams for the first time in the history of the competition. It could yet get bigger in the future as FIFA is already eyeing further expansion in future editions. From a betting perspective, no event in history has drawn as much interest as this summer’s World Cup.
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Between the rise of prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket to the increased accessibility of traditional sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel, most anyone across the United States who wanted to place a bet on the World Cup was able to – something that has not been the case in previous editions of the global soccer tournament.
One sportsbook executive put the scale of this World Cup in perspective with a telling quote.
"This World Cup will go down as the biggest betting event in American history. We're talking the equivalent of 10 Super Bowls," Hard Rock Bet senior vice president Neil Walsh told FOX Sports. "A sport we were once told Americans would not embrace turned into one for the history books.”
The Super Bowl has long been considered the biggest sports betting event of the year in the United States, until the World Cup came to town. Yes, the tournament had 104 matches, compared to just one Super Bowl. But the numbers that have been made reported shed light on what might be possible for betting companies in the future when it comes to mega sporting events.
Not every sportsbook has or will reveal the betting volume it took throughout the World Cup, but the Action Network estimates that legal US books saw somewhere between $2.8 and $4.3 billion in wagers processed throughout the five-and-a-half week tournament.
Compared to this year’s Super Bowl, Legal Sports Report estimated that $1.71 billion was wagered across US books on the big game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. So not quite 10-times the amount, but still significantly more.
Prediction market volumes, meanwhile, are publicly available, and the numbers are staggering.
Kalshi, which is regulated across much of the US, took $12 billion in World Cup bets, according to the Action Network. More than $1.5 billion of that was traded on which team would win the World Cup. The Super Bowl drew roughly $900 million in trades on Kalshi, according to multiple outlets.
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The World Cup winner’s market drew more money than any other single market in Kalshi’s history. The 2024 US presidential election was the only other to exceed $500 million in volume, roughly a third of what was placed on which team would lift the World Cup trophy.
Given the popularity and scale of the World Cup, it is unlikely any upcoming sporting event exceeds those numbers.
The new record could end up being set four years from now at the next World Cup, which could be even grander than in 2026 if FIFA opts to expand the tournament even further.
