The World Cup Could Be the Biggest Sports Gambling Event Ever

For the sports gambling industry, the World Cup could not have gotten here fast enough.With growth flattening and competition from prediction markets increasing, online betting sites are finding it more challenging to bring in new customers and inspire their current ones to place more wagers.The World Cup matches, which started this week across 16 venues in the United States, Mexico and Canada, could be the boost the industry needs to generate new excitement around sports betting.Mexico kicked things off with a win over South Africa on Thursday, and the United States plays Paraguay on Friday night in Los Angeles.The gambling companies are looking to take advantage of the tournament’s expanded field of 48 teams, prime-time viewing hours and the fact that it will take place in summer, which is usually the quiet season for sports betting.In the United States alone, $4.4 billion is projected to be wagered with online sports books during the World Cup, according to the research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.

That figure is an increase from $1.8 billion during the 2022 tournament.“That is a lot for a single event or tournament,” said Chris Grove, partner emeritus at Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.“The U.S.

has a diverse and dense sport calendar, making it hard for any one event to have an outsized impact.”Projecting how much will be bet globally is more of a guessing game because there are numerous unregulated markets, but many analysts expect it could reach a record, totaling tens of billions of dollars.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....