Flutter Entertainment took an estimated 180 million bets across its brands during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the company said, with the Spain-Argentina final ranking as its top match for both staking and revenue. Around 350,000 bets were placed on the outright winner, Spain, who beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time.
The tournament was the first to run 104 matches, staged across 16 cities over 39 days and expanded to 48 teams from the 32 that contested Qatar 2022. Flutter, which had prepared for the event for more than a year and reported a 17% rise in Q1 revenue ahead of kick-off, said the longer schedule and larger field lengthened the betting calendar and pushed volumes past its previous World Cup records.
Underdogs drove operator liabilities
The expanded field brought more upsets, and some of them turned into betting exposure. Cape Verde, ranked 67th before the tournament, drew with Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and eventual champions Spain to leave Group H unbeaten, then took finalists Argentina to extra time before losing 3-2. Defender Pico Lopes, who plays club football in Ireland, was backed heavily enough there to create a liability for Flutter’s Paddy Power brand that the company put in the tens of millions.
Other lower-ranked sides also progressed. Australia beat Turkey 2-0, New Zealand, the tournament’s lowest-ranked team, twice came back to draw 2-2 with Iran, and Scotland beat Haiti in their first finals appearance this century. All three host nations, the United States, Canada and Mexico, advanced beyond the group stage.
The final led staking, England and Argentina followed
The final was Flutter’s most-staked match of the tournament. The semi-final between England and Argentina ranked second, and Norway against England third, leaving both England and Argentina in two of the company’s top three games by staking.
The final itself set the individual matchup that framed much of the pre-match betting. Argentina’s Lionel Messi, 39 and playing his last World Cup, faced 19-year-old Spain forward Lamine Yamal. Yamal had the most shots on goal in the final, but it was defender Pau Cubarsi who recorded the most touches and successful passes of any player on the pitch and took the FIFA Young Player Award. The two became the fourth and fifth teenagers to start a World Cup final.
Player props concentrated on the Golden Boot race
Bets on the performance of individual players, known as player props, drew the tournament’s headline names. Messi was the most popular player for prop bets across Flutter’s brands, followed by France’s Kylian Mbappe and England’s Harry Kane.
All three featured in the goalscoring picture. Messi and Mbappe went into the third-place playoff tied for the Golden Boot on eight goals each, and Mbappe settled it by scoring twice in France’s 6-4 defeat by England. The next tournament’s stars are likely to come from the younger names who emerged this year, among them Yamal, Switzerland’s Johan Manzambi, who scored three goals in four games at the age of 20, and Norway’s Andreas Schjelderup, 22, who added a goal and three assists across six matches.
A tournament of records
Messi finished as the most-experienced player in World Cup history, with 34 matches, and became the oldest player to score a World Cup hat-trick, passing Cristiano Ronaldo’s mark. Ronaldo set his own record as the first player to score at six consecutive World Cups. Kane became England’s leading World Cup scorer, overtaking Gary Lineker, and Mbappe passed Hugo Lloris as the France player with the most World Cup appearances, on 21. Spain’s goalkeeper saw a run of 650 minutes without conceding ended by Belgium’s Charles De Ketelaere. The final was also the first since 1978 not to feature a Bayern Munich player.
What happens next
The 2030 World Cup is due to be hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, with early matches in South America, and reports suggest FIFA is weighing a further expansion to 64 teams. A larger field would add more fixtures, more underdog runs and more betting markets across Flutter’s portfolio of global brands, setting a higher benchmark for the operator to measure against four years from now.
Source: Flutter
