‘Bit of a roller coaster ride’ – World Cup format a dampener for global bookies

Global wagering company Entain is taking a cautious approach heading into the 2026 football World Cup in North America, with the tournament’s new format expected to pose challenges for betting margins.

The World Cup has traditionally been a huge growth and margin opportunity for bookmakers, as the global event attracts wagering interest worldwide.

The fact that the tournament is held in an unsuitable time zone for European fans, who will be subject to late-night and early-morning kickoffs, has Entain preaching caution about engagement levels in that part of the world.

“It’s a good thing for us. It’s not as big a thing as you might think,” Entain CEO Stella David told an investors’ call this week.

“I mean, it’s probably worth about 1 per cent or something like that across the year. It’s really where we would anticipate that to be as an upside. It’s bigger than the Euros, but it’s not as dramatic as you would think.

“I think it’ll be good for some of our markets, particularly the ones which are in the same time zone. So, you know, markets like Brazil will be very engaged.”

“Markets like Australia and New Zealand also will be very engaged, because it’s about watching it live.”

Also of concern is a 48-team tournament, 16 more than have competed at previous World Cups. That is likely to lead to lopsided results in the group stages as the world’s top teams are matched up against lowly-ranked opponents.   

“It will be great for volume, but it is going to be bit of a roller coaster ride, because there are many more teams playing and margins could be widely fluctuating because of high-scoring lopsided games,” David said.

“I think the second half of the World Cup, it will be more equally placed competitors, and there will be some lovely upside there, particularly considering most of our markets are in the World Cup.”

In the first 24 group games, Ladbrokes currently has nine teams shorter than $1.50 to win.

Australia and New Zealand are both in the same World Cup for the first time in 16 years. Australia’s three Group games are at 2pm AEST on June 14 (Turkiye), 5am AEST on June 20 (USA) and 12pm AEST June 26 (Paraguay).

New Zealand, meanwhile, plays Iran at 1pm NZST on June 16, Egyot at 1pm NZT, June 22 and Belgium at 3pm NST on June 27.

David said while margins may be challenging in the World Cup, it will help its operations around the world build their customer base.

“What I think it does is provide a good recruitment drive opportunity, because that’s when a lot of people are interested in signing up to apps. So, I think it’s more about that, the recruitment side of it, where I’d say you get the big value from it,” she said.

Meanwhile, net gaming revenue from Entain’s Australian business grew 12 per cent year on year in the first quarter of 2026, and David was pleased to see the turnaround in fortunes, something she partially attributed to a greater focus on sport over racing.

“It’s great that we’ve seen double-digit growth. We believe that is absolutely driven by market share gains,” the CEO said.

“I think the team there is doing a great job. We’ve been very strong historically in racing. They’re expanding the focus more to sports in general now there, which is a really good opportunity for us because the market is much wider than racing, even though that’s very important.”

“I think the team there have got a good strategy and we’re hopeful that we’ll continue to build share as we go forward.”