The 2026 FIFA World Cup is fast approaching. With 48 teams competing over 104 games, spread out over three countries, this is the biggest tournament on record. It’s also shaping up to be one of the busiest for gambling operators.
And in Canada, where one province is live with regulated iGaming and a second is closing in on its launch date, operators have been spending the last few months ramping up their preparations on how to make this year’s event one of the most memorable for bettors.
But that is, arguably, much easier said than done. More eyes than ever are fixated on the Canadian market, and with Alberta only a few weeks away from launching on July 13, the competition is most certainly heating up.
The question that operators must answer ahead of time, however, is how they stand out from the crowd. Is it through marketing? Product? A combination of both, or something else entirely?
As you can imagine, the World Cup was a major focus at the recent SBC Summit Canada in Toronto as attendees discussed some of the opportunities that the tournament presents for gaming companies, the challenges of appealing to players, or — for most of us — simply which will be the victorious team.
Getting the World Cup betting strategy right
When the World Cup was hosted in Qatar back in November and December 2022, Ontario’s regulated iGaming market was only seven months old. It’s safe to say that a lot has changed during that time.
But for Andrew Cochrane, Soft2Bet’s Chief Commercial Officer, Ontario’s market maturity — combined with the new opportunities in Alberta — opens up the door for iGaming operators to capitalize on the upcoming 2026 edition.
“The Ontario market was very immature at that point, and now we have Alberta coming online soon,” Cochrane said on a SBC Summit Canada panel entitled ‘World Cup, Endless Possibilities‘. “I think the legislative picture right across North America has evolved a lot in the last four years, right?
“Couple that with handle almost doubling compared to say Qatar four years ago, this can’t be ignored. Then, the difference in time zone is huge — it’s favourable for North American players, but perhaps not for bettors located elsewhere.”
However, Cochrane stressed that if operators want to maintain momentum with bettors, they need to look beyond the World Cup and adapt their strategies to focus on long-term player retention.
“In addition to that, you’ve got the huge opportunity for player acquisition. That will come as a benefit to operators with deep pockets, of course, but there’s a real opportunity for this to be a seismic impact for both the World Cup and what comes afterwards. How can you engage those players and, more importantly, retain them?”
How to make sure new players stick around?
The acquisition opportunity was a common theme throughout the panel session, a point that was particularly emphasized by Yohan Mathew, Director of Marketing at BetMGM.
For him, this year’s World Cup is one of the biggest opportunities for player acquisition in the sporting calendar, joining the likes of the Super Bowl or the Stanley Cup. Operators must get their strategy right or risk losing out on acquiring players,
Fortunately, for BetMGM, the sportsbook can draw upon its experience from Euro 2024, plus last year’s World Cup, to apply learnings on how best to engage with new and existing players.
“We’re looking at possibly 46% of Ontarians expecting to bet on the World Cup, possibly 9-10% of them being net new,” Mathew noted. “So this might be the last big real acquisition opportunity, at least for the Ontario market.
“The good news is we’ve had one World Cup and the Euros under our belt to get those learnings and now apply them. We have big expectations, but I think that’s rightly so.”
BetMGM’s planning for the World Cup started much earlier than you might think, with its campaigns getting a headstart during the kickoff of the English Premier League season, back in August 2025. This early start, Mathew told his fellow panelists, allowed the operator to begin drip-feeding World Cup content to its audience and begin early promotions on its products.
“Our marketing plan for the World Cup began last year with warming up the base and making sure that everybody who is coming in to bet on the English Premier League, or any soccer markets on our platform for that matter, knew that we had a lot of markets and a good product.
“It kicked off the EPL season, and there was a silent kickoff with the World Cup draw in December. Now we get to take that outward over the coming weeks with rolling out our plan, of which the regionalization and localization piece is going to be huge.”
Localization and retention
Localization is important for any company looking to deliver a stand-out betting experience, and that is no more evident than it is throughout major sporting events like the World Cup.
Greg Sindall, Senior Director of Digital Sports and Product at Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG), suggested that brands must use that localization element to understand not only how to engage with players in the first instance, but how to then keep them coming back once the tournament has ended.
For OLG, that initial engagement phase will come through the creation of Canada-focused markets to tap into the growing sports betting audience across Ontario.
However, drawing upon his own experience, Sindall emphasized that operators must keep the diversity of demographics in mind when looking to appeal to new and existing players. That, he says, has been an inspiration behind some of the markets that OLG has lined up for the World Cup.
“We’ll be leaning into a lot of localization, creating a lot of Canada-focused markets, but also remembering that Ontario — and Toronto specifically — has a very diverse population,” Sindall explained. “People cheer for other teams as well; I’ll be cheering for Canada for sure, but I also have an England jersey at home because my family is from there, so I’ll be backing them too.
“Throughout the World Cup, you will have a lot of split loyalties, and so we want to build some sort of markets around that as well. We also want to capitalize on such a short event.”
The work doesn’t stop once the player has registered for an account. Major events such as the World Cup may lead to record numbers of players signing up with an operator, but if those players aren’t aware of the markets or products that you offer, they will have no reason to continue playing once the tournament has concluded.
“You have to take the time to introduce them to your products, whether it’s the sports you have or the types of bets that you offer,” Sindall added. “And you can’t forget about the other verticals, too.
“Some of those players will sign up ahead of the World Cup, but will be gone as soon as the games are over because they’re not huge sports fans. So, you want to make sure that they’re aware of all your other products as well — and maybe they might continue playing after the event has ended.”
