World Cup sportsbook guide: How are Europe’s bookies approaching betting’s biggest event?

DAZN Bet’s managing director for Spain, Alejandro Diaz Contreras, sat down with iGB at the Gaming Leaders’ Summit in London to discuss the challenger brand’s World Cup plans. He explains how they are looking to take advantage of their relationship with the DAZN streaming service – which holds the rights to World Cup broadcasting in Spain.

How are DAZN Bet going about marketing for the World Cup?

It’s an ambitious project. We don’t have this content in all territories. But in Spain we’ll focus on the DAZN streaming. We’ll have some content there showing bet deals, the welcome offer, and the ‘two-way’. That is when users pay for a DAZN subscription and cross onto the DAZN Bet platform as well.

On top of that, we will have some agreements with streamers and tipsters. We will also use PPC, and some CRM strategy.  It’s a good opportunity for us, because when the rest of the operators take a break, we have this exclusive content, so we must dominate this.

Are you launching any new products, features or promotions for the tournament?

Yes, we will have some exclusive games with some casino providers, and we have also launched esports betting at the start of this month. So we’re ready for the World Cup!

What would a successful World Cup look like for DAZN Bet? Have you got a target?

The target is just to smash it. We have an ambitious forecast for the whole year, of course. But we need to enjoy this opportunity and do better numbers, in terms of acquisition.

Do you think the time difference will be a challenge for European bettors?

We are focusing on Spain, and I guess that Spanish users will watch Spain. The match versus Uruguay starts at 2am in the night, okay? If I’m Spanish, I’m a fanatic of the Spanish national team as well, I will see it! It doesn’t matter if the next day I will work or not, because I’m a fanatic and I will see it.

Probably it’s true that some of the matches will be affected, though. Maybe if it’s Uzbekistan versus DR Congo at 2am, maybe I will miss this. Of course, we would prefer that the matches were in European time zones but this is what will be.

In-play betting will be affected. Football is the number one sport in Spain, and live betting is around 50% of the overall Spanish market. So we’ll be a little affected, but we trust that most of the users will still be betting, because the World Cup is only one time each four years.

We see this behaviour also with NBA. Games are all times of day for European bettors, but the players are still betting live.

Advertising restrictions are quite tight in Spain. How are you able to make an impact?

Here we have good news. Advertising restrictions apply to every single thing that you do – it doesn’t matter if it’s affiliates or PPC. We are following these rules, but the good thing here is that, with the new rule that you can only advertise gambling products on TV between 1am and 5am due to the Spanish regulations, we can use this during some live matches.

For the tipsters that we will send to the World Cup, we will pay them for content and they can stream it during these hours.

Will you be looking more for new player acquisition during the World Cup, or improving the engagement from your existing players?

Both. The acquisition part is key, we hope to succeed during the World Cup because we have exclusive content, with the coverage on DAZN. So we need to do that, but we cannot lose the direct registration, or the ARPU by player. It’s how you make the revenue in the first month so you don’t pay more in terms of acquisition.

DAZN Bet first launched in April 2022, and this is the second World Cup since. Have you taken any learnings from Qatar 2022 into this one?

The previous World Cup we were new, we were practically a start-up. I wasn’t in the company then but I imagine we are totally different. Our product before was completely different. Now we are more ready. We have all the pieces that the player wants. We have all the content the player wants in terms of casino and DAZN streaming. We are more than ready to give the users the best experience that they deserve.

What are you expecting to see from the wider sports betting industry with this World Cup?

We have immense brands in Spain that we are up against. Bet365 and Winamax, who are doing really well in the last few years, will be the kings. We cannot compete with them just at the moment, but I hope that during this period, and with the exclusivity and the traffic that we will have from DAZN, we can have some good acquisition and active players.

How does the World Cup compare to other major sporting events when it comes to betting?

It’s not similar to any other events. The World Cup, it’s only once in four years. It’s not similar to the Euros, it’s much bigger. It’s not the same as the Spanish League or the Champions League or anything like that.

All the fanatics from the different nations, they are waiting for just this. Me, as a Spaniard,  we are supposed to be tournament favourites, but all the Spanish are waiting. The English, the Argentinians are the same! It’s only once in four years.

Alejandro Diaz Contreras was speaking to iGB at the Gaming Leaders’ Summit.

Marcus Adler, Nordics Director of DBET, a challenger brand based in Sweden that is part of Immense Group, caught up with iGB ahead of the World Cup. Having only launched in August 2024, and with Adler joining earlier this year, it’s an exciting time for the Scandinavian sportsbook.

How is DBET approaching its marketing for the World Cup and does that look different in the Nordics at all?

We’re almost 200% focusing on creating content. We have a YouTube podcast with Jonas Dahlquist, one of the most famous football reporters in Sweden. Normally it’s a weekly podcast with Anders Svensson, the most-capped Swedish player ever, called ‘All In Football’. Leading into and during the World Cup, they’re doing two or three episodes a week. We’re going to follow mainly the Swedish team, but also the whole World Cup, so that’s going to make a major impact for us.

Instead of competing with other betting brands buying TV commercials, we’re creating our own content. Since we have super credible personalities in football, I think that’s going to make a huge difference.

You have a product called Supertipset which I believe could suit the bigger 48-team tournament. Tell us about that.

Yes, in Sweden, we have Supertipset, which is syndicate pool betting. We have that every week, we call it Super 13 – it’s a 13-game bet. Now we’re going to have a lot of that during the World Cup. So, that’s a huge difference for us compared to most other betting companies out there. It suits the expanded tournament format brilliantly.

Sweden has such a long tradition of pool betting and betting on 13 games. It’s well-suited for the market, and the DBET brand, so it’s a perfect fit. It’s also something for our podcast as Anders and Jonas can speak about those games, include them in the conversations and make it easier to understand content and promote our product. I would say it’s a brilliant hit.

What would a successful World Cup look like for DBET?

We are looking at a 40% increase in revenues compared to the normal month.
It would also be super successful if Sweden go as far as possible. They probably won’t, but the longer they stay in, the better. In a perfect world, 40% increase in betting revenues and Sweden win the World Cup!

Sweden are back after missing the last World Cup. How significant is that for betting appetite in your primary market and how are you capitalising on it?

Well, I think that’s a major impact on everything we do. It makes a huge difference. I think with Sweden in it, we’re most likely going to double our income because the interest in the World Cup is completely different whether you’re in it or not.

The Swedish market is pretty tightly regulated. How does that shape what you can and can’t do from a marketing and promotion standpoint during a major event like this?

For us, as we’re creating content that speaks about the football and the World Cup rather than us as a betting company, it doesn’t make a huge difference. In everything we do we follow the regulations no matter what. We’re doing it here, too, and since our focus is clear on the content, it’s just business as usual. It’s been regulated for many years now, so it’s normal day-to-day business.

Will you be looking more at new player acquisition during the World Cup or is improving engagement from existing bettors a priority?

No, both. We are expecting a high increase in new players, but we’re also expecting our existing players to log in a lot. I think the average bet amount for players, is probably lower than normal, but they’re more active. Lower cost bets, but more bets. At least that’s how me and many others bet on an event like the World Cup.
Do you think the time difference from Europe could dampen the betting volumes compared to a more favourably scheduled tournament?

Yeah, probably. We just have to wait and see how that impacts. If the World Cup was in a European time zone, that would make everything easier for everybody. I think that’s going to impact it a bit but it’s hard to forecast in what way. But yeah, it’s not perfect when Sweden plays at 4am.

DBET launched in August 2024, so this is the brand’s first World Cup. Does that shape how you’re approaching it? Is it more about making a statement than optimising revenue?

This is a golden opportunity for us to work on our brand awareness which we, of course, need to do since we have just been around for a couple of years. But that’s an opportunity, not a problem. It’s perfect for us that we have a World Cup coming up and we have such a perfect set-up with Anders and Jonas and a super good brand, super good site and super good personalities that we can work with. For us it’s just perfect timing and a good opportunity. I couldn’t ask for more than the World Cup!

How does the World Cup compare to other major events in terms of betting behaviour in Nordic countries?

The World Cup is the holy grail, of course, but then we are like any other European market. The Euros are also super big, but perhaps in Sweden, the Rugby World Cup is not as big as in other countries, but we are very similar to the rest of Europe and it’s a huge event.

What are you expecting from the wider sports betting industry around this tournament? Are there any industry trends you’re watching out for?

Overall, what I’ve seen so far in Sweden, as such a mature market – everything starts to look pretty nice. Compared to 10, 15 years ago when we were unregulated, you were just bombarded with poor marketing. Nowadays, what I’ve seen so far leading into the World Cup, betting companies seem to have a pretty good understanding of what they’re doing. They have a pretty good understanding of legislation.

Everything looks like it’s good competition out there, I’ve seen some stuff that’s really good. Sweden is a mature market and you need to do pretty good marketing nowadays. In-your-face screaming marketing just doesn’t work like our industry did in the past. Overall it’s a feather in the cap for the industry that we’re doing things pretty well nowadays.

Alexander Kamentskyi, head of sportsbook at SOFTSWISS, shared his view on the European sports betting landscape ahead of World Cup 2026.

The 2022 World Cup was held at an odd time for European operators, in the middle of winter. 2026 is a summer tournament, but played in North American time zones, which could cause issues with matches staged throughout the European night. How much does the timing matter commercially?

Timing matters a lot, but I wouldn’t frame it as simply good or bad. It depends on where the operator sits and who their players are.

For European operators, late kick-offs create a real challenge. Fans can handle one or two late nights, but a month of them takes its toll. So some matches will draw smaller live audiences, even if the tournament itself stays commercially strong.

The more important question is how that impacts betting behaviour. When players can’t watch live, activity moves from in-play to pre-match. That changes live bet volumes, cashout usage, in-play engagement, and how well live promotions actually land. But it can also lift pre-match turnover and accumulator volumes, because the World Cup naturally lends itself to multi-match betslips, even for casual players.

From a commercial standpoint, operators need to prepare both parts of the product. A strong pre-match offering – with good markets, clean betslips, bet builders, boosted odds and CRM campaigns timed to kick-off – matters just as much as live coverage.

There’s a lot of talk about player acquisition around major tournaments, but many will tell you that World Cup bettors are poor long-term customers – casual fans who churn fast. Do you think that reputation is fair, and what does it tell us about how European sportsbooks should be approaching this?

I would say such a vision is too generalised. What you actually get during a World Cup is not one group of bad long-term customers, it is a wave of different player segments arriving at the same time.

Some are regular sports bettors. Others come from casino, from social gaming, or from simply watching a match at a bar and wanting a bit of skin in the game. For them, the World Cup is a social event as much as a betting one.

Will some of them leave after the tournament? Yes. And that’s normal. But can the operator tell the difference between who is likely to stay and who is not? The ones who came from casino might stay if the sports onboarding is good. The occasional bettor who placed three accumulators might become a regular if the CRM communication after the tournament points them towards the next football event on the calendar.

I wouldn’t call World Cup bettors poor long-term customers. I’d say they are a mixed audience. Operators who segment and convert them properly will tell a very different story in December than those who just measured registrations in July.

You’ve built features like the Sportsbook Network Jackpot specifically to import casino-style engagement mechanics into sports betting. Does a World Cup accelerate that kind of product thinking, or does it just reward operators who already have the basics right?

Both, and they are connected. The World Cup attracts a broader audience – regular bettors, casino players, casual fans. Casino-style mechanics work well for that mix. They make the sportsbook more engaging and more emotionally accessible. That is not about turning sports betting into a casino. It is about using proven engagement tools and adapting them to the sports context.

The numbers back this up. In our Network Jackpot campaigns, participating brands saw bets per player rise by 50%, ARPU increase by more than 51%, and ATPU nearly double. One of the top-tier participating brands recorded ARPU growth of over 155%.

But those mechanics only work if the foundation is solid. Weak UX, a slow betslip, payment problems, poor line depth, unstable platform – no jackpot fixes those. During a major tournament, they just become more visible.

The right model works on two levels. First, a strong sportsbook foundation: stable platform, good pre-match and live coverage, fast betslip, capable risk management, segmentation and CRM. Second, engagement mechanics on top: jackpots, missions, free bets, and tournaments.

European sportsbooks are operating in an increasingly fragmented regulatory environment. Does the World Cup expose that fragmentation as a commercial handicap, or do operators manage around it more than the debate suggests?

Yes, fragmentation is a real commercial challenge. But the handicap is wider than just bonus restrictions. During a major tournament, speed of execution becomes critical. Operators need to launch campaigns quickly, adapt communication match by match, adjust promotion mechanics, and stay fully compliant. In Europe, that is harder than it sounds. Germany, Sweden, Spain, and other markets each apply different rules on bonuses, advertising and responsible gambling. Managing all of that at tournament pace is a genuine operational challenge. It’s much harder than operating under a single rulebook.

The bonus restrictions, specifically, create an uneven playing field. A grey-market competitor can move faster and more aggressively. During a tournament when acquisition windows are short, that gap matters.

Mature operators can absorb regulation complexity, not by pushing against the rules, but by building a stronger operational model. Better player segmentation, personalised CRM and fast internal processes can compensate for a lot. The operators who treat compliance as an operational discipline rather than a constraint tend to find creative room within it.

From the provider’s perspective, the platform has to offer operators more than one universal promotion tool. They need a system that can manage each market on its own terms: different bonus rules, different restrictions, different player segments and a transparent audit trail.

If you had to identify one thing that separates the European sportsbooks that will look back on this tournament as a genuine success from those that will say it underdelivered, what would it be?

If I had to pick one factor, it comes down to this: whether the operator treats the World Cup as a one-off acquisition campaign or as a full business operation.

The big mistake is thinking the tournament will deliver success on its own. The traffic will come. But that does not automatically translate into commercial results or long-term value.

The operators who will look back positively are the ones who prepared a proper operational model before it started. Marketing, CRM, trading, risk, payments, product, support, analytics, and compliance functioning as one co-ordinated team. Not each department running its own World Cup in parallel.

For me, that’s more of a cultural decision, rather than a product one. Some operators approach a major event by launching bigger bonuses. Others map out the full tournament. Which matches matter to which player segments, what the pre-match and live scenarios look like for each group, how CRM flows connect to the post-tournament retention plan, and whether the platform can handle the load.

Success here is not just turnover during the group stage. It is how many casual players stayed active in August, how well existing players were engaged throughout the World Cup, and whether the tournament truly contributed to the sportsbook as a business vertical.

The operators who planned for that outcome in advance will have it. The ones who are still reacting once the first matches kick off will probably say it underdelivered.