When the Favourites Kept Scoring

Jeevan, the 2026 World Cup was the largest betting event the industry has ever experienced. From Abelson’s perspective, what did those seven weeks reveal about the industry’s readiness for events of this scale?

I don’t think you can ever be quite ready for an event of this magnitude, there are always additional tweaks and markets you would like to add. Preparation started at least 12 months prior to the event but even so we were down to the wire trying to fit as many new markets and features as possible. 
Our stats-based markets are built in partnership with the team at Twenty First Group and so strong collaboration between our team, their team and the clients was crucially important.

I won’t pretend it wasn’t a very nerve wracking seven weeks- everything had been building up to this World Cup and we were keen to ensure our efforts not only functioned well but also paid dividends. 

With 104 matches spread across three host nations and multiple kick-off windows, did the tournament expose any operational challenges that simply don’t exist during a typical domestic football season?

From an Abelson perspective, the time zone was a factor. Being based in the UK was far from ideal from an in-play trading point of view. I was in the USA for the opening few games and found it much easier to manage. 

Handling concentrated risk was the other main area of note, compared to a typical season matchday. At no time was this more evident than on June 22nd, when punters latched onto the goalscoring success of Mbappe, Haaland and Messi, betting them to repeat their 2+ goal heroics of matchday one. Of course, they did repeat the feat and it decimated margins and filled the punters’ pockets. This being a recreational play meant there was little way to escape for bookmakers, with punters betting the treble at odds varying from 90.00 to 110.00. 

Every major tournament creates spikes in demand, but this World Cup sustained exceptionally high betting volumes for more than a month. How did that change the way you approached data delivery, pricing and system resilience?

It didn’t change the way we approached things from a technical and delivery standpoint as we don’t see bet flow or handle wagers – ours is to ensure we deliver fast, accurate pricing and settlement.  The punter demand was in no small part aided by the early success of the golden boot favourites. In fact, having punters win early, only to increase wagering at the back end of the competition turned out favourably for operators. 

Operators increasingly compete on speed rather than just price. During the World Cup, how important was latency in determining whether an operator could deliver a competitive in-play betting experience?

The popularity of in-play betting means that feed speed is crucial to competitive uptime. Of course, your feed must also be accurate – it’s little use settling bets from a feed that end up being corrected or changed. 

A tournament as big and focused as the World Cup does allow operators to self-manage in-play experiences. Using low latency video feeds, operators can choose when to suspend or when to let the action go, in ways not possible during a typical season. Of course, ideally this would all be automated but that still requires some oversight. 

Did you notice operators becoming more selective about which betting markets they promoted during the tournament, or has the expectation now shifted towards offering the deepest possible catalogue of markets?

The big shift we saw, in terms of punter popularity, was a move back towards the higher volumes being seen on goalscorer markets. Going into the tournament, we expected an almost even split between stats markets (specifically shots and shots on target), and goalscorer markets but the aforementioned early success for the most fancied goalscorers saw punters latch onto these markets in a big way. 

One of the biggest talking points after the tournament has been the rise of highly personalised betting experiences. From the perspective of a data and odds supplier, how much richer has the underlying data become to support that level of personalisation?

We’ve spoken about personalised betting experiences for what seems like years now but I do think the evolution of AI tools has meant we are seeing real progress in this sphere. Though, I’m not sure the World Cup needed too much personalisation. There were limited other distractions and I’m not sure how granular personalisation really needed to be. 

The underlying data is rich but honestly there are limits to how many interesting betting markets can be made from all of the data points. It’s important to focus on the main revenue drivers. I believe building a narrative around a game or player and designing pre-built bet builders to “monetise” that narrative is the strongest method of engagement. 

Beyond the headline betting markets, were there any emerging player, team or match-specific markets that significantly outperformed expectations during the World Cup?

For our North American clients we provided pre-match prop markets that included extra-time. These proved incredibly popular with USA punters. I was somewhat sceptical that they would be a big driver but I was pleased to be very wrong!

The industry often talks about the importance of uptime, but resilience goes far beyond simply staying online. What does “performing well” during a tournament of this scale actually look like for a supplier such as Abelson?

Uptime is one measurement but reacting to issues and ensuring top notch communication between supplier and operator, especially during in-play, is equally important and something we pride ourselves on. 

Ultimately, our clients expect to see positive margins and while early results were tough, the later stages, in particular July were sensational, both from a handle and margin point-of-view. We far exceeded expectations and that is incredibly rewarding for myself and the team. 

Did the World Cup highlight any differences in betting behaviour between mature regulated markets and newer jurisdictions, particularly in terms of live betting and market preferences?

We saw interesting differences between different territories in terms of market popularity but, of course, this could also be down to how the operator has marketed certain bet types; it’s not an exact science
As mentioned, goalscorers were incredibly popular for the majority of our clients but for those operators running challenger brands in mature markets we did see a different split with more bets on stats-based props like tackles, fouls and shots. You’d attribute this to a higher number of sharper players within the sportsbook.

Looking back, what aspects of your own product offering proved most valuable to operator partners during the tournament, and were there any areas where customers immediately began asking for something new?

As mentioned, prior to the tournament we had to build pre-match markets that included extra time, should the match enter that stage.  Although not industry new, new to us was the Score OR Assist market which proved incredibly popular with clients.

We also offered live team markets for Shots and Shots on Target, which were, again, new to us and actually proved rather challenging given the momentum and team motivation shifts witnessed in tournament football.

Every World Cup changes customer expectations. What do you think operators will now expect as standard from their suppliers that perhaps wasn’t considered essential before 2026?

Sportsbook operators, in a bid to keep ahead of the latest product challenger, Prediction Markets, need to continue to offer concessions that customers really latch onto.

One such example is the sub on, play on concession – while this appears to offer fantastic value for the punter and does increase engagement across a whole match the ruling to allow up to five subs greatly improved margin in favour of the operator. To give some of this back, in the form of a fantastic looking concession, was a good example of innovative thinking. 

The other thing operators will continue to demand is more live stats markets, more cash out and more on-the-fly pre-canned bet builders, designed to reflect what is happening on the pitch. 

Finally, if the 2026 World Cup was the industry’s ultimate stress test, what is the single biggest lesson Abelson will carry into the next generation of global sporting events, whether that’s the European Championship, Olympics or the 2030 World Cup?

Speak to your key operators early, understand what should be priorities and are simply “nice to have” and plan a realistic time frame to include extensive testing. Where possible, add redundancy feeds and keep in close contact with your key suppliers- understand their roadmaps and pain points. 

Lastly, consider the implication of time zones on your staffing requirements and weigh up whether a temporary relocation might actually work better for certain personnel.