Soccer was the sport of the summer in the United States this year, as the FIFA World Cup came to 11 American cities (in addition to venues in Canada and Mexico). Americans embraced the sport fully, supporting tremendous numbers for television viewership and stadium attendance — as well as sports betting handle.
BetMGM said that the World Cup “nearly kept pace with the MLB’s rigorous summer schedule” despite there being five times as many baseball games over that time period. Hard Rock Bet noted the tournament did three times as much handle and brought in double the number of individual bettors as the men’s NCAA tournament, which is traditionally the most-bet-on event on the U.S. sports calendar.
In Colorado, which breaks down betting revenue by sport, the World Cup generated $60.2 million, a near 250% increase from the $17.5 million brought in by the previous edition of the tournament in November 2022.
With European league soccer in full swing and Major League Soccer kicking off playoffs, that momentum has continued over for the American sports betting ecosystem.
BetMGM noted that in the two-month period immediately following the conclusion of the 2026 World Cup, the sportsbook saw a 24.5% year-over-year increase in bets and a 34.5% increase in handle on wagers for club soccer. Hard Rock said there have been nearly 30% more wagers on soccer overall, specifically 43% more in the Premier League and 21% in the Champions League with World Cup stars Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane attracting double the amount of bets in the competition compared to the same time period last year.
“The World Cup never really ended for our customers. The bettors who did well backing Mbappé, Haaland and Kane this summer have followed them straight back to the Champions League, and the post-World Cup pain continues for us every time those guys light up the scoreboard,” Hard Rock Bet SVP of sportsbook Neil Walsh told ESPN over email. “Those Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon matches don’t compete with primetime U.S. sports, so they get our customers’ full attention.”
“We have seen an immediate increase in activity across our soccer markets when comparing 2026 with 2025,” Caesars lead soccer trader Mark Bickerdike said in an email.
“Encouragingly, that growth is evident across both pre-match and in-play betting and is reflected across the majority of competitions we offer. It certainly feels as though we’ve benefited from the momentum generated by the World Cup heading into the new domestic seasons.”
MLS has attracted significantly more betting action in 2026 than it did the year before, showing a 30.4% increase in tickets and a 38.8% increase in money from mid-July to the end of October. MLS handle is up 27% at Hard Rock Bet over a similar time period, with Inter Miami — a fixture for the Florida-based book — garnering almost 40% more bets year-over-year.
“We’ve seen a jump up in more users that are betting soccer and a lot of that is from MLS,” DraftKings director of sports operations Johnny Avello told ESPN. “We’d like to think that’s from people betting the World Cup this year and finding out that soccer’s a fun game to wager on.”
The development of MLS’ betting market comes in the wake of unprecedented popularity for the league and as it looks to transition to a fall-spring schedule that lines up with the rest of world soccer.
Bickerdike said that since Aug. 1, MLS has moved from being Caesars’ fourth-most bet soccer league to second. The revised calendar could benefit the league further.
“It creates the opportunity for customers to engage with a full day of soccer, starting with competitions such as the Premier League and LaLiga before moving into a slate of MLS fixtures later in the day,” said Bickerdike. “From a sportsbook perspective, our market offering is consistent across these competitions, creating a seamless experience for customers and potentially encouraging greater engagement with MLS over time.”
Coming out of MLS Decision Day on Saturday, Nashville SC are the favorites for the MLS Cup at +400. Thomas Müller‘s Vancouver Whitecaps and Lionel Messi‘s Inter Miami (the reigning champions) follow just behind at +450.
