By Nick Devor

The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off Thursday, and Flutter, the largest betting brand in the world is preparing to handle an avalanche of wagers on the tournament. At peak times, the firm says it expects to manage 100,000 bets a minute.

According to FIFA, the 2022 World Cup final was watched by nearly 1.5 billion fans, about a fifth of the world's population. Barron's has reported that the future of sports betting in the U.S. looks uncertain, but the global nature of the World Cup makes Flutter a clear beneficiary of the betting bonanza.

Canada, Scotland, Australia, Brazil, the U.S., and England -- all are competing in the World Cup, and all have a local sportsbook operated by Flutter.

The company could use a boost. It lowered its full-year guidance when it reported first-quarter earnings last month after an expensive investment into a prediction-market platform. Shares of Flutter are down 64% from its 52-week high, although they rose 14.9% through the first half of this week off favorable prediction-market news.

In a sixth-floor conference room at the end of a maze of hallways in the New York Stock Exchange, Flutter CEO Peter Jackson laid out the firm's World Cup strategy for Barron's. Primarily, "it's a great way for us to acquire customers," he says.

The approach varies depending on the country. Most Americans planning to bet on the World Cup will be doing so for the first time. Those fans and bettors may need a primer on tournament structure. "We are doing some education for American consumers with the way we're developing the product," Jackson says.

For contrast, look to Brazil, where "soccer is religion," Jackson says. In 2014, when the country hosted the World Cup, "there wasn't a dog on the street when they were playing. There is no need to talk to a Brazilian about the rules of soccer."

While sportsbooks hope for a lively tournament that keeps bettors engaged, they don't want things to get too wild, like the last World Cup final.

That match was tied 3-3 at the end of regulation playing time, with soccer superstars Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé each scoring multiple goals. Individual players are the subject of so-called prop bets, where fans can bet on any number of player statistics. Messi and Mbappé's outperformance meant big payouts -- at Flutter's expense.

"It was one of the most expensive games we had," but Jackson says the level of fan engagement and customer acquisition made it worthwhile.

"Sport is chaotic; it's unpredictable," he adds. "There will be games for us where we do better than we expected. There will be lots of games where we do worse than we expected. That's the nature of it."

Like any fan with a bet on the line, Jackson is going to be able to see how much he stands to win or lose as the matches unfold. "But I don't wanna know sometimes," he says. "I just want to enjoy the game."

Write to Nick Devor at nicholas.devor@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 11, 2026 02:30 ET (06:30 GMT)

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