{"id":19069,"date":"2026-06-30T20:09:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19069"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:09:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:09:02","slug":"sportsbooks-say-world-cup-betting-has-surged-past-expectations-with-us-hype-driving-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19069","title":{"rendered":"Sportsbooks say World Cup betting has surged past expectations, with US hype driving action"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By MARK ANDERSON, AP Sports Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Sportsbook operators anticipated this year\u2019s World Cup would set betting records because the major elements were aligned.<\/p>\n

Read more Iran heads home after a heartbreaking World Cup knockout, but fans say players should be proud<\/a><\/p>\n

The world\u2019s most popular sporting event is being played in North America, so U.S. audiences can see the games live while the sun is out or in the early evening. The U.S. also has a team that may be its most talented in history.<\/p>\n

And then the U.S. went out and won its first two matches to capture its group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it has exceeded our expectations,\u201d said Mark Bickerdike, Caesars Sportsbook\u2019s head of soccer trading, said of the money being bet.<\/p>\n

DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello said the wagering on the 48-team World Cup, which opened the knockout stage on Sunday, is putting itself in the same company as the always popular NCAA Tournament in college basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be the biggest event of the year when it\u2019s all said and done,\u201d Avello said. \u201cMarch Madness takes place over the course of three weeks, and it rakes quite a bit of money. This is getting there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt blows the Super Bowl away. One game, one day. This thing here is way bigger than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Christian Cipollini, BetMGM Sportsbook\u2019s trading manager, said the enormous interest in the U.S. team has only grown. The Americans open the single-elimination phase of the tournament on Wednesday night against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Santa Clara, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect that to be BetMGM\u2019s most bet-on soccer game of all time,\u201d Cipollini said. \u201cIn this World Cup, all three of our most bet-on games have been the three USA games. This game is leading up to be a perfect storm where the USA looks very good. There\u2019s a lot of hype around the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

France and Argentina on a collision course?<\/h4>\n

The three sportsbooks list Kylian Mbapp\u00e9-led France as the favorite to win it all, with Lionel Messi and defending champion Argentina not far behind. They are on opposite sides of the bracket, so if they face each other, it would be in the final, a rematch of four years ago.<\/p>\n

At BetMGM, 15.3% of tickets have been on France, the most of any country, and it has received 20.4% of the money. That is slightly below Spain, which has taken in 20.5% of the handle, much if not most of it before the tournament.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Longtime handicapper Bruce Marshall cautioned against assuming France and Argentina would meet in the final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could see seven or eight teams winning this thing,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cSo any favorite at this stage, I don\u2019t know that there\u2019s great value there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Who\u2019s playing in the World Cup today? TV schedule for June 30<\/a><\/p>\n

Bettors look for long shots<\/h4>\n

Americans like a good underdog story, and wagers are coming in on some teams with exceptionally long odds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBettors like to take a shot for a small amount of money and put it on those teams,\u201d Avello said. \u201cOf course, that risk is high for us because it doesn\u2019t take much. A $5 bet on Congo, it\u2019s $5,000 (in a payout). You take quite a few of those and the liability gets up pretty high on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall said it would make sense to take a look at Colombia (33-1 at BetMGM) or Switzerland (66-1) as teams with great value.<\/p>\n

\u201cColombia looks really dangerous, and they\u2019re getting a lot of support,\u201d Marshall said. \u201cThey played their first couple of games in Mexico, which were like home games for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe one nobody\u2019s talking about is Switzerland, and they\u2019re one of these teams that remind me a of a club side. I say that in positive terms because they\u2019re very familiar with one another. A lot of these World Cup teams are sort of thrown together and haven\u2019t played much with each other. Switzerland\u2019s got guys who\u2019ve played, 80, 100 games together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sportsbooks aren\u2019t necessarily hoping for a US win<\/h4>\n

Should the Americans pull off the nearly unthinkable and win the World Cup, the sportsbooks would be feeling financial pain.<\/p>\n

The U.S. has gone from a 50-1 long shot to 25-1 at BetMGM, and the Americans are 30-1 at Caesars and 33-1 at DraftKings.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the U.S. would\u2019ve limped into the knockout round, our liability probably wouldn\u2019t be as high as it is,\u201d Cipollini said. \u201cBut the fact that they\u2019ve looked good, there\u2019s a lot of people that are, \u2018They do have a chance.\u2019 It\u2019s on home soil. It\u2019s easy to talk yourself into something we all kind of want to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Simpsons\u2019 drives some betting<\/h4>\n

A 1997 episode of \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d featuring a match between Mexico and Portugal is causing some fans to believe the long-running TV show forecast that meeting in this year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the case. Neither the World Cup nor the year 2026 were mentioned.<\/p>\n

But those details apparently doesn\u2019t matter to some bettors, causing a notable uptick in wagering on that matchup taking place.<\/p>\n

Read more NBA free agency: Will Clippers retain John Collins, Bennedict Mathurin?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got a liability on that,\u201d Bickerdike said.<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sportsbook operators are seeing record betting on this year’s World Cup, specifically with high expectations for the USMNT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-based-on-facts-either-observed-and-verified-directly-by-the-reporter-or-reported-and-verified-from-knowledgeable-sources","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSportsbooks say World Cup betting has surged past expectations, with US hype driving action - Silicon Valley Moving Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=19069\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sportsbooks say World Cup betting has surged past expectations, with US hype driving action - 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