GeoComply’s data has revealed that the World Cup Final last weekend was the second most popular sports match of the year for US bettors, behind only the NFL’s Super Bowl.
According to the geolocation and fraud specialist, Argentina’s win over France attracted 7.9m geolocation checks in the US, placing it behind the Super Bowl (23.5m), but ahead of the last game of the NBA Finals (5.1m), the NCAA March Madness final (4.8m), and the NHL Stanley Cup final (1.9m) in terms of transactions.
GeoComply added that betting patterns by users during the World Cup mirrored that of NFL and NBA games, which generally record just over four bets per user. In the World Cup Final, activity spikes occurred after each goal, at the beginning of extra time, and during penalties.
Given this is the first World Cup tournament to take place since the repeal of PASPA in 2018, Sam Basile, VP of Business Development for North American Gaming at GeoComply, believes this is an indication that Americans are becoming more interested in soccer.
“They say Americans don’t like soccer, but they certainly got a kick out of betting on the World Cup,” commented Basile.
GeoComply also stated that the World Cup final had 1.7m active users betting, the second-highest figure this year for showcase finals. The game finished behind the Super Bowl once more (3.1m), but ahead of the NCAA March Madness final (1.1m), the NBA final game (1.0m), and the Stanley Cup final (500,000).
The geolocation specialists noted that around 1m new accounts were created throughout the World Cup, showing interest in the game and optimism for when the US, Canada, and Mexico all jointly host the next edition of the tournament in 2026.
US games throughout the team’s stay in the tournament attracted significant interest, with more than the average 2.73m geolocation checks across their matches during the competition, including a high of 4.3m checks during US vs England. 30,115 new accounts were created for that game as well.
Given a large number of games at the World Cup took place while Americans were at work, GeoComply believes that these numbers can get even bigger when the tournament comes to the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2026.
“GeoComply’s data disproves the myth that Americans are not interested in The Beautiful Game,” added Basile.
Last month, GeoComply revealed that Maryland’s online sports betting market had undergone “record-setting enthusiasm” following its launch during Thanksgiving week.
The geolocation and fraud specialist has stated that 16.5m geolocation transactions took place in the Old Line State during the Thanksgiving Holiday season (November 23-27), with 3.7m transactions taking place on Thanksgiving Day.
