BLOOMBERG NEWS’ Nicolle, Boudway & Silverman reported more than $5B has been traded on the World Cup across Polymarket’s international exchange and U.S.-regulated Kalshi Inc. in 2026. The boom has produced “multimillion-dollar winners and some painful losses, including a bet-gone-wrong on Belgium to beat Egypt that cost one Polymarket user nearly” $9M. Of the 20 most profitable wagers across Polymarket’s entire non-U.S. exchange in the last seven days, “only two were not related to the World Cup.” The most profitable World Cup bet on Polymarket so far was placed by an account using the moniker “GRIMDRIP,” which turned $6M into $13.6M with two wagers on Czechia versus South Africa (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 6/19).
RECORD-BREAKING: USA TODAY’s Seth Vertelney noted that, according to FIFA, the tournament is “on track to shatter the all-time World Cup attendance record,” which was set when 3.5 million spectators attended the tournament in 1994, the last time it was held in the U.S. With the tournament back in the U.S. and 48 teams involved for the first time, that attendance record was “always likely to fall” (USA TODAY, 6/21).
