World Cup expected to be the biggest betting event in history

The Fifa Men's World Cup is set to be the biggest betting event of all time, with more than $50bn (£37.4bn) in wagers placed globally.

The tournament will see punters place bets worth around $500m per match, according to a forecast by financial services firm Macquarie.

The expected $50bn total would be a major increase from the $35bn of wagers placed during the 2022 World Cup, which was held in Qatar.

Gambling awareness groups warned almost all punters lose money in the long-run, and that those betting during the World Cup risk being encouraged to try more addictive forms of betting.

Macquarie analyst Chad Benyon said the expected surge in gambling revenue is primarily due to an expansion of the number of teams at this year's tournament, from 32 to 48.

As a result, there will be more than 100 matches over the six-week schedule, compared with the 64 played in Qatar in 2022.

The favourable time zones of hosts the US, Canada and Mexico will also boost global viewership, Benyon added, fuelling demand among punters in Europe, Latin America and Africa.

Another driver of the increase is the growing sports betting market in the US, with around 65% of the population now able to gamble on sports, up from 40% in 2022.

It means this is the first World Cup on which a majority of the US can place bets.

But Benyon warned the tournament could be a flash in the pan for betting giants if they cannot convert one-off punters into "repeat, multi-sport bettors". He added that those with casino platforms on their website stand to benefit most from the surge.

Les Bernal, national director of Stop Predatory Gambling, warned that "hundreds of thousands of people across the world, especially young men, will suffer life-changing debt and financial distress" because of gambling during the World Cup games.

Bernal said: "99 out of 100 sports bettors lose money in the long-term... the business model for commercialised sport gambling operators is completely based upon the people who have been turned into addicted gamblers, an addiction that causes victims to die by suicide at a rate unlike any other."

He called for politicians globally to act to curtail addictive forms of gambling and prevent consumers being "fleeced" during the World Cup.

UK-based gambling reform campaigner Matt Zarb-Cousin said punters betting on the World Cup will be "cross-promoted more addictive casino content".

A National Centre for Social Research report found that, in the UK, 79% of gambling company winnings came from the top 10% of spenders, those who wagered at least £5,639 in a year.

Macquarie's report comes as regulations around online prediction markets in the US are poised to become stricter.

On Wednesday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – the US regulatory body for prediction markets as well as oil and other commodity markets – proposed clamping down on bets on "terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, or conduct that is unlawful under federal or state law".

Prediction markets have generated controversy because of how they allow users to bet against each other in a marketplace on topics like the Iran war and Ukraine war.

Following backlash, prediction market operator Kalshi no longer runs markets on those topics.

Its rival Polymarket still does, but it does not earn fees on them. It has previously told the BBC removing such markets would not affect the events themselves.