Kambi Live Bet Builder Hits 20% of World Cup Live Bets
Kambi confirmed that live Bet Builder activity rose sharply during the group stage. The product accounted for approximately 20% of all live bets, compared with 3% across the entirety of the 2022 tournament. The figures come from Kambi’s network of more than 70 partners across over 60 regulated jurisdictions.
Player props also ranked among the strongest pre-match categories by turnover. “Player shots on target” placed among the top five pre-match bet offers on the tournament, while “to score or assist” ranked inside the top 10, Kambi said.
Star players drove large shares of player-related match turnover across the group-stage matches they appeared in. Erling Haaland generated 60% of player prop turnover, Lionel Messi 48%, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé 47% each, and Cristiano Ronaldo 40%. Kambi excluded Norway’s match against France from Haaland’s total, since the striker did not enter the pitch.
Substitutes also factored heavily into Kambi’s data. The supplier’s Auto-Sub product transfers a player prop bet to a substitute when they replace the original selection. The feature was available to partners across every match at the tournament. By the end of the group stage, substitutes had scored more than 40 goals.
Kambi’s five largest Auto-Sub payouts during the group stage came from: Donyell Malen, replaced by Crysencio Summerville (Netherlands vs. Sweden); Ousmane Dembélé, replaced by Bradley Barcola (France vs. Senegal); Ismael Saibari, replaced by Soufiane Rahimi (Morocco vs. Haiti); Anthony Gordon, replaced by Marcus Rashford (England vs. Croatia); and Jamal Musiala, replaced by Deniz Undav (Germany vs. Ivory Coast).
Oliver Lamb, SVP Risk at Kambi, called the tournament “the biggest opportunity for the betting industry in a generation.” He said network data across more than 70 partners gives Kambi partners an edge through the period around and after the July 19 final.
💡TGJ Take
Live Bet Builder rose from 3% of live bets across the 2022 tournament to 20% during the 2026 group stage. That points to a structural shift, not a seasonal spike. Bettors now expect pre-match-level depth inside live markets, and operators without that combinability leave margin on the table during the highest-volume football event in the calendar. The Auto-Sub data matters more than it looks: more than 40 substitute goals means substitution handling now directly affects player-market continuity and bet settlement. Suppliers who keep player markets live and accurate through substitutions will separate themselves heading into the knockout rounds.
