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The opening round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 group stage has already delivered surprises, drama and plenty of emotion. Danny Skelton, Head of Soccer at Kambi, breaks down for SBC News what the tournament’s unpredictable start means for the sports betting industry, exploring the trends, challenges and opportunities emerging as the tournament continues, and what the company brings to the table to maximise them.
The World Cup rarely fails to deliver drama, but the early games of this tournament have underlined just how unpredictable, and simultaneously compelling, football can be. We’ve already seen a number of surprising results, from Spain being held to a 0-0 draw by Cape Verde to Belgium dropping points against Egypt. These are the kinds of outcomes that remind us why the World Cup captures the attention of audiences across the globe.
Danny Skelton, Head of Soccer at Kambi. Image: Kambi
For those of us focused on delivering a best-in-class sports betting experience, this unpredictability is both a challenge and an opportunity. It places a premium on live betting, where the ability to react quickly to in-game events is critical as bettors look to engage with the action in real time.
This year’s tournament also marks a significant evolution in the format, with 48 teams competing for the first time. While this has opened the door for more nations to participate and created exciting new matchups, it also increases the likelihood of mismatches. Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao is a case in point: a game effectively decided by halftime. Situations like this highlight the importance of a dynamic and responsive live betting product. When the traditional 90-minute contest becomes one-sided early on, bettors often shift their attention to alternative markets — next goal, player props, spread variants and more. A sophisticated live offering ensures engagement doesn’t drop off simply because the scoreline does.
At Kambi, we’ve prepared extensively for these scenarios and are able to deliver a breadth of offering and accuracy of live odds that few can match, keeping bettors engaged from kickoff to the final whistle, even when the competitive narrative shifts early.
Expanding the live experience for a new World Cup reality
As we move into the latter stages of the tournament, the importance of live betting only grows. The expanded format introduces an additional round of 32, meaning more knockout fixtures and, crucially, more opportunities for extra time and penalties. These moments are among the most intense in football and delivering a seamless, uninterrupted experience during these phases is essential.
For this World Cup, we have significantly expanded our live offering to meet that demand. A key driver has been greater combinability across markets, especially on the player props side, enabling a richer and more flexible Bet Builder experience in-play. At Kambi, our early numbers show this is already reflected in materially higher engagement with live Bet Builder compared to previous tournaments, as bettors look to personalise their bets around the evolving narrative of each match.
Alongside this, we have introduced dynamic bet delays, allowing bettors less friction and a smoother user experience by reducing countdowns to approximately one second. Promotional features such as early payout and AutoSub — transferring your player-specific bet to the substituting player if your original selection is subbed off — have also enhanced the live proposition, giving players more ways to engage with matches and extract value from key in-game moments.
This World Cup is also notable as the first to be fully traded by Kambi’s proprietary AI-powered trading system. By leveraging advanced machine learning models, we can process vast amounts of data in real time, enabling faster pricing updates, greater consistency and improved risk management. The result is a premium product that maintains accuracy and availability even during periods of extreme volatility.
External validation of this approach has been encouraging. Bettormetrics’ World Cup Trading Performance Leaderboard has highlighted Kambi as a leader in live trading performance, reflecting not just pricing quality but also uptime, countdowns and suspensions — factors that are critical for a quality in-play user experience.
A clear example came in the tournament’s opening match between Mexico and South Africa. The game’s second half was chaotic, featuring three red cards, multiple VAR checks and Mexico’s decisive second goal. Such conditions put enormous strain on trading systems, as suspensions and re-openings of markets need to be handled with precision. During these high-pressure moments, Kambi’s uptime for key markets stood out. Our markets remained available to bet on for longer compared to competitors, reducing friction and allowing players to stay engaged when the action peaked.
This is ultimately what defines a leading live betting product: reliability under pressure. It’s not enough to offer a wide range of markets; they must be consistently accessible, accurately priced and delivered with minimal delay. Every suspension, every delay in re-opening, creates friction that detracts from the user experience. Eliminating that friction — especially during moments of peak excitement during the World Cup — is where true differentiation lies.
As the tournament progresses into knockout football, the margin for error shrinks both on the pitch and in trading. Matches turn on single moments, and the expectation from bettors is that the product keeps pace without interruption. Our focus is therefore simple: keep markets open longer, price them accurately, and give players the flexibility to interact with the game in ways that feel intuitive and immediate.
If we continue to execute on those fundamentals, the end result won’t just be a strong World Cup performance but a new benchmark for what live sports betting should look like at scale.
How Kambi is raising the bar for live betting at the World Cup
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The opening round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 group stage has already delivered surprises, drama and plenty of emotion. Danny Skelton, Head of Soccer at Kambi, breaks down for SBC News what the tournament’s unpredictable start means for the sports betting industry, exploring the trends, challenges and opportunities emerging as the tournament continues, and what the company brings to the table to maximise them.
The World Cup rarely fails to deliver drama, but the early games of this tournament have underlined just how unpredictable, and simultaneously compelling, football can be. We’ve already seen a number of surprising results, from Spain being held to a 0-0 draw by Cape Verde to Belgium dropping points against Egypt. These are the kinds of outcomes that remind us why the World Cup captures the attention of audiences across the globe.
For those of us focused on delivering a best-in-class sports betting experience, this unpredictability is both a challenge and an opportunity. It places a premium on live betting, where the ability to react quickly to in-game events is critical as bettors look to engage with the action in real time.
This year’s tournament also marks a significant evolution in the format, with 48 teams competing for the first time. While this has opened the door for more nations to participate and created exciting new matchups, it also increases the likelihood of mismatches. Germany’s 7-1 win over Curaçao is a case in point: a game effectively decided by halftime. Situations like this highlight the importance of a dynamic and responsive live betting product. When the traditional 90-minute contest becomes one-sided early on, bettors often shift their attention to alternative markets — next goal, player props, spread variants and more. A sophisticated live offering ensures engagement doesn’t drop off simply because the scoreline does.
At Kambi, we’ve prepared extensively for these scenarios and are able to deliver a breadth of offering and accuracy of live odds that few can match, keeping bettors engaged from kickoff to the final whistle, even when the competitive narrative shifts early.
Expanding the live experience for a new World Cup reality
As we move into the latter stages of the tournament, the importance of live betting only grows. The expanded format introduces an additional round of 32, meaning more knockout fixtures and, crucially, more opportunities for extra time and penalties. These moments are among the most intense in football and delivering a seamless, uninterrupted experience during these phases is essential.
For this World Cup, we have significantly expanded our live offering to meet that demand. A key driver has been greater combinability across markets, especially on the player props side, enabling a richer and more flexible Bet Builder experience in-play. At Kambi, our early numbers show this is already reflected in materially higher engagement with live Bet Builder compared to previous tournaments, as bettors look to personalise their bets around the evolving narrative of each match.
Alongside this, we have introduced dynamic bet delays, allowing bettors less friction and a smoother user experience by reducing countdowns to approximately one second. Promotional features such as early payout and AutoSub — transferring your player-specific bet to the substituting player if your original selection is subbed off — have also enhanced the live proposition, giving players more ways to engage with matches and extract value from key in-game moments.
This World Cup is also notable as the first to be fully traded by Kambi’s proprietary AI-powered trading system. By leveraging advanced machine learning models, we can process vast amounts of data in real time, enabling faster pricing updates, greater consistency and improved risk management. The result is a premium product that maintains accuracy and availability even during periods of extreme volatility.
External validation of this approach has been encouraging. Bettormetrics’ World Cup Trading Performance Leaderboard has highlighted Kambi as a leader in live trading performance, reflecting not just pricing quality but also uptime, countdowns and suspensions — factors that are critical for a quality in-play user experience.
A clear example came in the tournament’s opening match between Mexico and South Africa. The game’s second half was chaotic, featuring three red cards, multiple VAR checks and Mexico’s decisive second goal. Such conditions put enormous strain on trading systems, as suspensions and re-openings of markets need to be handled with precision. During these high-pressure moments, Kambi’s uptime for key markets stood out. Our markets remained available to bet on for longer compared to competitors, reducing friction and allowing players to stay engaged when the action peaked.
This is ultimately what defines a leading live betting product: reliability under pressure. It’s not enough to offer a wide range of markets; they must be consistently accessible, accurately priced and delivered with minimal delay. Every suspension, every delay in re-opening, creates friction that detracts from the user experience. Eliminating that friction — especially during moments of peak excitement during the World Cup — is where true differentiation lies.
As the tournament progresses into knockout football, the margin for error shrinks both on the pitch and in trading. Matches turn on single moments, and the expectation from bettors is that the product keeps pace without interruption. Our focus is therefore simple: keep markets open longer, price them accurately, and give players the flexibility to interact with the game in ways that feel intuitive and immediate.
If we continue to execute on those fundamentals, the end result won’t just be a strong World Cup performance but a new benchmark for what live sports betting should look like at scale.