AI changes sports betting as bet builders surge at 2026 World Cup
Player-focused markets and bet builder tools have taken centre stage at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. A bet builder allows customers to combine several selections from the same match into a single wager, such as a team to win, a player to have a shot on target and both teams to score.
According to the sports betting provider Kambi, bets on shots on goal generated twice the pre-match betting volume of the traditional match-winner market. The finding points to a broader change in betting behaviour during major football tournaments. Rather than relying primarily on straightforward wagers on which team will win, customers are increasingly placing more complex bets on individual players, match events, and multiple selections.
Kambi’s global network of Turnkey Sportsbook partners surpassed 100 million bets with 102 of the tournament’s 104 matches completed. While the expanded World Cup has created more betting opportunities than the 2022 edition, the supplier also reported higher average turnover per match and an increase in the average stake.
Player markets move into the mainstream
Player shots on target became Kambi’s largest pre-match bet builder market by turnover during the tournament, producing double the turnover generated by match-winner bets. The market was also the most popular option during live betting, accounting for 15 per cent of live turnover across Kambi’s network.
This suggests that player propositions, once a secondary part of the football betting product, are becoming central to how recreational customers follow matches. A bettor may now be as interested in whether a striker records a shot on target as in the final result itself.
The share of pre-match turnover generated by bets other than the match-winner market increased from 57 per cent at the 2022 World Cup to 63 per cent in 2026. Kambi also recorded a sharp rise in bet builder activity. Pre-match bet builder turnover was 3.6 times higher than in 2022, while live bet builder turnover increased tenfold.
Customers are also adding more selections to their bets. The average pre-match bet builder contained 3.5 selections, compared with 2.9 during the previous World Cup. The scale of possible combinations was particularly visible during the semi-finals, with more than 700,000 unique bet builder combinations placed on each match.
A more profitable betting mix for operators
The shift is not only about giving customers more choice. Bet builders and player proposition markets are typically higher-margin products for sportsbook operators than conventional single-market bets.
Kambi said the changing betting mix helped it maintain a strong tournament margin, even though the four highest-seeded teams reached the semi-finals and several leading strikers scored regularly.
Predictable results and successful favourites can create difficult conditions for bookmakers, particularly when popular selections appear together in accumulators. A broader range of player and event-based markets can spread liabilities while reducing operators’ dependence on the final result.
Kambi’s geographically diverse partner network also distributed betting activity across different markets and time zones, helping to spread risk across its global customer base.
For operators, the figures underline why the industry is investing heavily in personalised betting experiences. Customers are demonstrating an appetite for wagers that let them form their own view of a match rather than choosing from a limited set of traditional outcomes.
AI trading supports a larger betting offer
The 2026 tournament was the first World Cup in which Kambi’s pre-match and live betting offers were fully compiled and traded using its proprietary algorithmic system.
The company said its AI-powered trading technology enabled it to offer a wider selection of player markets and increase the number of outcomes that could be combined within bet builders.
It also supported reduced market suspension times, shorter live-betting delays and improved uptime. These factors are particularly important during major tournaments, when sudden changes in play can produce large volumes of betting activity within seconds.
Kambi CEO Werner Becher said surpassing 100 million bets before the final demonstrated both the scale of the company’s network and its progress in sportsbook innovation. “This is the first World Cup fully traded by our AI-powered capabilities,” Becher commented, adding that the technology had contributed to stronger product performance, greater engagement with player props and bet builder, and a betting mix moving beyond traditional markets.
The record bet count gives Kambi a strong headline, but the underlying trend may prove more important. At this World Cup, the match winner was no longer necessarily the main attraction. For a growing number of bettors and the operators serving them, individual player actions became the product taking centre stage.
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