WORLD CUP 2026
while watching their favorite team play may be surprised to find that the opportunity and legality of wagering depends on the city where the match is held.
Introduction Every four years the world comes together, puts aside its differences, and unites over the most prestigious soccer (ahem, football) tournament on the planet. Yes, the FIFA World Cup is back, and it’s in North America for the first time in over 30 years. From June 11, 2026, through July 19, 2026, 48 teams from around the world will face off across sixteen host cities throughout Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The host cities include: two Canadian cities – Toronto and Vancouver; three Mexican cities – Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey; and eleven United States’ cities – Atlanta (Georgia) Boston (Massachusetts), Dallas (Texas), Houston (Texas), Kansas City (Missouri), Los Angeles (California), Miami (Florida), New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), San Francisco (California), and Seattle (Washington). 2026 will see an expanded forty-eight teams competing for the FIFA World Cup Trophy, a change from the 32-team format used from 1998 through 2022. The group stage will feature twelve groups of four teams playing each other in a round-robin format. 32 teams will advance to the knockout stages and the two surviving teams will meet in the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final on July 19, 2026, at 3:00PM at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In total, 104 World Cup matches will be played this summer. The event is expected to draw as many as 10 million visitors across the eleven US host cities, potentially making the 2026 World Cup the largest sporting event in history 1 and generating billions of dollars in economic impact. 2 It will also be a fantastic opportunity for sports wagering operators to attract new customers – both foreign and domestic – particularly given that the sport’s calendar is typically slow during the months of June and July (with apologies to the baseball fans). Visitors to the United States hoping to bet
US states with legalized sports wagering Visitors to Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania will find jurisdictions with established, legal, and regulated sports books readily available to accept wagers. This is good news for French and Norwegian supporters who want to bet (or who enjoy an Mbappe or Haaland first goal scorer bet), as all of their teams’ group- stage matches will be played in these states. Massachusetts – Massachusetts has offered online and retail sports wagering products since early 2023 and is home to one of the United States’ most popular sports betting operators, DraftKings. The Boston area is also home to the WynnBET Boston Sportsbook’s retail outlet where visitors can place sports wagers in person. For those looking to bet closer to the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, the retail sportsbook at the Plainridge Park Casino is less than five miles away. The nearly half a million international visitors 3 expected to visit the greater Boston area this summer will have plenty of options when it comes to making a wager. Missouri – As the only hosting location in the Midwest, Missouri is also the most recent state to launch legalized sports wagering. Missouri officially went live with online and retail sports betting on December 1, 2025 and currently has eight mobile sports wagering operators, with FanDuel and DraftKings dominating market share early on. 4 Kansas City is also home to several casinos that offer retails sports betting options, including the Fanatics Sportsbook at Ameristar and the Caesars Sportsbook at Harrah’s Kansas City. The 650,000 expected visitors 5 to Kansas City may not be aware that it straddles the border between Kansas and Missouri
1 https://share.america.gov/already-destinations-us-cities-embrace-fifa-world-cup-2026/ 2 https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/152f754a8e1b3727/original/FIFA-World-Cup-2026-Socioeconomic-impact-analysis.pdf 3 https://www.nenc.news/wbur/2026-01-21/world-cup-fans-are-coming-to-boston-the-t-is-still-working-out-how-to-get-them-around 4 https://www.mgc.dps.mo.gov/SportsWagering/sw_financials/FY26_SWFinReport/12_Dec/SW%20Monthly%20Financials%201225.pdf. 5 https://kansascityfwc26.com/kc2026-hits-its-stride-smallest-host-city-sets-high-standard-for-fifa-world-cup-readiness/
IMGL MAGAZINE | MARCH 2026
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