😱 World Cup 2026: How Bookmakers and Affiliates Will Cash In on the Biggest Tournament in History

The 2026 World Cup isn't just a football tournament. For betting and affiliate marketing, it's the defining event of the coming years: 48 national teams, three host countries, and over a month of non-stop hype.

📌 Why the 2026 World Cup Will Be a Golden Period for Betting
The tournament runs from June 11 to July 19 across the US, Canada, and Mexico. For the first time, 48 national teams will compete, and the number of matches and talking points will grow at virtually every stage.

To put the scale in perspective:
— 60% of Brazilians plan to bet during the 2026 World Cup;
— one in five is willing to take out a loan for the tournament;
— 1.3 billion visits to betting sites per month — and that's before the hype even starts.

The hottest periods are the final hours before kickoff and live betting after goals, penalties, and red cards.

The biggest traffic peaks will traditionally fall on:
— matches featuring top national teams;
— games involving the US, Mexico, and Canada;
— playoffs and decisive group stage matches.

📌 What You Need to Know About Player Behavior
Before the tournament, audiences register en masse, activate bonuses, and bet on long-term outcomes: tournament winner, top scorer, or group stage qualification.

During the World Cup, the main volume kicks in:
— daily deposits;
— live betting;
— multi-match accumulators;
— emotional "chasing" bets after losses.

After the tournament, some players drop off — but the core stays in the system and transitions to club football. This is where operators start earning on long-term LTV.

📌 What Will Be Bet on Most
World Cups traditionally see explosive demand for:
— tournament winner futures;
— large accumulators;
— live betting.

📌 Bettor Pain Points and Triggers at the 2026 World Cup
Newcomers are afraid of complex lines, losing money, and confusing bonus terms — especially amid hundreds of promotional offers around the tournament.

Experienced players have different concerns:
— limit cuts;
— poor live betting quality;
— lag during matches;
— "toxic" bonuses with heavy wagering requirements.

That's exactly why the winners in 2026 will be brands that deliver simple UX, a clear onboarding experience, and honest communication — not just "+500% on deposit."

📌 What This Means for Media Buying
For the 2026 World Cup, simply running traffic on "sports betting" is no longer enough. Campaigns will need to be built around specific matches, national teams, and local GEOs.

The working approach looks like this:
— warm-up starting 1–2 months before the tournament;
— daily creatives tied to matches and live events;
— Telegram funnels, push notifications, and content;
— audience retention after the final through the Champions League and club season.

There will be no one-size-fits-all "global" campaign. In LatAm, Argentina and Brazil perform best; in Europe, local national teams and playoff stages; in North America, the US and Mexico will get a massive boost from hosting the tournament.

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👉 What do you think: will the 2026 World Cup hit hardest on live betting, or will the market still be driven by classic accumulators?

💾 Save this post — it'll come in handy closer to the tournament when planning your setups and creatives.

🔗 Who has banned gambling advertising during the 2026 World Cup, where audience interest peaked at previous tournaments, and how to monetize campaigns most effectively — read our new article.

⚡️ #TrafficFlow | May 2026

16 setups. 4 sources. 12 GEOs.

We're launching a new series where we compile real working setups and look at what's actually performing in the market right now: fresh insider data from the 3SNET team.

What performed in May:
🇬🇧 Casino Prestige — TG Ads
🇫🇷 Casino Prestige — PPC
🇦🇺 Lucky Dreams — PPC
🇵🇭 Starzbet — TG Ads
🇫🇷 Spin Million — FB Apps
🇮🇹 Rooster Bet — PPC
🇮🇹 BetBeast — FB Apps
🇰🇷 1win — SEO
🇦🇴 BANTUbet — FB Apps
🇩🇪 Yep — SEO
🇩🇪 Sportaza — FB Apps
🇿🇦 Mzansibet — FB Apps
🇨🇦 Rexbet — TG Ads
🇮🇳 Luckystar — PPC
🇪🇬 Linebet — SEO
🇵🇭 Starzbet — FB Apps

What this snapshot shows:
🟢 PPC continues to hold volume
FR, IT, AU, and IN show again that PPC still works reliably in iGaming — especially in GEOs with clear economics and high demand.

🟢 FB Apps performed across six GEOs in one month
FR, IT, AO, DE, ZA, PH — and that's just within our network. Based on what we're seeing across the industry, the source's geographic reach is even wider.

🟢 SEO is showing up in the data more often
KR, DE, and EG — three completely different markets where organic delivered results. DE stands out in particular, where competition is usually above average.

🟢 TG Ads isn't limited to Tier-3 only
UK and CA show that Telegram Ads is gradually establishing itself in more competitive GEOs as well.

🟢 Africa remains underrated
ZA and AO appear in the stats again. Based on the data, some teams are continuing to scale there through Facebook and FB Apps.

*Recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia

Were these insights useful? Should we keep it going? 👇

⚡️ From Botswana to Brazil: The Most-Discussed Market News

Hey everyone! While some countries are opening new markets, others are pushing for tighter industry control. Here's the week's key iGaming news.

📌 New Markets = New Opportunities
— Botswana has issued 10 licenses for online bookmaking. Six operators have already launched operations.

📌 Counting the Money
— Authorities in the Congo are preparing a unified gambling monitoring system. By some estimates, the industry generates up to $1.7 billion per year, yet the government receives only around $1 million in tax revenue.

— Revenue from Russian casinos grew to ₽34.1 billion in 2025, up from ₽29.6 billion the year prior.

— The UK gambling industry's gross yield reached £4.5 billion in Q4 2025, marking a 2.27% increase.

📌 Brazil Back in the Spotlight
— The federal prosecutor's office has launched a review of the current online betting regulatory framework. The focus covers not only the effectiveness of oversight but also problem gambling measures.

📌 Unexpected Stats
— Spain will include iGaming spending in its Consumer Price Index calculations. Authorities want to track how inflation affects population gambling expenditure.

— Projections for a future pan-European iGaming tax have been revised downward: instead of the anticipated €28 billion over seven years, the figure now stands at €13.3 billion.

— 64% of American bettors already own cryptocurrency, and 83% say they are willing to use it for betting.

📌 Crime Blotter
— In the Philippines, police discovered approximately 1,400 fragments of human remains. The investigation links the case to organizers of illegal cockfighting and gambling operations.

📌 Scandal of the Week
— Moloco carried out a mass blocking of advertisers operating in grey iGaming. Ad accounts and campaigns were shut down almost simultaneously, with access to accounts lost entirely. The market is connecting the situation to the company's possible IPO preparations and a move to reduce regulatory risk. A separate question remains the fate of suspended funds, on which there has been no official comment yet.

While some are dealing with the fallout — others are already adapting. Moloco continues to work with compliant products. So if you've been thinking about СUPIS, legal Brazil, and other white-label offers — now is the time. In-app buyers are actively looking for alternatives, and the requests are already coming in.

👉 Looking for an alternative? The 3S.INFO company catalog features CPA networks, advertising platforms, and other services for working in iGaming.

📌 Subscribe to stay up to date with the latest news.

🔥 Crypto Payments in iGaming: Trends and Forecasts

Crypto in iGaming stopped being a niche tool for tech enthusiasts a long time ago. In 2026, it's already a fully functional payment layer with its own risks, AML requirements, and regulatory pressure.

📌 The market broadly splits into two layers:
— full crypto casinos with deposits and withdrawals exclusively in crypto: maximum risk and maximum flexibility;
— traditional casinos with a crypto option: a compromise between regulation and demand for USDT deposits.

Crypto is also far more deeply integrated into casino and betting than into poker or lotteries.

The leading coins in iGaming right now:
— BTC as the "showcase" coin;
— USDT as the primary working currency;
— ETH and USDC as an additional layer.

📌 How the Regulatory Stance Is Shifting
The defining trend of 2026–2027 is that crypto is moving out of the "grey zone" and gradually becoming a standard financial instrument with full AML/KYC requirements.

Regulators are tightening oversight of the chain: player → wallet → casino → exchange → bank. At the same time, the market has no intention of banning crypto entirely. If anything, the direction is the opposite: integrating it into the existing financial system.

📌 Why the Market Is Moving Toward Stablecoins
BTC remains a strong brand, but USDT and USDC are becoming the industry's primary working currency.

The reason is simple: operators don't want to become crypto traders.

If a player deposits 1 BTC and the price drops 15–20% within a week, the casino automatically takes an economic hit. Stablecoins partially solve this problem and provide a more predictable financial model.

📌 DeFi and Web3 Casinos
DeFi and Web3 casinos are experimenting with on-chain betting, DAO governance, and tokenized mechanics. For now, this remains a niche for crypto-native audiences and traders rather than mainstream players.

That said, some Web3 mechanics are gradually making their way into conventional iGaming: on-chain transparency, fast payouts, and tokenized bonuses.

📌 CBDCs and Their Impact on iGaming
CBDCs — central bank digital currencies — could potentially become a fully controlled and traceable payment method for regulators.

For iGaming, this creates a dual scenario: in some countries such currency could be prohibited for gambling transactions, while in others it may become the primary channel for licensed operators. Either way, the spread of CBDCs will reshape user expectations around digital money and push the market toward more formalized KYC/AML compliance.

Key Crypto Payment Trends for 2026–2027 👇
— Growing share of stablecoins in deposits and withdrawals.
— Tighter regulation of crypto PSPs and stablecoin issuers.
— Convergence of AML/KYC requirements for crypto and fiat payments.
— Decline in the number of anonymous crypto casinos in the legal segment.
— Rising demand for hybrid payment stacks (fiat + crypto + local APMs).
— First pilot use cases of CBDCs in gambling in select jurisdictions.
— Growth of Web3 mechanics as a competitive differentiator.

📌What This Means for Operators and Affiliates
The winners won't be those who "added Bitcoin to the landing page" — they'll be those who properly built out:
— AML processes;
— risk management;
— PSP relationships;
— blockchain analytics;
— a hybrid payment stack.

And if crypto payments used to be a competitive advantage, for some GEOs they are now simply baseline market hygiene.

📌 Read also:
— Crypto Payments in iGaming 2026: Risks and Regulation
— The Legality of Crypto Payments in iGaming: A Jurisdiction-by-Jurisdiction Breakdown

💸 How to Run MyBid Traffic on 3SNET Offers: A Step-by-Step iGaming Guide

MyBid is an ad network with 5+ billion impressions per day, 200+ GEOs, and a set of formats that perform well with gambling and betting. In this new guide, we broke down the MyBid + 3SNET setup from registration through to first tests.

✔️ What the guide covers:
— how to register in MyBid and 3SNET
— when to use a smartlink and when to go with a direct offer
— which GEOs and offers work for Popunder and In-Page Push
— how to set up postbacks via BeMob
— how to run your first tests and analyze results
— which mistakes most commonly block volume and conversions

📌 We also took a separate look at working with Brazil, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Indonesia, plus a step-by-step first-test strategy with a $30–50 per offer budget.

🎁 Starter bonus:
+15% on your first deposit in MyBid from $100 to $3,000 using promo code 3SNET15.

🔹 Read the guide
🔹 Register with 3SNET and choose an offer
🔸 Create an account on MyBid

💾 If you're looking for new volume sources for iGaming — this breakdown is worth saving.