American adults plan to bet a total of $1.8 billion on the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, according to a survey from the American Gaming Association.
The survey estimates that 29% of American adults who plan to watch the World Cup intend to also bet on the tournament. That comes to a total of 20.5 million people, or 8% of the adult population.
“As the first World Cup with widespread availability of legal sports betting, this will certainly be the most bet-upon soccer event ever in the U.S.,” said AGA senior vice president Casey Clark. “With more than half of all American adults having access to legal betting options in their home market, legal sports betting will deepen American fan engagement in the most-watched sporting event in the world.”
According to the AGA, 72% of U.S. World Cup bettors plan to place traditional bets — either online, with a bookie or at a physical sportsbook. This outpaces other major sporting events where people have more casual options to wager, like March Madness brackets or Super Bowl squares.
Unfortunately, too much of that money is being wasted on the U.S. team, which has +10000 odds to win the tournament at BetMGM.
