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A daily podcast delving into the biggest stories of the day throughout the sports betting and igaming sector.
Fernando Noodt (00:03.621)
The 2026 FIFA World Cup delivers record audiences, unforgettable moments, and one of the biggest betting opportunities the industry has ever seen. But now that it's over, the real questions began. Did operators acquire valuable customers or simply ride a temporary wave? Which betting trends proved sustainable and which disappeared with the tournament?
From customer acquisition and engagement to emerging betting trends and long term retention, we'll explore the biggest lessons operators can take into the next major sporting event in today's episode of iGaming Daily. We are joined today by Thomas Graham, COO of Cool Bet to look beyond the headlines and break down what the data tells us about the World Cup. I'm Fernando Nott, Media Manager for SBC, and your host for today. Tom, thanks for joining us. How are you today?
Tom (00:55.31)
No problem, Fernando. I'm doing great and I've just gotta say before we start, I'm a big fan of the podcast. First time contributor but longtime listener. So thanks for having me and looking forward to it.
Fernando Noodt (01:06.981)
Alright, thanks for for that. Thanks, thanks, thank you for listening, and thanks, of course, to all of our listeners who who join us regularly for for this. And really glad to have you on board because that's a lot to discuss. But first, let me thank our sponsor, Obti Move, the creator of Positionless Marketing and Number One Player Engagement Solution for iGaming and Sports Betting Operators. Proud sponsor of iGaming Daily. So
Tom, the World Cup is over. any any takeaways? First let's besides the the betting size the betting side how did you find the World Cup in in s sports terms?
Tom (01:50.958)
Personally I really enjoyed it. I mean, you know, I'm a New Zealander, so New Zealand in the World Cup trying to repeat their most only unbeaten team last time they were in the World Cup from South Africa. Yeah, unfortunately only one point this time, but I think most Kiwis like pretty happy just with the one point. Could have won against Iran and Egypt, but
Like one point bettor than zero. but overall I mean it was, you know, the a great event. you know, personally you know, despite the whole kind of time zone discussion before it, I personally managed to watch a lot of the games. I know a lot of people around here did. Some late nights for sure. So this week getting back to being able to go to sleep before midnight has been a a nice change.
Fernando Noodt (02:35.908)
All right, yeah, yeah. it's a nice change for your sleep, but I guess for me, and I think for a lot of sports fans, it feels like you were at the birthday party as a kid and suddenly s your mom came and and picked you up, you know, and took you back to real life. but yeah, let's get on with real life. And now after we talked about the tournament as a as a sporting event, I wanna hear your takeaways, but from a sports books from an operator perspective.
Tom (03:05.879)
Yeah, I mean I guess my first thought coming out of it, and it's pretty similar to the event as a whole, I guess, is that draws continue to be unbeaten when it comes to the greatest things that there are for for sports books. I looked up some stats that this World Cup had the most draws of any World Cup by by a mile. I think it like thirty two draws. And thirty percent of all games were draws, which is up from twenty three percent in the in the last World Cup. So definitely a good
good feeling coming out of it as when the final zero zero is well. but, you know, overall, you my kind of big thought coming out of it was that to ignore the noise and that things that are popular will continue to be popular and and always be popular. Because you know, this event, even though we knew it was going to be a big event and
there was a lot of talk before that we're gonna break records and that type of thing. There was, I know, in the industry and also in in our company too, some kind of like cautious uncertainty because even though there were more games, there's a lot of talk around, well, all these lower ranked teams in the World Cup, like my team, New Zealand, or I know that in the company Curacao, often use it as an example, teams like this, and that would
the smaller teams versus the bigger teams are have as much interest
as previous World Cups, particularly in the group stages when so much of the actual tournament happens in the group stage. By the group stage being finished, almost half the tournament's over. So would that have the same interest as other World Cups have had? And then also some of these kind of other factors that were talked about a lot, like for Europe, the time zone potentially affecting live betting, or you know, these external factors like tickets, ticket prices and hotel accommodation and
Tom (05:00.995)
would the event itself be have the same kind of energy and vibe as the previous ones? And then as soon as it started, that was all like immediately forgotten basically. The first games, you know, for us,
more than doubled our expectations in in terms of turnover and and customers. And some of these early games, which we thought, okay, is there gonna be interest in Scotland Haiti? Again like doubling our turnover expectations. And then as soon as it got to the Spain Cape Verde game, which at the time was one of our biggest GGI results for a single game to that date in in all matches, then the perception had completely flipped.
And it's okay, this is gonna be, you know, a huge event, then the story became how do we keep the momentum and not get complacent. But I suppose to summarize, yeah, the you know, ignore the noise and that you know, don't overthink it. And these popular things, yep, they're they're still gonna be popular no matter other you know things you can come up with and why they wouldn't be.
Fernando Noodt (06:06.18)
Yeah, absolutely. And and this was actually a very surprising tournament, like you said. A lot of unexpected results, especially in the in the early stages. that Cape Verde Spain game for sure was one of the the biggest surprises we've seen in the in the tournament. And you mentioned that the betting volumes exceeded your expectations. So that was that was actually my next question, but also adding cost customer acquisition. So
How did that perform for you? Did you did you manage to to to meet your expectations, exceed them?
Tom (06:42.626)
Yeah, customer acquisition was was really strong. I mean we had some pretty lofty expectations coming in because we knew that we were gonna in some of our markets do pretty heavy marketing and do live events like here in Estonia for example with big watch parties and things like that. And in in Latam we had a lot of activity and and television and digital too. So you know we we hit expectations there, which is is a success. You know, whenever when a lot of other stuff exceeds expectations, you forget that hitting expectations.
Expectations and hitting your predictions is a very strong result as well. But one thing that I think was surprising to a lot here in terms of expectations was actually on the US side, so you know, quite a large part of our operation is B2B sports in the US. And you know, going into the event, there wasn't a lot of talk about you know this being such a huge event. I mean, that obviously the World Cup B.
being in the US, we knew it was going to be big. But, you know, some of the states where where we operate, they don't have they didn't have games there, maybe even some like traditionally land based focused organizations, then
you know, the question was, well, you know, how is this going to compare to like peak NFL season or or peak like American sports season? But then again, same with the expectations, turnover expectations we had and exceeding them in B to C, you know, it was also immediately clear that this was gonna be bigger than than we thought. And actually I think the second to last week of the World Cup, which had quarterfinals and a round of sixteen, it was actually the second biggest
revenue week for our BW sports in the last twelve months, beating almost all NFL weeks and NBA weeks and Super Bowls and things like that. So that was a very like let's say good surprise and and expectation exceeding moment.
Tom (08:39.05)
Probably one other fun fact about that too was that Mexico games were as popular as the US games. And I think the Mexico England game was the second most popular game for us in the in the US of the whole World Cup, which was fun fact.
Fernando Noodt (08:54.34)
All right. Yeah, I guess a lot of Mexican people living in the US and of course a lot of they're more familiar in the US with the Mexican national team because of the the the CONCACAF competitions and all. So I guess that's some of of the explaining behind that. But interesting to see. So Cape Verde is versus Spain, the round of sixteen, the quarterfinals, the Mexico England game, a lot of significant bites.
spikes, sorry, in those in those games. But a lot of the conversations around the World Cup go around the new the new bettors and how to prevent churn and how to keep those those bettors engaged but I wanna go to look into all types of bettors and ask you which customer segments deliver the greatest
value for for for Coolbet during this this this tournament and what which do you think will continue to drive that long term value? Whether is the existing bettors, the reactivated ones, those that already had an accountant and decided to go back to to to play, or the new ones. Do you do you expect the new ones to to perform well? Which which segment do you see the one with the most long term value?
Tom (10:15.062)
Yeah, our operation is is a little different, I think, from from some others. And I was listening to podcasts earlier this week with Pontus speaking from from Betson and talking about, you know, the real value of the World Cup being the new acquisitions we get. And I also saw a quote by the Intain CEO talking about the World Cup itself only generating one percent of the revenue and it's this this long term benefit that's the the real focus. You know, for us the World Cup itself is
is bigger than than that. Like and I think represents a lot more of our activity than perhaps some other, you know, other organizations out there. But similarly with with the acquisition too, I mean it is a major acquisition event. It's the biggest acquisition event. but for us as an operator, our key focus or one of our biggest focuses is more about increasing share of wallet. We know that
most of our customers and this is common knowledge in the industry that most people have multiple accounts and might have four or five accounts and and for us we're looking to capture that share, not necessarily get more people to just gamble more overall. And these customers we can identify as existing customers of ours, you know, potentially regular bettors, but those who are engaging with other sites.
And through our activities during the World Cup, through marketing activities or our product offer, they're now concentrating more of their activity with us. Because, you know, large and high value existing customers, they're gonna play big anyway. And you know, new customers, you're going to acquire them and grow. But this kind of bit in the middle where it's existing customers
They're not new to gambling, but they're just not your large customers yet. This is the you know, has been the focus for us and this is where we've seen strong growth as well during the World Cup.
Fernando Noodt (12:11.086)
Right. Tom, we're gonna do a very quick hydration break right now. but we will be right back with more iGaming Daily with Tom Graham, CEO of Coolbit to discuss what the World Cup has left to the gaming industry. We'll be right back.
BREAK
Fernando Noodt (12:37.688)
And we're back with more iGaming Daily after the hydration break. I I I'm wondering if we're going to have to get used to that in football. But yeah, I guess we will probably at least in the in the bigger stages like this. But Tom, you were talking about
Tom (12:54.466)
Are you gonna keep calling it sorry to interrupt, but are you gonna keep calling it a hydration break now now that the World Cup's over? Or is it gonna get some other, you know, other name now?
Fernando Noodt (12:57.078)
No, it's okay.
Fernando Noodt (13:01.624)
I mean as long as we are talking about the World Cup, I think it's it's it's safe to to call it a hydration break. But yeah, we're we're we're we are going to have to let go at some point for sure. but I just don't want to.
Tom (13:09.378)
Yeah.
Tom (13:14.242)
Have you got any negative feedback from the hydration break, the way FIFA has got some feedback from the hydration break?
Fernando Noodt (13:20.932)
Well I d I didn't like it personally. I didn't like it at all. at least I wish they would have like mixed the the ads with the with the actual feed from the from the from the stadium. Like s what like you could watch the the manager talking to the players and then they could play the the advert the advert on on the right side of of the screen or something like that. definitely didn't didn't enjoy watching a full-on ad.
in the middle of a of a football game. But speaking of the middle of football games, Tom, were there any markets that significantly outperformed expectations bef beyond the traditional of course match winner who's gonna score or or goal bets in in the games?
Tom (14:10.69)
Yeah, as as you were asking that, I was just thinking to myself, man, I wish I had come up with the idea to have first hydration break, like you know, over under before the first hydration break and after it and split it into quarters. Maybe they would have got some like negative feedback from customers for like leaning into the whole hydration break concept. But you know, looking at the data, actually first halves was you know, it's not so like much a new market, I guess, but yeah, first halves was a really
Fernando Noodt (14:22.519)
Right. Yeah.
Fernando Noodt (14:29.52)
Yeah.
Tom (14:40.664)
Big market for us. So yeah, if you could make it like first hydration break, pre-first hydration break after first hydration break, maybe that would have been a good market. But actually, the one that was a really big and quite a surprise for us was bookings. So bookings actually performed bettor for us in terms of revenue compared to totals and actually even more than 1x2 as well. And I looked up some stats that this was.
World Cup had the lowest amount of yellow cards per game and the lowest amount of fouls per game.
So obviously people were expecting a bit more violence or a bit more at least the referees to call it a bit differently. And you know, betting the over a lot on bookings or on player bookings, but they didn't come through perhaps this first game with two red cards, lifted everyone's expectations for bookings across the tournament, and then and then they didn't cover. but yeah, that was that was certainly a
Fernando Noodt (15:37.636)
Right.
Tom (15:45.879)
a pleasant surprise for us. But also a another interesting stat was that for player markets and even some of the players who had great World Cups like Messi, margin on all Messi player markets was forty percent.
despite the fact that he you know scored so many goals and and had so many assists and the the trend was that the amount of volume progressively increased and the tournament went on. And so by blanking in that final game, really like with no shots and no goals and you know no no assists, then that basically made up for all the wins that he had previously. Or even Mbate, for example, like he scored in six out of eight games, but his overall margin was still over fifteen percent on on
Fernando Noodt (16:17.572)
Right.
Tom (16:32.602)
player market. So, you know, these big players like when you see score, sometimes you think, Okay, this is this is gonna be trouble, but even if they score six out of eight games, you you're still a pretty strong margin on them.
Fernando Noodt (16:46.352)
Yeah, and and this is of course within the the limits of the World Cup. Like the World Cup is now over. Do you think are there any betting trends or did you identify any betting trends that emerged during the tournament that you think will continue after the World Cup, maybe in the next big tournament, whether it's the the Euros or or something like that?
Tom (17:08.332)
Yeah, well to an extent I've kind of buried the lead a bit in in this conversation because, you know, apart from of course this, you know, what I said before around cancelling up the noise and it just being really popular despite kind of other chatter, the real story for us, at least for the World Cup and I think for the industry too, was Bet Builder.
Yeah, Bet builder I think, you know historically, yeah, obviously it's been a popular thing for for us and for the industry, but it was still to some extent seen as kind of a gimmick bet that only interested a certain kind of of bettor. but I think in this World Cup, you know, it's really crossed over to be like universally popular, even with, let's say, like northern European bettors who you might not traditionally think are kind of bet builder type bettors.
I saw some stats from Kambi that were released that said over one third of all bets on the World Cup were for them were on Bet Builder and like a quarter of all live bets were through Bet Builder. So, you know, that really is I think the trend that's going to, you know, stick with us and also with the market.
that this is something that's not just for a segment of bettors, but now all bettors are are engaging with it. And also like a trend that emerged for me that was something that seemed so obvious in hindsight, but you know, all these big match favorites, that really low one X two odds, you know
Would people find interest in these games? It was a question before the World Cup, but that's also where Bitbuilder really shone because people looking for that like magical 2.00 odds and using Bitbuilder to get there on some of these you know big favorite teams like Germany, Paraguay, and things like that, this is really where that product became really valuable for for customers. So, you know, luckily for us, or let's say strategically for us, we had released a new
Tom (19:05.176)
version of Bedbuilder just before the World Cup and it was certainly a good boost to see that was immediately popular with customers. but yes, this this really is I think probably the biggest one of the biggest product takeaways for for me from the World Cup and how important continuous development in this area is going to be.
Fernando Noodt (19:24.516)
And of course, back to customers. I we mentioned it briefly before and I don't wanna leave it on the table, even though it's being talked about a lot. so first time bettors. Do you have any data about who stuck around and who left? Of course, you mentioned the quarterfinals, the round of sixteen as as a as a heavy volume moments of the World Cup. Maybe the people
once their their team got eliminated they they took off and and dropped the betting activity. So do you have any data of who stuck around and who left and what's your strategy now that the World Cup is over?
Tom (20:04.226)
Yeah, well about the teams getting eliminated, you know, luckily for us, or maybe it's a kind of blessing and a curse, but there's only a few of our markets where actually had teams in the World Cup, so you know, we didn't have to have that big drop off, I guess, if teams got knocked down. But you know, the the World Cup was so popular even for those countries the whole way through, maintaining that you know, strong performance and and increasing as the World Cup went on. but in terms of acquisition, you know, what what was or
Important for an operator like us is that not all new newly acquired customers are built the same, so to speak. You know, it's not not just customers coming to us and it's their first bet ever. You know, these could be customers who are regular gamblers, but you they've just never been customers of ours before. So the important thing for us is finding out
What type of new first time bettor are they? Are there experienced regular gamblers who are coming to Corbet for the first time or are they just completely fresh and the World Cup is their first introduction to betting ever? Obviously the people who are more
are already existing bettors with with other sites. These are going to be the ones that are most immediately valuable, but also the ones that are going to be the trickiest to to retain because they're already very familiar with the market. So our main focus right now is trying to find out who's who and adapting specific retention strategies for for each one. Obviously, the most common one is just well.
the new football season's round the corner, so send them a whole lot of football offers for the community shield and and these these events. But as I said, you know, football is what piqued a lot of interest here, but is, you know, not necessarily what is going to speak to these players necessarily. So based on the limited data you have from just the you know
Tom (22:05.112)
First few bets, trying to find out immediately on and all the factors you can who they are and what what they're gonna respond to the best. that's really the focus right now.
Fernando Noodt (22:14.554)
And of course, before we let go of the World Cup, has the tournament, now that it's over, left you any any lessons or changed your priorities in any way around product development, customer engagement, especially heading into the next bigger sporting events?
Tom (22:34.87)
Well, I mean the the focus for us going forward and for the next big events is just to do more and do it even bigger, I would say. you know, this World Cup was you know a huge event and for the next ones we've got some pretty significant expectations, and significant business
innovations that we're looking to do for it. You know, my desire, let's say, and from a product development standpoint, is that if we're having this conversation again after the next World Cup or the next Euros, we're not talking about products that already exist on the market and how they responded during this event like Bet Builder or certain player markets. But we're talking about something that doesn't even exist on the market right now that we've innovated and the big impact that that had on
on our results or the big impact that had in our B2B results. So that's really the like focus for for us and the organization going forward. How can we make it even bigger and how can we innovate things that aren't there and make those a part of our business strategy.
Fernando Noodt (23:46.052)
That's Thomas Graham, COO of Cool Bet, to who have helped us, has helped us look into the what the World Cup has left us and what it left to Coolbet, a sports batting operator. Tom, thank you very much for joining us today. it's been it's been a very interesting conversation.
Tom (24:07.138)
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Fernando Noodt (24:08.965)
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much, of course, Ania McDonald for producing this episode. I'm Fernando Nott and to our listeners out there, we'll see you in the next one. Goodbye.