PointsBet Expands Soccer Betting Days Before World Cup

“Soccer bettors will have more live options with PointsBet than anywhere else.”

With the start of the World Cup just a few days away, PointsBet is getting sports bettors ready with the launch of an expanded suite of live betting offerings for soccer. 

Soccer is joining PointsBets’ in-house sports betting technology platform, OddsFactory, which is currently home to live betting options for NFL, NBA, MLB, and NCAAM. It will now deliver over 130 live market betting options for soccer.

“Soccer is ripe with opportunities to tap into live betting, and we are gearing up for an immense surge in soccer betting activity by delivering our Soccer OddsFactory integration ahead of what will no doubt be an incredible tournament,” said Johnny Aitken, CEO of PointsBet USA. “We are investing the necessary resources to make PointsBet the go-to sportsbook for World Cup betting – and we have the technology in place to prove it. Soccer bettors will have more live options with PointsBet than anywhere else.”

Soccer betting options will range from its Lightning Bet markets to live same game parlay options. Last month, PointsBet revamped its Lightning Bets, which emphasizes live betting and allows users to bet on “every play and drive to deliver more ways to win throughout the game.” Though it initially rolled out for NFL, NBA, and college basketball, their plan was always to expand to soccer ahead of the World Cup. 

Soccer OddsFactory will be available in the coming months across 18 total leagues, including La Liga, MLS, French Ligue 1, and UEFA Champions League.

“Our continued investment in elevating our in-house sports betting technology and OddsFactory, our proprietary trading feeds solution, has allowed PointsBet to produce up to 8 billion calculations in less than one second when we have a full suite of live games running in parallel,” said Mark Hughes, Chief Product Officer at PointsBet USA.

First Betting-Driven World Cup

This announcement to expand soccer betting options comes at the same time that the American Gaming Associated (AGA) released its 2022 FIFA World Cup wagering predictions. They are estimating 20.5 million Americans to wager around $1.8 billion on the event(s).

This is significantly different from the expectations prior to the 2018 World Cup. With PAPSA having only been repealed a mere month before the World Cup start date, there were little to no legal sports betting options available in the U.S. for this event four years ago. So, sports bettors will be jumping at the opportunity to bet these games for the first time, and AGA’s predictions say as much. Their survey found that three in 10 of respondents (roughly 29%) who plan to watch the World Cup, plan to wager on it as well.

“This year’s tournament will be historic in nature with more than 100 million Americans having the ability to place online wagers on the world’s biggest sporting event, the World Cup,” said Aitken.

Sports betting is legal in 31 states (and counting) in some form or another. So whether its PointsBet or otherwise, Americans have plenty of options, with several more on the way.