The FIFA World Cup 2026 is set to be the largest tournament ever, featuring 104 matches over 39 days across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. For sportsbooks, the event presents a significant opportunity for customer acquisition, with global betting anticipated to surpass $50 billion, an increase from over $35 billion seen during the 2022 World Cup.
While sportsbooks aim to attract new customers before and during such major events, the real challenge often begins after the last match. Typically, brands witness a steep decline in activity post-tournament as casual bettors and promotion-driven customers lose interest.
Building on insights from Sportradar’s ‘Winning Marketing Strategies for the World Cup and Beyond’ webinar, a pressing question arises: how can operators retain the customers they have worked diligently to attract?
Dimi Katsavelis, a senior client partner at Sportradar, asserts that achieving post-World Cup success requires a fundamental change in strategy and budget allocation. Operators frequently misjudge spikes in tournament-driven activity as a sign of sustainable growth. During the World Cup, they attract casual fans and event-focused bettors, but many fail to adjust their strategies once the tournament concludes.
Successful operators adopt a different method. Instead of cutting marketing investment after the World Cup, they reallocate resources. During the event, acquisition spending can dominate direct player marketing, but this should shift dramatically once the tournament ends. Post-World Cup, the focus must turn to customer relationship management (CRM), retention, and reactivation.
According to Katsavelis, the emphasis should change from ‘How many players can we acquire?’ to ‘Which players are most likely to generate long-term value?’ This involves investing in predictive churn prevention, early reactivation programs, personalized player journeys, and intelligent cross-selling strategies.
One major error operators often make after significant sporting events is measuring success against tournament-level performance. While events like the World Cup can drive unparalleled engagement, sustaining these levels indefinitely is unrealistic. Operators should prioritize converting temporary bettors into regular users who continue to engage with the platform after the event.
As Katsavelis elaborates, “Good retention isn’t preserving tournament-level activity – it’s converting event-driven bettors into loyal customers.” To effectively assess retention, Sportradar suggests focusing on three critical metrics.
The first is the 90-day retention rate, indicating whether customers acquired during the tournament remain active after the excitement wanes. The second metric is the value retention rate, which measures how much revenue generated during the World Cup continues post-tournament, offering a clearer picture of long-term success compared to merely tracking active users. The third is churn velocity, revealing how quickly customers disengage, enabling operators to intervene before they become challenging and costly to reactivate.
Sportradar's data indicates that AI-driven retention programs can significantly enhance performance. In studies comparing AI-based CRM strategies to traditional methods, retention rates reached 72% versus 61% after two months. By the six-month mark, retention was 39% compared to 34%, and after a year, those figures stood at 40% and 30%, respectively. The common goal is not just to retain more customers but to slow the rate at which they become inactive.
Merely understanding retention metrics is just the beginning. Once operators identify which customers stay, which face potential churn, and which continue producing value, they face the challenge of influencing these results.
Here, personalisation, CRM, and lifecycle marketing provide significant competitive advantages. Despite ongoing discussions about personalisation in gaming marketing, many operators approach it too narrowly, according to Katsavelis. Effective personalisation should focus on customer journeys and their current needs rather than individual campaigns or promotional messages.
The greatest benefits occur from reaching the right player at the right moment, with the specific need being the most critical aspect. Katsavelis remarks, “The question isn’t ‘What message should I send?’ but ‘What does this player need right now to continue their journey?’” This focus should begin even before the World Cup concludes. Operators can start spotting at-risk customers, evaluating potential future value and understanding which users are showing signs of sustained engagement.
Strategies that facilitate a smooth transition from tournament excitement to ongoing activity are essential. Key approaches include helping players establish betting routines within the first four to six weeks after acquisition, creating behavior-driven onboarding experiences, and distinguishing between churn prevention and reactivation measures.
Dynamic triggers can also be more effective than fixed promotional schedules, allowing customer behavior to dictate the next interaction rather than relying solely on predetermined dates. Katsavelis emphasizes, “The biggest gain comes from finding the right player, at the right moment, with the right objective – the message itself is often the least important part.”
The effectiveness of personalisation hinges on the quality of data behind it. Katsavelis notes that retention is essentially a data issue disguised as a marketing challenge. This issue becomes apparent after major acquisition events, as operators strive to sustain engagement without a comprehensive understanding of customer behavior.
If sportsbook, CRM, analytics, and bonus systems remain isolated, operators often resort to broad marketing campaigns based on past performance instead of future intent.
Katsavelis underscores the consequences of this approach: “Operators who rely on broad promotional campaigns often see engagement fall sharply as customer interest naturally cools.” However, those utilizing predictive analytics can identify players likely to disengage and intervene with relevant offers, content, or competitions to maintain engagement between major events.
By consolidating customer data into a cohesive intelligence framework, operators can develop a clearer understanding of player behavior, enabling better decisions about when and how to engage customers effectively.
Another retention avenue appears in introducing sports-centric customers to additional products and experiences. In the past, cross-selling attempts have often faltered by prioritizing sales over customer behavior. Post-tournament, bettors are generally less responsive to aggressive promotions for other games like casinos. Instead, successful strategies convey an understanding of natural moments when customers' interests expand.
Katsavelis points out that users perceive their relationship with operators as a singular entertainment experience rather than fragmented verticals. This opens doors for introducing new content during downtimes, between matches, or during less active phases. “Timing beats targeting: never cross-sell when a user is emotionally engaged in a match – do it when they’re between matches,” he advises.
Rather than forcing customers into another game type, operators should build familiarity gradually through contextual suggestions, low-friction experiences, and tailored follow-up journeys. Quick games themed around sports and match companions can enhance engagement without making users feel like they are switching products.
Operators should assess success by measuring broader engagement metrics instead of focusing solely on conversion rates. Metrics like repeat sessions, retention after cross-sell exposure, and the impact on sportsbook activity are vital. Katsavelis encapsulates the goal: “The aim is portfolio engagement stability.”
Ultimately, effective retention efforts post-World Cup hinge on initiating strategies before the tournament ends. Operators achieving the best long-term outcomes are those who design their acquisition tactics with a focus on retention, recognizing every World Cup customer as a prospect for a lasting relationship rather than a momentary spike in activity.
This entails creating clear pathways from World Cup betting to ongoing domestic leagues, exploring various sports, and offering complementary experiences. It also means moving away from promotion-heavy communications towards behavior-led engagement and promptly identifying customer cohorts for delivering relevant experiences throughout their lifecycle. Trust plays a pivotal role, with consistent user experiences, transparent communication, stable value propositions, and responsible engagement all fostering long-term loyalty as excitement from major events diminishes.
Katsavelis sums up this philosophy: “The core principle is that you’re not acquiring World Cup users. You’re acquiring future regular users who temporarily express interest through a global event.” As betting operators strive for success in the wake of the World Cup, those that develop effective strategies for customer retention may achieve long-lasting benefits, surpassing those who focus solely on acquiring the most customers during the tournament.
