The research revealed a significant gap in expectations. 92.5% of bookmakers believe their users are willing to wait more than four hours for a withdrawal. Meanwhile, 42.7% of players state that a withdrawal should not take more than 30 seconds, and this is the maximum time they consider acceptable. This is no small gap.
What the World Cup Scale Actually Looks Like
According to forecasts, the total volume of sports betting during the 2026 World Cup will exceed $35 billion, setting a new record compared to the 2022 tournament in Qatar. In Brazil alone, gross revenue from online betting in 2025 reached 37 billion Brazilian reais, and this was the first full year of operation for the regulated market. In August 2025, the country’s regulated platforms recorded over 2.21 billion visits in a single month.
The 2026 tournament will feature 104 matches, an expanded field of 48 teams, and three host nations, including the United States, Mexico, and Canada. This configuration appeals to markets that were not fully regulated in 2022. In particular, the U.S. will participate in its first World Cup since the expansion of legal sports betting at the national level following the 2018 PASPA ruling. All of this points to traffic volumes that the betting infrastructure has not previously been tested for.
The Payments Argument
OKTO believes that payment infrastructure has traditionally been viewed as a backend function, whereas it should be treated as a product designed for the end user. The company notes that 87.9% of users in Latin America abandon a transaction if it takes more than one minute to process. During a tournament, when matches follow one after another and the volume of real-time bets peaks within minutes, this threshold becomes a customer retention issue, not just a technical one.
Filippos Antonopoulos, quoted in the report, put it bluntly. When a player wins, they expect to receive their money immediately. Operators who have already integrated real-time payout systems with local payment systems will have a practical advantage over those who still process withdrawals manually.
Currently, 37.6% of operators already view payments as a strategic differentiator rather than a compliance function.
Where the Pressure Points Are
The OKTO report identifies the main operational challenges faced by operators in Latin America. Fraud and security risks top the list (21.1%), followed by regulatory and compliance issues (17.3%). Both of these issues tend to intensify during peak periods, and it is precisely at these moments that systems will be put to the test during the World Cup.
The Brazilian market is the most active in the region and the most significant benchmark. The country’s regulated infrastructure has been in operation for over a year, but has not yet undergone stress testing on the scale that a tournament featuring 48 teams and a group stage lasting several months will create.
The OKTO study does not predict which operators will handle the load and which will not. It merely quantifies the gap between expectations and asserts that closing this gap by June is a key priority.
