Betting demand rose in five of Africa’s nine tracked World Cup markets during the 2026 tournament, and fell in four, including the continent’s two largest. Blask Index data show the split doesn’t follow on-pitch results.

Africa sent a record ten teams to the 2026 World Cup, and nine reached the knockout rounds, the continent’s best-ever group-stage showing. Betting demand didn’t follow the same script.

Grew: Cote d’Ivoire (+26.8%), Ghana (+13.1%), Egypt (+8.6%), Morocco (+6.8%), Algeria (+4.0%).
 Fell: South Africa (–6.0%), DR Congo (–16.2%), Senegal (–26.1%), Tunisia (–28.7%).

South Africa, Africa’s largest tracked market, fell 6.0% even after reaching the knockout stage for the first time in its history. Senegal advanced too and still fell furthest of any market that got past the group stage.

Tunisia, the only African team eliminated in groups, posted the tournament’s steepest decline overall, the one market where the pitch result and the demand result line up.

None of the obvious explanations hold up across the full set. South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, DR Congo and Algeria were all eliminated in the Round of 32 within the same five-day span, June 28 to July 2, yet their demand ranged from +26.8% to –26.1%. Senegal’s market is the same size class as Cote d’Ivoire’s, and both are West African, yet one collapsed and the other posted the tournament’s biggest gain.

Figures compare Blask Index, Blask’s real-time measure of betting-brand demand, across two mirrored 39-day windows: before the tournament (May 3–June 10, 2026) and during it (June 11–July 19, 2026).

Download the report: https://blask.com/reports/world-cup-2026/

About Blask

Blask is an AI-native B2B iGaming market-intelligence platform. It helps operators, affiliates, game providers, and investors see where demand is moving before financial reports catch up, tracking country-level demand, brand power, acquisition potential, revenue potential, and games/lobby visibility across the global iGaming market. Learn more at blask.com.