8 Ways to Use Sports Content to Attract, Inform and Delight Fans at the 2026 World Cup

Captivate bettors with Opta-powered markets

Turn Opta's trusted player stats into supremely entertaining, game-long betting markets

Relevant for: Trading Directors, Sportsbook Product Managers

Player and stats-based betting has surged in popularity since the last FIFA World Cup, with Kambi reporting that three of the top five most popular markets during last season's Champions League were shots on target, shots and fouls. With the World Cup set to deliver global attention and record-breaking betting volume, the opportunity to capitalise and expand your market offering backed by our Opta for Betting product is now.

Opta powered betting markets unlock new ways for your sportsbook to engage players. Expanding your betting market offering will ensure more engagement, more reasons to play, and more bets placed for every match.

Give bettors, fantasy players and football fans information and context for every metric they care about

Make your platform the place where your customers do their research

Relevant for: Product Managers, Marketers

The growth of player and team stats-based markets has driven huge growth for operators around the world, but it's added complexity and an 'information gap' for bettors. Faced with more options than ever, bettors risk feeling overwhelmed on the markets on offer without the right information to support them. It's important for sportsbooks to prioritise adding context and information around their markets so that they are easy to understand and exciting to explore.

Opta's vast contextual insights engine and upgraded Dynamic Betting Stats API closes this information gap by making it easy for you to display relevant, easy-to-digest stats at your customers fingertips to support their decision-making when placing a bet. Covering 230+ competitions, including the World Cup, utilise Opta's vast database and real-time stats to weave context into your product experience.

This matters because bettors who see contextual insights next to markets place 31% more bets, double their stake size, and the size of the odds within their bet slip (full case study here).

Effortlessly weave stats and information into content formats that are proven to drive player activity and behaviours

Relevant for: Marketers, Brand, PR, Social

Bettors are drawn to content that helps them make more confident decisions. Podcasts, studio shows, and email are popular content formats, but only if the content and information within them is helpful and resonates with your audience. With all eyes on the World Cup - providing useful information about matches will make your marketing efforts incredibly potent.

Our international network of Opta data experts will be producing localised insights that can be used to enrich preview shows, watchalongs, and more (we're even able to appear as the expert in the programming if required).

Opta Facts embed compelling, easy-to-understand stats into a fact-format. They're short, simple to understand and they work well in email and push notification formats, turning easy-to-miss messages and comms into moments that spark curiosity, stimulate betting activity and help you convert players.

Transform your visual content capabilities with our Opta-infused graphics engine (no designers necessary)

Relevant for: Marketers, Brand, PR, Social

With the 2026 World Cup featuring more matches than ever, producing standout content and analysis consistently throughout the tournament, is likely to stretch your content and marketing teams to the limit.

Our Opta Graphics visual content engine makes producing stats-rich, attention-grabbing imagery and video, fully bespoke to your brand and in any ratio as simple as a few clicks. From pre-match line-ups as soon as they're announced, to in-game stats and important moment alerts to post-match dissections of what happened, our visual content engine helps busy content teams to keep up and drive the conversation with fans across social, web, and digital channels.

Watch the video to see how Novibet are using the platform today to engage their players, or alternatively how BOYLE Sports expanded their content mix.

Significantly expand your content team's World Cup storytelling capacity and capabilities

Relevant for: Marketers, Brand, PR, Social

In an expanded tournament - with new teams and new players - fans (and bettors) will be actively seeking insight and context to bring every team, player, and match to life. Early, pre-tournament content is a perfect way to build anticipation and connect your brand with audiences well before the tournament begins.

Opta's Tournament Preview Packs is the ultimate resource for content marketing teams. It'll provide you with unique insights about every nation, every player and every upcoming fixture during the group stages. It's available in many languages and will signficantly expand your World Cup storytelling capabilities helping you ensure your sportsbook will win the race to be visible, prominent and helpful for bettors and football fans.

To receive a sample of this pack as soon as it's ready (ahead of the tournament draw in on December 5th) - simply enquire and include 'Yes please - Sample 2026 Tournament Preview Pack' within your enquiry.

Build tournament visibility early with our bespoke editorial and video services

Relevant for: Marketers, Brand, PR, Social

World Cup excitement spikes long before the opening match. Sportsbooks that capture attention early will gain an important head start in capturing the attention of a huge pool of potential customers.

Opta Content Agency's Bespoke Betting Editorial service has previously helped sportsbooks capture this attention and the 2026 World Cup will be no different.

Our expert team of sports writers, data journalists, and producers will handle all the research and content production for you, delivering SEO-optimised, multi-language content customised to your brands unique tone and voice. Content formats include group breakdowns, tournament and game predictions, match previews, Bet Builder previews, match reports and more. We can also produce these content stands in video formats.

Start early to inform your audience and guarantee your sportsbook is top of mind when the tournament kicks off. These content formats are proven to work great in-tournament too to support your ongoing tournament proposition.

Keep bettors and fantasy players glued to your event pages before, during and after matches

Offer a dynamic, interactive matchday experience with minimal integration effort

Relevant for: Trading Directors, Product Managers

Attracting bettors to your sportsbook before matches and attracting them back during matches means you need to provide players with information that supports their pre-game and in-play needs.

Opta's customisable, Live Match Centre suite combine real-time stats with automated, customisable visualisations in an easy-to-implement hosted experience. It includes our powerful Content Player Pro's interactive suite of apps for following and researching games, Opta Stream's automated live game match centre, Opta Stories' reel-style match updates and a comprehensive stats widget offering.

Bettors can follow the action, dissect every player's stats and influence in a match in real-time, and therefore make betting decisions without ever needing to leave your platform. This means longer sessions, deeper engagement, and your sportsbook as the go-to destination for every single World Cup game.

Use our journalist-produced video to create the ultimate World Cup entertainment destination

A rolling, 24/7 video channel for every day of the tournament

Relevant for: Product Managers, Marketers, Brand, PR, Social

Fans don't just want the matches at a World Cup - they want breaking news, reactions, and analysis around the clock - telling these stories is however incredibly time consuming.

That's where the Opta Content Agency come in. Our sports content producers, videographers and video journalists will be creating round-the-clock video content that your sportsbook can use to create a 24/7 rolling channel.

Our 24/7 World Cup TV Channel will provide a rolling video feed of daily match previews, press conferences, player interviews, and post-game reviews. Fully produced and ready to integrate into your sportsbook event pages, blogs or wider digital channels, it'll mean your players always have something new to watch every day of the tournament - giving bettors many reasons to return to your sportsbook, day after day, match after match.