A new study from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford has revealed the extraordinary scale of gambling and prediction market advertising embedded in FIFA World Cup 2026 broadcasts.
Researchers used an AI model to analyse all 104 matches in the tournament, covering 172.6 hours of live play to quantify the promotion of what they describe as harmful commodities.
The category of harmful commodities included alcohol, gambling, junk food, and prediction markets, with analysis focused on advertising visible during active play rather than ad breaks or studio segments.
The UK’s most powerful supercomputer, Isambard-AI, based in Bristol, was used to process and index the full broadcast footage across every match in the tournament.
On average, viewers were exposed to 1.5 gambling or prediction market logos every single minute of live play throughout the competition.
Gambling logos appeared on screen 6,429 times across the tournament, while prediction market logos were displayed a considerably higher 9,360 times.
The dominance of prediction market branding was largely driven by FIFA’s partnership with ADI Predictstreet, whose logo alone accounted for 7,384 of those appearances.
Betano, FIFA’s official tournament sponsor for Europe and South America, featured in every single match and accounted for 91.1% of all gambling advertising seen throughout the competition.
Across all 104 matches, researchers counted 93,409 logos from brands promoting unhealthy food and drink, alcohol, gambling, prediction markets, and cryptocurrency combined.
Unhealthy food and drink brands represented the largest share by far, accounting for 70.4% of the total logo appearances recorded during the tournament.
FIFA distributed the same match footage, carrying the same pitchside advertising, to broadcasters worldwide, including in countries where gambling or alcohol advertising is restricted or illegal.
Virtual board replacement technology exists and can display different advertising depending on the broadcast region, but according to the University of Bristol, FIFA did not deploy it.
An analysis of 53 UK broadcasts estimated that harmful commodity advertising generated approximately 267 billion impressions among viewers in Britain alone.
Dr Raffaello Rossi, senior lecturer in marketing and co-director of the Bristol Hub for Gambling Harms Research, co-authored the study and also gave evidence to the House of Lords Liaison Committee, which recently recommended a total ban on gambling advertising in the UK.
Dr Rossi said: “As one of the world’s most watched sporting events, reaching billions of people, this year’s FIFA World Cup provided an unparalleled platform for advertising. Our findings reveal the sheer scale of branding embedded throughout tournament broadcasts, making exposure to unhealthy food, alcohol and gambling brands both omnipresent and unavoidable for viewers.”
Oxford co-author Elisa Becker added: “We are facing a global crisis of childhood obesity and diet-related disease, yet the world’s biggest sporting event is saturated with marketing for unhealthy food and drinks. Sport should be part of the solution to poor health, not one of the world’s most powerful advertising platforms for the products driving it.”
Alex Ballinger MP, co-chair of the Gambling Reform APPG, called for urgent legislative action following the study’s publication and findings.
Ballinger stated: “As this study makes clear, our current rules and safeguards are inadequate. Urgent reform is needed to protect young and vulnerable fans.”
