With FIFA World Cup fever about spread across the globe for the next two months, concerns that are top of the list is reduction in sleeping hours and possibly reduction of cash in the wallet. A Jumio found that online sports betting will take center stage during the 2026 World Cup, along with concerns around minors accessing these platforms.
The study examined the views of more than 8,000 adult consumers, split evenly across the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Mexico. 63% percent of respondents admit they worry about minors using sports betting apps to gamble during the World Cup. This number rises to 76% in Singapore — the highest among the regions surveyed. Consumers aren’t just hoping platforms will do the right thing: 74% globally and 82% in Singapore believe that preventing underage betting is the responsibility of online platforms and their technology providers. Only 4% of consumers in Singapore disagree that this should be a critical priority for the gaming industry.This news comes as one in three adults globally plan to engage in sports betting as a key part of their World Cup celebrations, with Mexico leading betting intent (43%) compared to the UK (33%), Singapore (29%) and the U.S. (26%).
For nearly half of fans, sports betting will be core to how they engage with the tournament — 48% in Singapore say betting is an important part of how they plan to enjoy the World Cup, and 48% also plan to socialize around the bets they place.
These numbers offer a snapshot into broader global consumer trends around sports betting. More than half (55% globally, 51% in Singapore) would prefer to use an online platform to place their bets, and one in five (20% globally, 19% in Singapore) will interact with an online gaming platform for the first time during the World Cup. Additionally, 43% of global respondents and 42% in Singapore already have a sports betting account that they plan to use during the World Cup, and 37% expect to juggle between multiple platforms to place bets during matches, a number that drops to 27% in Singapore.
Together, these compounding behaviors may create additional onboarding pressures that stress test operators and their ability to block minors from accessing the platform.
“As online sports betting grows, operators have a clear duty to prevent minors from accessing their platforms — not just to react when something goes wrong,” said Bala Kumar, president and chief product and technology officer at Jumio. “That means layered identity and age verification built for real protection and designed so legitimate adults can get through without friction. In online betting, the operators who win will be the ones who treat verification as foundational, not as a checkbox.”
