Is Georgia Benefitting From World Cup Betting Effect?

Atlanta Stadium — the temporary name for Mercedes-Benz Stadium — hosted one of the current World Cup’s most thrilling matches yet. It was the first of eight games being played there.

Spain 0, Cabo Verde 0.

We know what you’re thinking, “how is a scoreless game exciting?” Well, it’s because it was a giant upset. Spain has among the best World Cup betting odds of all 48 teams. Cabo Verde, with a population of barely 500,000 people, has one of the least chances to win. So yes, getting a draw was as big an upset as we’ve seen from the tournament in recent memory.

It was such an upset that someone on Polymarket lost $999,068 on it. This person put it on Spain to win, something that would’ve only paid $80,000 if it had hit. Welp, he didn’t even get that.

This story spread online at turbo speed, all part of what some call a “World Cup effect” in betting. It’s just another way to say way, way more people are betting right now due to the interest around the international event. Some of that effect is good, and some of it is bad, as we’ll get into.

But… we also want to discuss if this effect is hitting Georgia — a state where there is no legal sports betting. While being one of 16 hosts of the event is certainly rubbing off on Atlanta in economic ways, how about betting? We get into all of that in this article!

World Cup Betting Effect Explained

With games being played locally, interest in the World Cup is up big time. TV ratings is one easy indicator of this. Fox is averaging just under 7 million viewers per game — up 152% from 2022 in Qatar.

Naturally, this is going to mean more betting. And there’s data backing this too, albeit one form overseas (that we’re positive applies stateside too). A recent TransUnion survey in the United Kingdom found that 43 percent of adults ages 25 to 34 expected to bet more frequently during the World Cup, the highest rate of any age group. That same group also planned to place the largest average wager at £16.56 per bet, compared to the overall average of £9.54.

The London numbers were especially telling. More than half of bettors there planned to wager on England matches, while 42% said they planned to bet on other major games and 29% intended to bet on outright tournament winners. Obviously, the U.K. is a different market than the United States, but the behavior matters because it shows what the World Cup does everywhere: it pulls in bettors who might not usually be this active.

The United States’ own team starting out so hot only adds fuel to the fire, too. They’ve won two straight games to start the tourney and have already topped their playing group. Everyone and their mother is suddenly talking about this team as a quarterfinals hopeful, which would give them an extra three games to bet on.

Of course, that betting spike comes with downsides, as well. TransUnion also found that 12 percent of adults ages 25 to 34 had knowingly fallen victim to fraud through an unlicensed betting site. Most average consumers have no clue what’s licensed and what’s not so this makes complete sense.

And that’s the perfect segue to focus on Georgia, which doesn’t license any sports betting apps. You’re not supposed to bet stateside. Period. But that’s not stopping bettors…

Georgia Is Feeling The Effect Too

Let’s not kid ourselves. Just because Georgia sports betting isn’t legal doesn’t mean Georgians aren’t doing it already, especially when the World Cup rolls around.

The same forces driving betting activity everywhere else are present in Georgia, too. The United States is winning. Atlanta is hosting games. World Cup highlights are flooding social media, including Europeans blown away by everyday American experiences. Everyone wants in on this thing, including bettors.

The difference is where those bets are being placed. In legal states, bettors have regulated sportsbooks where scams are hard to come by. In Georgia, many bettors are left finding alternatives. That could mean untrustworthy sites or just a shady bookmaker they know in person.

That’s where those TransUnion fraud numbers become interesting. If younger bettors are already falling victim to unlicensed operators in a mature betting market like the United Kingdom, imagine how much easier it is for bad actors to target people in states where there aren’t legal sportsbooks available. Most casual sports fans probably hear sports betting is legal, but don’t know it’s a state-by-state thing, and Georgia is still holding out so they don’t know any better.

And that’s ultimately the flaw in the argument that banning sports betting prevents sports betting — something Georgia lawmakers contend. But let’s be real, that’s hogwash. The demand doesn’t disappear. The wagers don’t disappear. The World Cup effect doesn’t disappear. Instead, the activity moves somewhere else while Georgia collects exactly zero tax revenue from it and consumers are more at risk.

Until Georgia legalizes sports betting, big events like this will keep proving the same point over and over: people are going to wager either way, and the state can either regulate it and tax it, or pretend it’s not happening and miss out on everything completely.