Share of iGaming platform players in Brazil more than tripled during the 2026 World Cup

The analysis is based on anonymized data from the Central Bank of Brazil’s Open Finance system and covers a sample of approximately 1.2 million people. The study only takes into account transfers to licensed bookmakers, which makes the numbers a reasonably clean read on the regulated side of the market rather than the grey and offshore operators that also compete for Brazilian traffic.

The average size of a single deposit also increased — from 188 Brazilian reais ($36.3) before the tournament began to 272 Brazilian reais ($52.6) by the end of June. The peak value was recorded on June 14, at 524 Brazilian reais ($101.3) per player, coinciding with one of the tournament’s marquee fixtures.

According to Klavi, more than 60% of all deposits were made by users after 6:00 PM — during broadcasts of World Cup matches. Only about 10% of transactions took place in the morning. The pattern lines up with what most media buyers running football verticals already assume, but rarely see confirmed with hard banking data at this scale.

The study also revealed a high concentration of spending: the 10% most active players transferred 20 times more money to bookmakers than the remaining 90% of users combined. That kind of skew is not unusual in betting markets, but it does mean the headline growth figures overstate how broadly deposit behavior actually shifted across the average Brazilian user base.

For affiliates and media buyers working the Brazilian GEO, the practical takeaway is timing. Prime-time inventory around marquee matches converts at a rate flat, always-on campaigns simply cannot match, and the Klavi numbers give a concrete window — post-6 PM, match nights — to weight budgets against. It is also worth flagging the regulatory angle: Brazil has moved quickly to formalize its betting market, and a small core of high-spend players driving the bulk of deposit volume is exactly the kind of pattern that tends to draw scrutiny once a vertical scales this fast.