Illegal streaming during World Cup bolsters unregulated gambling, report

• Illegal streaming soared during the FIFA World Cup and Gaming Compliance International recorded a whopping 174.3bn illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus throughout the tournament across the globe
• The company estimated that 95% of the illegal streaming views contained ads that encouraged users to access unregulated gambling websites
• Executives at GCI discuss the newly released report

The leader in regulatory gaming compliance technology and consultancy, Gaming Compliance International (GCI), released a new report, highlighting the role of illegal streaming and unregulated gambling during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Hundreds of billions of illegal stream views recorded during World Cup

Ahead of the World Cup, GCI’s President, Ismail Vali, predicted to Forbes that Spain is going to emerge as the winner of the prestigious trophy and that the biggest beneficiary of the globally recognizable soccer tournament was going to be crime and unregulated gambling.

Both predictions turned out to be true, after Spain won the 2026 FIFA World Cup and GCI analysis uncovered a concerning trend that linked illegal streaming and unregulated gambling throughout the tournament.

The company released Wednesday its first complete global measurement of illegal streaming across the 2026 FIFA World Cup, estimating a whopping 174.3bn qualifying illegal stream views of 90 seconds plus (90S+) globally across the tournament.

Concerningly, GCI’s analysis uncovered that 1.68bn average qualifying illegal stream views of 90S+ per match across the globe and 6.2bn qualifying illegal stream views of 90S+ globally during the World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina.

The gaming compliance expert company sounded the alarm about the connection between illegal streaming and illegal gambling.

"95% of qualifying illegal stream views of 90S+ globally carried advertising for unregulated gambling," the company wrote in a press release obtained by Casino Guru News.

Criminal organizations benefit from illegal streaming, unregulated gambling

Matt Holt, GCI’s CEO, addressed the 174.3bn illegal stream views, explaining that this number is a testament that illegal streaming has become a major problem for sports.

"Consumers experience one marketplace, and illegal streaming is an industrial-scale part of it — competing for the same audiences and extracting value that should support rights holders, broadcasters and the wider sports ecosystem," he added.

Holt pointed to the 95% of qualifying illegal stream views that included ads for unregulated gambling, saying that illegal streaming goes beyond of just stealing sports content but reaches sports fans across the globe and is able to lure players into illegal gambling.

Ismail Vali, GCI’s President, added: "The World Cup showed us the dark nexus between illegal streaming and unregulated gambling at a scale we have never measured before."

He pointed to the symbiosis between illegal streaming and unregulated gambling, highlighting that this monetization benefits crime.

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