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The World Cup remains football’s biggest stage, but for many industry leaders the most interesting developments are happening beyond the action on the pitch. From creator-driven fandom and evolving sponsorship models to fan participation, experiential marketing and changing media habits, our Spotlight agency partners share the trends shaping the future of sport.
When brands bet on players before the tournament starts, someone always loses – Adam Britton – Trunk
The 2026 World Cup has exposed an uncomfortable reality in modern sports marketing. Brands no longer just sponsor tournaments. They bet on individual players months before a ball is kicked, with no ability to change position when the reality doesn’t match.
Nike built their biggest-ever football campaign long before squad announcements. Cole Palmer was featured prominently. He didn’t make the England squad. The content was already locked in, the investment already made.
Adidas committed to Bellingham at a time when his starting place was uncertain. He has since started, scored and become the youngest European player ever to appear at four major international tournaments. That bet landed.
Same commercial logic. Completely different outcomes.
Product cycles and contractual commitments now move so far ahead of squad selection that brands are essentially forecasting football decisions alongside fashion trends. At a 48-team World Cup with more variables than ever, that gap is only going to widen.
Meeting the modern fan: The case for extended highlights – Abby Cockayne – InCrowd Sports
The way we consume football has fundamentally shifted. While die-hard supporters will always sit through a full 90-minute broadcast, the average fan’s time and attention are increasingly stretched. This is where longer highlight reels (10+ minutes) on domestic broadcasts fill a crucial gap.
Modern matches are dragging on longer than ever. Between VAR checks, hydration breaks, and ballooning stoppage times, a standard game can easily push past 100 minutes. For matches not considered “must-watch” – such as fixtures outside your home nation – committing to that time investment just isn’t that realistic, especially alongside match timings as for some they are landing overnight.
Extended highlights strike the perfect balance. They cater directly to the “interested but busy” consumer, offering far more tactical context, build up play, and drama than a frantic two-minute recap, without the downtime of a live broadcast. It’s the ideal compromise for staying informed without sacrificing the entire evening.
What the World Cup prediction-market boom tells us about the future of fan engagement – Blair Richardson – SI
During this World Cup, prediction-market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket have achieved record breaking activity. While many see this as a betting story, it is better understood as a behavioural one. The real signal is that fans no longer want to watch sport passively; they want to participate, back predictions, return daily, and see whether they are right
As regulators restrict these platforms in many markets, the desire to engage remains. That creates an opportunity for rights-holders. The most powerful engagement loop in sport today is predictive, daily and participatory, and it does not require wagering. Score predictions, brackets, fantasy games and other free-to-play experiences tap into the same psychology without regulatory risk.
The greater value lies in the data fans share through participation. Predictions reveal interests, preferences and intent, helping organisations build direct, measurable relationships with audiences. The World Cup has not just highlighted a betting boom, it has provided a roadmap for future fan engagement.
For full thoughts check out more here.
The growing importance of creators for football fandom – Andreas Kaeshammer – Infront
Aside from the obvious commercial exploitation of “hydration breaks”, optimised dynamic pricing approach for ticketing or and engaging fans though the first-ever prediction market partnership, one of the clearest shifts has been the growing role of creators in how fans experience the tournament.
FIFA’s work with iShowSpeed, for example, uses a popular creator to connect with younger audiences across multiple platforms through content he is producing. His interactions are bringing his audience into the tournament.
It shows that the conversation is increasingly moving to channels the sport doesn’t own. These personalities are becoming an entry point into the sport and shifts how the World Cup is being experienced.
Despite all these new developments it remains a pleasure to witness on-site in Mexico – at the FIFA Fanfest and in the stadiums – the live event and unscripted drama bringing generations together to celebrate the “football religion”.
Three brand lessons from the World Cup – Adam Raincock – Space Between
The Club World Cup has highlighted three notable sponsorship and branding trends.
First, the FIFA brand itself feels more prominent than ever. From a dominant position in tournament branding to increased visibility throughout stadiums, FIFA has taken centre stage. Whether driven by host-market influences or growing confidence in its own brand equity, the change is striking compared with previous tournaments.
Second, the tournament’s hydration debate has become one of its defining talking points. Framed around player welfare, the additional breaks also create valuable broadcast inventory. While commercially effective, the discussion has inadvertently drawn attention to Powerade, linking the sponsor to a controversial issue.
Finally, ambush marketing has generated significant debate, with brands such as Levi’s and Gillette earning attention through creative campaigns. However, while these moments can drive short-term visibility, they do not threaten the long-term value of official sponsorships, which build brand affinity and commercial returns over years rather than days.
The machinery has changed more than the game itself – Joey Poole – PACE
The loudest shifts in this tournament are commercial. Dynamic pricing, broadcasters now sell ads inside mandated hydration breaks, and travel bans have kept fans from countries out of stadiums. The machinery around the game has changed far more than the game.
However, what has struck us is what hasn’t changed. Fan festivals have passed two million visitors in the group stage alone. Walk through Zócalo or Fort York and the thing being delivered is still simple: strangers, different flags, finding each other, culture, viral moments online between countries.
As the tournament gets more engineered and more exclusionary – the part fans actually came for – keeps refusing to follow. The story is still being written on the pitch and between people in the stands. In 2026, that quiet consistency feels almost radical, and worth protecting.
Successful partnerships can create the recipe for cultural moments – Nick Palmer-Brown – FleishmanHillard
The most significant shift around the World Cup isn’t on the pitch – it’s in how brands are flipping the question: ‘how do we reach football fans?’ to ‘how do we reach people experiencing the World Cup as a cultural moment?’, whether that’s through gaming, music, or any sub-community making sport culturally meaningful.
Unilever’s decision to move sports investment towards social creators reflects this change. TikTok’s status as the ‘preferred platform’ reinforces it, with creator culture increasingly driving cultural moments over traditional broadcast. A recent YouGov survey backs this up: Gen Z’s World Cup excitement for 2026 has nearly doubled since 2022, making them the most engaged demographic in the US.
That’s the integration opportunity. Watch parties, grassroots initiatives, sustainability narratives, and inclusivity positioning are where non-core audiences enter conversations.
Official partnerships remain valuable, but the brands winning this cycle aren’t choosing between official partnerships and more subversive strategy. They’re layering both – using partnership credentials and authenticity to amplify messages across digital platforms and cultural conversations.
Football is already the culture – it does not need to break into it – Paul Reid – Brave Bison
What’s striking is how much the World Cup is starting to borrow from the challenger-sport playbook.
Celebrity cutaways, music-led halftime moments, branded breaks and more obvious entertainment packaging are all tactics designed to create extra moments around the sport: more clips, more sponsorship inventory, more cultural crossover and more reasons for casual audiences to pay attention.
That makes sense in the US, where football is still competing for space in a crowded sports and entertainment market. But globally, the World Cup is not short of meaning, scale or attention. It is already one of the few events that can stop the world without needing to overproduce the spectacle.
The commercial opportunity is obvious, but so is the risk. If FIFA treats football too much like an emerging property, it risks forgetting what makes it valuable: football is not trying to break into culture. Football is the culture.Football has always been big business, but this World Cup put its commercial agenda front and centre
Brand visibility is not enough anymore, it is about being a part of the conversation – Moe Hamdhaidari – Two Circles
The most memorable moments don’t stop at the final whistle. They’re dissected in WhatsApp group chats, debated on Reddit, clipped for TikTok and brought to life by creators who increasingly rival traditional media for influence and engagement. The tournament is being experienced collectively, in real time.
None of that is entirely new, but the scale and influence of those conversations has fundamentally changed the opportunity for brands. It’s no longer just about being seen, it’s about being part of the conversation.
The strongest campaigns give fans another way to engage, whether that’s sharing a moment, joining a conversation or feeling closer to the game. In a tournament that’s increasingly experienced together, the brands that resonate (and therefore have the biggest opportunities) are those that become a genuine part of that shared experience.
The World Cup has become a global experimental marketplace – Eric Liebler – GSE Worldwide
One of the biggest shifts I’ve noticed is that the World Cup is no longer being experienced solely inside the stadium. The real battleground is now the broader ecosystem of experiential marketing, content, hospitality, and fan engagement that surrounds the tournament.
Brands are investing as much in creating meaningful moments around the event as they are in traditional media buys. Whether through fan festivals, creator-led content, athlete appearances, hospitality programs, or community activations, the goal is no longer just reach, it’s participation. Today’s fans want access, connection, and experiences they can share.
We’ve seen this firsthand through the growing demand for World Cup-adjacent programming, from youth soccer clinics and athlete-led community events to private hospitality experiences and watch parties designed to bring fans closer to the game. These initiatives often create deeper engagement than a traditional advertising campaign alone.
The World Cup is evolving from a sporting event into a global content and experiential marketplace, where the value isn’t just in the match itself, but in everything happening around it.
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