TopRanked.io Weekly Affiliate Digest: What’s Hot in Affiliate Marketing [2026 FIFA World Cup]

This week, we’ve got a BIG (and long) affiliate opportunity.

So to balance things out, I’m changing up the usual affiliate program review formula.

This week, I’m doing a short list.

A short list of the best programs to monetize this week’s opportunity with.

TopRanked.io Affiliate Partner Program of the Week — Top Sportsbook Affiliate Programs

This week’s affiliate opportunity is the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup (yeah, it’s a while away, I know… but it’s time to start preparing. And besides, I found some cool unsaturated sub-niches for you.)

So, if you’re going to monetize an event like that, then you’re going to need to join at least one of the many great sportsbook affiliate programs, aren’t ya?

So, who do you choose?

Well, with an event at the scale of the 2026 FIFA World Cup (pretty much everyone everywhere bets on it), I wouldn’t dare recommend just one sportsbook.

Truth be told, the sportsbook affiliate program you choose is probably going to be highly dependent on the exact market you decide to target.

After all, even perennial favorites around the TopRanked offices, like the 1xBet affiliate program, which usually caters to most of the world, falls short as a global, do-it-all sportsbook (there are still several markets they won’t serve).

And even if you they did cater to the market you want to target, maybe there’s a sportsbook out there that might perform a little better for you.

For instance, let’s say you’re targeting a Niche that’s likely to have a bunch of PSG fans in it. Then maybe the 22Bet Affiliate Program might be a better fit.

Why?

Because they’ve got similar commissions on offer, but might convert better with this audience due to their PSG sponsorship. (People love a familiar name — it feels “safe”.)

And that’s just scratching the surface of what could go into picking a great sportsbook to monetize the 2026 FIFA World Cup with.

But we’ll leave the rest for you to figure out the specifics.

For now, I’ll simply offer you a couple of handy hints/pointers.

First, if you really can’t be bothered and just want a single-signup one-and-done deal to monetize anything and everything with, then there are a couple of options that almost get there.

The first is the Gambling Affiliation affiliate program.

And the second is the Affiliapub affiliate program.

Why these two?

Because these two operate multiple sportsbook affiliate programs under one roof (including big “do it all” names like 1xBet, plus countless others). That means, there’s an incredibly high chance you’ll find several suitable programs here. The only downside is that, since you’re now introducing a middleman, expect your commissions to be slightly lower than if you’d just gone with a direct sign-up with whichever sportsbooks you end up promoting.

But let’s say you want an introduction to a bunch of programs without anyone skimming your commissions.

Well, for that, you’ve only got one real option.

Head on over to TopRanked.io and see our full listing of the top sportsbook affiliate programs.

Sure, we’re not going to handle the signup/account management bit for you.

But what we do have is detailed reviews plus direct signup links to all the best sportsbooks, so you’re sure to find something great.

Affiliate News Takeaways — 2026 FIFA World Cup

This week’s big news was, of course, the anniversary of 9/11.

Or, more to the point, the news was the torrent of think pieces about 9/11-related stuff.

Kinda like the stuff complaining about how Gen Z memes of the event “illustrate our disturbed relationship with the very nature of reality.”

And so I thought to myself, maybe I should put my Zoomer hat on for a minute.

Maybe I should try to re-appropriate 9/11 for totally in-appropriate purposes.

Maybe it’s time I did a “how to monetize this as an affiliate” edition.

And so I thought about it for a bit.

And then I thought some more.

And then I realized every idea I had was probably too inappropriate.

So I abandoned that idea, and decided to pursue some slightly less on the nose inspiration.

And that’s when I realized something.

Next year’s the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

And it’s also the 15th anniversary of the day the world hide and seek champion’s hot streak came to a premature end.

So if Abdullah, Saad, Omar, Uthman, Mohammed, Hamza, Khalid, Hussain, Laden, or any other of Bin Laden’s sons wanted to avenge their farther’s broken hide-n-seek hot streak whilst simultaneously honoring his legacy, then next year’s probably a pretty good time to do it…

Especially seeing as it’s the year the US is hosting the FIFA World Cup.

And that, dear readers, is how I came to this week’s “news” topic — the 2026 World Cup.

And I probably couldn’t have picked a better time to do it. With 9 months to go until it kicks off, there’s just enough time to do something big and interesting, but not so much time that it feels like it’s too far in the future to care about.

Now, I get it.

For a lot of you, soccer’s not really your jam.

Maybe sports in general aren’t your thing.

But still, I think you should probably care about the World Cup.

Why?

Because we’re talking about MEGA BILLIONS of dollars in sportsbook handle in barely more than a month.

To put some perspective on it, the global sports betting market is valued at around about $261 billion in a regular, non-World Cup year.

Now, try to guess how much was wagered during the 2022 World Cup.

Any guesses?

Hold onto your jaw, because this number’s about to make it drop.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup edition generated an estimated $160 billion in wagers.

Yep, that’s right.

$160 billion was bet on the 2022 World Cup.

And, the best part is, a big chunk of the World Cup action is usually from first-time bettors.

And that means, they’re probably looking to sign up with a sportsbook (for which you will obligingly provide a link… preferably an affiliate link).

And that means the FIFA World Cup is, hands down, the closest you’ll probably every get to making it literally rain dollar bills as an affiliate.

So now I’ve got your attention, let’s start with the basics.

Who: National soccer teams

What: FIFA World Cup

When: June 11 through to July 19

Where: The USA (Plus Mexico and Canada)

Why: Don’t ask…

How (much): Probably more than the $160 billion in wagers placed during the 2022 edition.

So, where to next?

Well, since I’ve still got the tab open, let me show you one BIG affiliate opportunity that’s hiding in the same article I pulled that $160 billion figure from.

By the way, the article’s title is “World Cup 2026 should be a betting bonanza for America’s sportsbooks, except … it won’t be.”

Here’s the basic gist of the opportunity in that article:

• An estimated 5.5 million soccer fans will be travelling to America for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
• A lot of those fans would probably also like to bet on the World Cup.
• That should be good for American sports books… except, there’s a problem.
• To bet at a “legal” online sportsbook in the US, you need a social security number.
• That means, those 5.5 million international visitors won’t be able to bet at “legal” online sportsbooks.

So, what’s an affiliate to do?

That’s right — either you promote “illegal” (offshore) sportsbooks to people attending the World Cup in person.

Or, you promote VPNs to them (so they can just use their regular sportsbook they use at home).

And as for how you get an audience with this play, here’s one idea — you become an online tour guide.

What I mean by that is you create a bunch of guides for World Cup tourists about “how to bet online in the United States.”

There’s probably a billion and one ideas here. For example:

Title: “How to join [insert US sportsbook here] without a social security number”
Content: “You can’t… but here’s one you can join… and here’s my affiliate link 😉

I’ll leave it to you to come up with your own ideas here.

For now, I want to move on to the global 2026 FIFA World Cup betting opportunity, because, let’s be honest, the 5.5 million World Cup tourists visiting the USA are literal pocket change compared to the BILLIONS of people who bet on the World Cup globally.

So let’s look at the global picture.

To start with, let’s start with an interesting trend.

Remember that stat I showed you before — the $160 billion handle sportsbooks clocked during the 2022 World Cup?

Well, in 2018, that number was “just” $136 billion.

In other words, global World Cup betting grew 17% over the period.

Apply that sort of growth to next year’s edition, and suddenly you’re looking at an even that could generate between $180-$190 billion.

And let me remind you, that’s in the space of about 1 month.

So, where’s all that volume coming from?

Well, predictably, a lot of it’s coming out of the usual places.

The UK, for instance, saw about ~$3.2 billion worth of bets through the legal “regulated” market. (But chances are, it was much higher than that. For reference, while the 2022 World Cup generated ~$160 billion in wagers, less than a quarter of that — $35 billion — was through ‘regulated’ channels.)

But I don’t really need to tell you any of this, do I?

Everyone knows about soccer. And everyone thinks they know the countries where it’s popular.

So let’s test out a different angle — let’s try and find some unexpected surprise markets with big potential.

Oh, and speaking unexpected surprises…

Anyway, to get back on topic, one of the more surprising markets for World Cup betting is Asia (in general).

Apparently, Asia’s host to some serious degens — “illegal” bookmakers in Hong Kong alone took about $750 million during the 2018 World Cup.

And that’s not the only big figure coming out of Asia.

Here’s one that actually did surprise me — during the 2014 World Cup, punters in Thailand dropped an estimated $1.3 billion (43 billion baht) on the event.

And that number’s from over 10 years ago, which means that number’s likely gone up quite a bit by now.

Also, the number of Thais with access to the internet has also exploded since then, from 27.6 million to (an estimated) 64.7 million in 2026.

So there’s one market that’s got some decent volume, and is probably nowhere near as saturated with other affiliates as the more popular markets like the UK.

Oh, and just in case you want another fun fact about the Asia region and World Cup betting, back in 2014, Interpol conducted a “sting” operation on a crime gang that had apparently handled about $2.2 billion worth of World Cup bets across China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. (And that’s just the ones Interpol busted.)

Anyway, that’s enough about Asia for now — I’ll let you do your own research here for more juicy details (there’s plenty of ‘em).

Now, I want to move on to another “surprising” figure.

This time, from a report I found on France’s “regulated” betting market.

Now, I’ll get to the surprising stat in a moment. First, I want to highlight one other stat.

Remember how earlier on I said, “a big chunk of the World Cup action is usually from first-time bettors”?

Well, in France alone, the World Cup drove 232k new account sign ups in 2018, and 177k new signups in 2022 at regulated French sports books.

That’s a lot of new signups in a very short period of time. (If only you’d gotten your affiliate link in front of some of those people, hey?)

And here’s the really fun part about that stat — twice as many women (18-24) are recruited during the World Cup when compared to more normal events.

Now, admittedly, that’s probably still not a huge market.

But, at the same time, there’s probably no one that’s specifically targeting that niche (young female sports bettors). So even if we’re talking single-digit percentages of all new account signups, that’s still thousands (if not tens of thousands) of young ladies looking for their first sportsbook during the World Cup.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering how you can target young female bettors specifically, here’s one example I found that seemed to work… but for NFL.

@askkait

Let me know if you have any questions 🙂 #soortsbetting #playerprops #thursdaynightfootball #fanduelsportsbook #draftkings #sportsbettingforbeginners #sportsbetting101 #parlay #sportstiktok

♬ original sound – Kait Maniscalco

And finally, while we’re on the topic of “surprises”, here’s one final one you can monetize… but you’ll have to wait until the World Cup actually kicks off to do it.

Here’s how it works.

Every year, there’s always a FIFA World Cup “underdog” story or two.

Last year, it was Morocco, whose odds to win the FIFA World Cup started out at +25000 at the start of the tournament.

As they progressed deeper into the tournament (against the odds), those odds eventually dropped all the way to +900.

In other words, people (lots of them) were jumping on the bandwagon and laying bets on the underdog thick and fast.

If you can act fast and capitalize on any underdog stories like that during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, then there’s a good chance you can make a few affiliate bucks, too.

Takeaway

Let’s face it, the FIFA World Cup is huge.

Everything above was just a very small sample of what’s out there (markets/niches/etc.). If you do your research, there are literally thousands of opportunities here, with many of them completely untouched by other affiliates.

Do your research, and you will make money. I promise.

Also, everything I highlighted above is probably much bigger than I reported.

As with anything like this (global scale, much of it taking place on the gray/black market), estimates are always a bit all over the place. And so, with that in mind, the numbers I gave you were generally the most conservative estimates I could find.

For example, remember how I said the global sports betting market is valued at around about $261 billion a year?

Well, the actual figure is probably much higher than this — here’s one report from Reuters that pegs “illegal” betting volumes at $500 billion.

In other words, for everything above, it’s probably safe to assume that it’s much bigger than I’m telling you.

So with that said, I assume you’re probably at least partially excited about the opportunity to make bank with the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

So go forth, find your niche(s), and start formulating your plan of attack.

Then, once you have it, don’t remember to monetize it with some top ranked sportsbook affiliate programs.

Closing Thought

For many of you, the FIFA World Cup probably contains a bunch of niches you’ve never even considered before.

And that’s a sign you should probably give at least one of them a shot.

Why?

Well, we all know about the importance of trying something new, don’t we?

If you don’t, then Google it — there’s literally thousands of quotes about trying something new.

Here’s one I found.

And here’s another.

And there’s plenty more where they came from.

Basically, the general idea here is that if you don’t try something new, you start to stagnate.

And maybe that’s fine if you’re already happy with what you have.

But, let’s face it — if you’re reading this, then you can probably agree none of us want stagnating affiliate earnings.

So avoid that fate.

Try something new.

And when you do, monetize it with one of the best sportsbook affiliate programs on the market.

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(Featured image by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS via Pexels)

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