Editorial
The Gist
- The 2026 World Cup will be a gold rush for sportsbooks. There will be billions in wagers, millions of new signups, and a once-every-four-years opportunity to turn fleeting excitement into lasting customer value. Most operators will miss it.
- The winners will use CRM data as their playbook, not their postmortem. By segmenting players before kickoff, tracking engagement in real time, and pivoting instantly as teams are eliminated, they’ll transform short-term bettors into long-term loyalists.
- The key is mastering the “movable middle.” These are a persuadable segment between whales and promo-chasers, and design personalized journeys before the first match begins. Real-time data must drive live adjustments during the tournament and disciplined retention strategies after it ends.
- In the new era of Positionless Marketing, success depends on agility. Marketers need to have the ability to analyze, create, and optimize campaigns instantly, without waiting on teams or approvals. The operators who embrace this will not only win June; they’ll win the months... and players that follow.
Editor's note: While this article draws heavily from the 2026 World Cup playbook, the real takeaway for CMSWire readers is marketing strategy. You don’t need to know soccer tactics to benefit. Throughout the piece, we spotlight universal lessons for CX, CRM and lifecycle teams: segment early, move fast, personalize by behavior and act on real-time data. Below, we outline the core lessons marketers can expect.
- Know your audience before kickoff. Even outside of sports, pre-event segmentation drives all downstream success.
- Focus on the “movable middle.” The persuadable majority delivers the biggest lift when campaigns are personalized.
- Build journeys in advance — not mid-event. Preparedness wins when customer signals move quickly.
- Operate in real time. Agile pivots beat weekly reporting every time.
- Turn moments into habits. Post-event retention determines the difference between spike and sustainability.
The 2026 World Cup will generate billions in wagers globally, but many operators will waste the opportunity. They'll acquire millions of signups in June, watch them churn by August, and wonder why the tournament spike didn't translate to sustainable growth.
The difference between operators who capture the moment and those who build lasting value comes down to how they use CRM data and how fast they can act on it. Today's operators who win are the ones who combine data, creativity and optimization in real time, turning moments into momentum.
Table of Contents
- Start With the Right Segmentation
- Focus on the Movable Middle
- Build Journeys Before the Tournament Starts
- Establish Baselines for Measurement
- Operate in Real Time During the Tournament
- Execute the 48-Hour Pivot Window
- The Tournament Ends, Segmentation Doesn't
- The CRM Principles That Make It Work
Start With the Right Segmentation
Not all World Cup bettors are created equal, and generic segmentation wastes resources on the wrong customers. CRM data should drive a more strategic approach.
Focus on the Movable Middle
The movable middle is the persuadable cohort between whales who bet regardless and promo-chasers who vanish after the bonus. This segment yields the highest marketing uplift per dollar spent, but only if operators segment them properly using behavioral data.
CRM systems should identify three distinct patterns within the movable middle. Home-nation patriots follow their country religiously, but go dark after elimination. Historical betting data will show these customers as highly engaged during international tournaments but dormant between them. Star-chasers follow marquee players, not countries, with CRM data revealing consistent betting on specific athletes across competitions and clubs. Format explorers are new to football betting or returning after years away, identifiable by low frequency in football markets but activity in other sports.
Operators should use CRM data now, months before kickoff, to tag customers into these behavioral cohorts based on historical patterns. This segmentation becomes the foundation for every decision that follows.
Related Article: CRM vs. CDP: What's the Difference?
Build Journeys Before the Tournament Starts
The operators who dominate World Cup 2026 won't be improvising in June. They'll use CRM data today to design day-0 to day-30 journeys for each cohort, with eligibility rules, suppression lists and holdout groups built in by default.
Establish Baselines for Measurement
CRM systems should track baselines now: registration-to-deposit rate, deposit-to-first-bet rate, day-7 active rate and projected lifetime value versus customer acquisition cost by cohort. These benchmarks allow operators to measure whether World Cup cohorts perform better or worse than baseline customers, informing real-time budget allocation decisions.
Critically, operators should configure holdout groups within each cohort to prove incremental lift, not just activity. CRM data that shows 10,000 customers bet during the World Cup is meaningless without knowing how many would have bet anyway. Holdouts turn CRM from a reporting tool into a decision-making engine.
Marketing Lessons From the World Cup Playbook
How CRM principles used during the World Cup apply directly to everyday marketing strategies across industries.
| World Cup Tactic | General Marketing Lesson | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Segment bettors months before kickoff | Start segmentation early based on behaviors, not assumptions | Early insights shape smarter targeting and reduce wasted spend |
| Identify the “movable middle” (persuadable bettors) | Prioritize the audience most likely to respond—not the extremes | This group delivers the highest marketing lift per dollar spent |
| Pre-build journeys for every customer cohort | Create campaigns and automated flows before major moments | Preparedness enables speed, consistency and scale |
| Make real-time pivots during elimination windows | Use live data to adjust messaging and offers instantly | Agility maximizes performance when consumer behavior changes fast |
| Track post-tournament engagement to re-segment users | Refresh audience definitions after every major campaign | Better retention decisions drive long-term lifetime value |
| Use holdout groups to measure incremental lift | Prove what’s working—not just what’s happening | Lift-based measurement protects budgets and clarifies ROI |
Operate in Real Time During the Tournament
World Cup 2026 won't wait for weekly marketing reviews. Operators should use CRM data to publish a live tournament pulse tracking engagement by cohort, home-nation versus star-player betting volume, promo ROI, fatigue signals and Responsible Gaming flags.
Execute the 48-Hour Pivot Window
When CRM data shows a national team has been eliminated, operators have 48 hours to pivot or lose that bettor. The system should automatically detect elimination events and trigger second-team journeys: shifting home-nation patriots to player-centric narratives, underdog stories or cross-sport bridges. CRM data on past cross-sport behavior predicts which customers will respond to NBA or NFL pivots versus those who remain football-loyal.
Real-time CRM dashboards should also track the metrics that signal habit formation: second bet within 72 hours, weekly active sessions, match-day reactivation rate, and incremental lift by journey. Operators using CRM this way can reallocate daily spend, adjusting frequency caps and eligibility rules based on what the data reveals about fatigue and engagement.
The Tournament Ends, Segmentation Doesn't
The tournament ends, but the work doesn't. At day 14 and day 30, CRM data should distinguish stable engagers from obvious promo-chasers. Operators should suppress or downgrade the latter to low-cost streams while graduating engaged bettors to next-best-sport programs.
CRM systems should track two post-tournament trajectories. Football loyalists, identified by continued engagement with football markets, should be bridged to domestic leagues, Champions League and international qualifiers. Variety seekers, whose CRM data shows cross-sport exploration, should receive education and low-friction offers for NBA, NFL, cricket, rugby, or esports, depending on the market.
The key metric is lifetime value versus customer acquisition cost trajectory by cohort. CRM data should show whether World Cup 2026 signups are trending toward profitability at day-30, day-60, and day-90. Cohorts that remain underwater should be suppressed. Cohorts trending positive should receive increased investment.
The CRM Principles That Make It Work
Effective CRM usage during the World Cup 2026 requires discipline. Operators should measure holdouts by default, making lift the language of decision-making rather than vanity clicks. They should design cohorts and journeys before the first whistle, not in the heat of the moment. And they should track post-tournament health obsessively: day-30 retention rate, first bet in a non-World Cup market, cross-sport adoption rate, and reactivation saves.
The 2026 World Cup will separate operators who treat major events as acquisition spikes from those who treat them as habit-formation engines. The difference isn't volume of data. It's how operators use CRM to segment smarter, act faster, and measure what drives long-term value.
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During the World Cup and beyond, agility will be the true competitive edge — the ability to do anything, and be everything, in the moments that matter most.
Note: This article uses 'soccer' at the outset for US audiences. 'Football' is predominantly used to refer to the same sport.
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