As 2025 comes to a close, global operators are becoming keenly aware of a FIFA World Cup that is looming on the horizon, and looking at what they can do to upgrade or enhance their related sports betting offering.

Leigh Herdman, Co-founder and CEO of sports betting supplier Algosport, sat down with SBC News to discuss the tournament and other plans for 2026, how 2025 has shaped up and all things Bet Builder.

SBC News: What plans do Algosport have for the FIFA World Cup in 2026?

Leigh Herdman: As one of the pioneers of Bet Builder from as far back as 2017, we have seen soccer as arguably the main driver of interest, and revenue, for Bet Builder as it has moved from a ‘novelty’ or nice to have product, to an essential service for sports betting operators across the globe.

With soccer being arguably the biggest betting sport for most non-US facing sportsbooks, we have continually developed our Bet Builder product since launching in 2018, coincidentally for the World Cup of that year.

Since then, we have constantly developed new features and functions, and this will continue for the World Cup in 2026. As ever, we have listened to our valued customers and partners, and our roadmap leading up to the tournament in June will include us making available a vast array of new markets that our customers will be able to offer to their end-users, further expanding the Algosport soccer Bet Builder.

SBCN: Bet Builder has been one of the drivers of sports betting revenue and innovation in recent years. Will this continue in 2026 and the World Cup?

LH: We believe so, and we think the trends we have seen over the last few years are likely to continue. To give an example, the Euros and Copa America in 2026 saw a real step change for soccer Bet Builder in that our customers and partners saw a significant increase in the uptake of In:Play Bet Builders, a feature that some of our competitors and in-house Bet Builder solutions cannot provide, and we have no doubt that this will continue for the tournament in North America. 

On this, we believe Algosport is uniquely placed to support these endeavours, as our solution not only features In:Play Bet Builder functionality, but our operator customers and partners are also able to offer cash out to their end-users throughout the lifecycle of a bet, game, event or match, and it’s these sort of features that have really given our partners a much needed edge.

Over recent years, we’ve also seen a huge increase in the appetite of sports betting end-users for player and team related markets, across soccer but also a myriad of other sports. Throughout 2025, we’ve been steadily adding the functionality for these newer betting markets, and this will continue throughout 2026.

For our operator customers and partners, this will give them a competitive edge and an opportunity to deliver an exciting soccer Bet Builder experience to their customers for the World Cup and beyond. 

Whilst some of the kick off times aren’t perhaps ideal for some of our European facing operators, the increase in matches and staggered nature of the schedule, means that we are expecting to break all records in regards to usage, and by extension revenue.

Our message to operators who aren’t supplied by Algosport is clear – if you want to support your World Cup activity with an industry leading Bet Builder solution that has a wealth of features and functions, particularly In:Play and Cashout, they should get in touch as soon as possible!

Our solution does require integration, but we have found smart operators can get our service up and running in a few weeks, so there is still time for operators to get a clear upgrade in their offering before the tournament starts in June.

SBCN: What has 2025 looked like for Algosport?

LH: Obviously we have had challenges like any scale up business experiences, but we think 2025 has been a positive year for Algosport. Alongside developing and releasing new markets and features for soccer, we have also been busy across all other major sports too.

Highlights for us include launching significantly more markets for our tennis Bet Builder, as well as adding In:Play functionality for ice hockey, which has proved to be a valuable addition for some of our European facing customers.

We’ve also had a busy year integrating and launching a number of new partners, as well as working with our existing valued clients with the aim of providing them all with the innovative and engaging betting products that are required in highly competitive markets.

In normal years, the sports betting supplier ecosystem sees a little bit of a slow down as the end of year approaches, but the exact opposite is happening in 2025! We’ve definitely seen a World Cup boost as tier-one and challenger operators and suppliers look at their current Bet Builder offering and see the benefits that the Algosport service could give in comparison to their existing products.

We’re working hard to close out these deals and start integration ASAP, with a view to some significant new clients launching with us prior to the tournament.

SBCN: Aside from the World Cup, what other plans does Algosport have for 2026?

LH: Algosport has always been about more than soccer, and we have developed Bet Builder products for twelve sports, with these in use by hundreds of operator brands across the globe – these include all the main drivers of Bet Builder action such as basketball, ice hockey, tennis and US sports, but we also support sports such as volleyball, handball, snooker, table tennis, darts and even soccer esports!

However, we are always looking at where we can improve our products further, and indeed where our customers and partners see opportunities, and we have been hard at work with a cricket Bet Builder product that we are looking to launch in time for the IPL start in 2026.

We think this will be a great addition to our product suite for our existing customers, but also may mean new partners are interested in what we have to offer. Alongside this exciting development, we are looking at additional sports, plus we in the early stages of some truly innovative projects, that will harness the power of AI to take Bet Builders to a new level! We are incredibly excited about 2026 and can’t wait to get started!