Who Gets Rich Off the World Cup?

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]I've been waiting to make this video.

[00:00:02]Take a look at this graph showing the revenue that FIFA generated across the last five World Cup cycles. The 2006 World Cup was hosted in Germany. Across that 4-year cycle, FIFA generated $3.64 billion in revenue. Then came South Africa 2010, $4.19 billion. Brazil 2014, 5.72. Russia, $6.4 billion. Then Qatar, the biggest World Cup cycle in FIFA history, $7.57 billion generated in revenue across four years. Now, on its own, that growth is already pretty insane. But the crazy thing about these numbers is that this shows you what percentage of FIFA's revenue comes directly from the World Cup. Yes, in the 2006 World Cup cycle, 79.9% came from the World Cup by itself. South Africa, 87.3%, Brazil 84.4%, 4%, Russia 83 12% and then of course Qatar 83.3%.

[00:00:55]So for 20 years straight somewhere between 79 and 87% of FIFA's entire business has come from one tournament.

[00:01:03]Not club football, not qualifiers, not youth tournaments, one event, the World Cup.

[00:01:10]Yes, the World Cup is the greatest thing on earth. It's a money machine. And as you can tell from these numbers, it makes a lot of people very rich. FIFA gets rich. Broadcasters get rich.

[00:01:20]Sponsors get rich. But it doesn't stop there. Betting companies get rich. Host nations hope to get rich. Hotels, airlines, restaurants, content creators, everyone makes their money. This World Cup is the biggest one ever. 12 new teams, 104 matches, and games played across three countries. I'm Jordan and I'm on a mission to make passionate sports fans like you just 1% more informed. And today I'm breaking down exactly who gets paid from the World Cup.

[00:01:50]We're going to start with the obvious place, the governing body themselves.

[00:01:53]Those numbers I just showed you are not small. But before we do, let's get right.

[00:02:00]Yes, FIFA. FIFA are the governing body of football. But it's often forgotten that this is a business that generated $7.5 billion across the last World Cup cycle alone. And the fascinating thing is that FIFA only makes this kind of money once every four years. The World Cup is their economic engine. FIFA makes money from four main areas. The single biggest revenue source for FIFA, of course, is broadcasting rights, and it's not even close. During the Qatar 2022 World Cup cycle, FIFA generated $4.64 billion from broadcast rights alone.

[00:02:32]That was 61% of all FIFA revenue across the entire 4-year cycle. Just to put that into perspective, broadcasting on its own generated more money than FIFA made in total during the entire Germany 2006 cycle. That is how aggressively the value of live sport has exploded over time. And the reason broadcasters pay these numbers is actually pretty simple.

[00:02:53]The World Cup is one of the only few things left on television that people still insist on watching live. The 2022 World Cup final between Argentina and France reached 1.5 billion viewers globally according to FIFA.

[00:03:09]That final really was something. Extra time, bicycle kick, hat-ticks, that save from Martinez at the end, the penalties.

[00:03:16]My word, what an incredible match of football that was. 1.5 billion is almost one in five people on the planet. So broadcasters fight aggressively for these rights. In the US, Fox Sports paid $425 million for the English language rights to both the 2018 and the 2022 World Cups. In the Middle East and North Africa, BN Sports dominates the coverage. In the UK, the rights are split between the BBC and ITV, and industry estimates value the package close to $100 million per tournament, and the audience is justified. England versus France at Qatar 2022 peaked at 23 million people watching on ITV alone. In the Middle East and North Africa, Ben holds the exclusive rights across 24 countries. During the opening ceremony and the first 16 matches of Qatar 2022, Ben generated more than 1 billion cumulative views across the region. This is big business. And this World Cup is in the US, the biggest advertising market on planet Earth. And not only that, the tournament has been expanded from 32 teams to 48 teams. 64 matches in total jumps to 104 matches in total.

[00:04:19]That's a 62.5% increase in inventory.

[00:04:22]more matches, more ad breaks, more sponsor exposure, more shoulder programming, more opportunities to monetize. So, unsurprisingly, the value of the rights has exploded. The combined English and Spanish language rights packages in the US for 2026 are reportedly now worth $1.1 billion to Fox. Yes, that includes Spanish, but it was $425 million before. Despite this though, the fascinating thing is that these rights values aren't growing everywhere. India and China are currently a massive problem for FIFA ahead of 2026. Being in the US, the kickoff times are a nightmare for Asian audiences. FIFA reportedly wanted $60 million to $100 million for India rights, but broadcasters have offered dramatically less. Some bids reportedly fell below $20 million. This World Cup in particular is not as desirable for the Asian continent, largely due to time zones. So, some broadcasters are now reaching a point where some of these rights packages are actually becoming incredibly difficult to monetize, which sounds crazy when you consider the audiences involved. But it does go to show that not everything is up and to the right. I'm recording this video at the beginning of May. It's still undecided if India or China are going to get any broadcasting for the World Cup.

[00:05:30]It's pretty crazy. But it does tell you one thing about this World Cup. FIFA are obsessed with monetizing it to the absolute max. And broadcasters are just one side of that equation. Because when billions, and I really do mean billions of people are watching, everyone wants to be involved. Every major brand on earth wants to be attached to it. Which is why sponsorships are the second biggest way in which FIFA makes money.

[00:05:49]FIFA has built an entire sponsorship hierarchy around the World Cup. For Qatar 2022, there were seven top tier partners. Adidas, Coca-Cola, Wonder, Hyundai or Kia, Qatar Airways, Visa, and Qatar Energy. For the US, the top seven has changed to become the top eight.

[00:06:08]Adidas, Coca-Cola, Kia/ Hoyandai, Qatar Airways, and Visa. They all remain, but now Lenovo and Aramco are at the table.

[00:06:17]That's only seven, though. I mentioned eight. Number eight is ADI Predict Street, the official prediction partner of the World Cup prediction markets.

[00:06:26]Stay tuned for more content on this channel about those very soon. In episode one of my Saudi series, I spoke about how Saudi Arabia has increasingly used sport as a strategic global investment vehicle through companies tied to the Saudi state. For those of you who watch those videos, it doesn't surprise you to see Aramco as the top tier one partner for FIFA ahead of this World Cup. I tried to find the exact official values of these other sponsorship deals, FIFA does not publicly disclose them, but multiple sports business reports and industry estimates give us a pretty good idea of the scale that is involved. A report from the Sports Business Journal suggested that FIFA's global sponsor tier for the 2026 World Cup is worth between 75 million and $100 million per cycle. Another report from ESPN shows that Adidas's long-term FIFA deal was worth up to 95 million over a 4-year cycle. While Hyundai's agreement was reportedly valued at £182 million.

[00:07:15]Technically, these sponsorship deals are not just for the World Cup itself. They cover the four years in between World Cups. But still, it's not cheap.

[00:07:23]Granted, these companies also get exposure across the Women's World Cup, the Club World Cup, the expanded Club World Cup, youth tournaments, FIFA digital channels, and broader FIFA branding rights. But really, the men's World Cup is the thing they really care about, and the numbers prove it. During the Russia 2018 cycle, FIFA generated $1.66 billion from sponsorship and marketing rights. For Qatar, that increased to $1.74 billion. So, sponsorship revenue overall only grew by 4.8 8% across the two cycles. But the really interesting thing here is where the growth happened. Revenue specifically from FIFA's dedicated World Cup sponsor tier, that's the top seven or the top eight that I mentioned a few moments ago, went from $363 million to $545 million. That is a 50% increase, which tells you something really important. Brands increasingly care less about FIFA across the cycle and more about access to the World Cup itself. So once FIFA has sold the broadcasting rights and once it sold the sponsorships, the next layer of monetization is probably the most visible ones to fans, the tickets. While broadcasters and sponsors are spending billions behind the scenes, fans are the ones actually feeling the commercialization of the World Cup in real time. During the Qatar 2022 cycle, FIFA generated $712 million from ticket sales and hospitality rights, making it another enormous revenue stream on top of broadcasting and sponsorships. But honestly, for the 2026 US World Cup, the ticket situation has become ridiculous.

[00:08:50]Yes, this tournament is bigger than ever. It's hosted across the US, Canada, and Mexico, and has expanded from 64 matches to 104 matches. It also happens to be hosted across the most aggressively commercial sports market on Earth. But the prices are reflecting that some early hospitality packages for the 2026 World Cup have already been listed at more than $70,000.

[00:09:11]Quick side note, actually, one thing I realized when I was researching all of this World Cup stuff is just how big the scam economy has become for major sporting events. Fake ticket websites, fake resell links, fake hospitality packages, fake merch, fishing emails pretending to be official FIFA communications. When millions of emotional football fans are rushing online to buy World Cup tickets, it creates the perfect environment for scam opportunities, which is why this video is sponsored by NordVPN. Now, most people know NordVPN for the VPN side of things. That too is also quite powerful when it comes to the World Cup, especially as we discussed earlier with some countries yet to have a broadcast deal. But what's actually more interesting is that they've now started to build products around online threat protection, too. Their built-in next generation antivirus can detect fishing links, block dangerous websites, and scan downloads before they become a problem, which feels very relevant around a World Cup where ticket scams are exploding in real time. So, if you travel a lot, if you buy things regularly, or if you are one of the people planning on going to a World Cup game or something around the World Cup right now, it's genuinely worth checking out. The original deal for NordVPN looks good. But by clicking my link, you get a better deal. You get more free months, and it's cheaper. Enter my coupon code, The Longplay, all caps, one word, when prompted, so they know it's me. Also, not only will you be more safer online, you'll be truly supporting my channel, too. I never mess with VPNs before, but since I started making content, I do now. And thankfully Nord have wanted to support the channel too. Link is in the description. Now back to people getting rich off the World Cup. Honestly, I can make an entire video just on this ticketing topic. In fact, I did.

[00:10:46]Remember, those of you who like this content are subscribed to my Substack.

[00:10:49]And on my Substack, members get extra content. Every video that I release here, there's an extra video for paid members on my Substack community. And for this video I'm making, the members content is free. On this member's video, I break down why World Cup tickets have become so goddamn expensive. How hospitality packages are quietly changing audiences inside stadiums and how FIFA are making so much money on actual tickets and the resale of tickets themselves. Researching this video was crazy. I've broken it all down for people on my Substack and for this one video only. The extra members video is free. Click the link in the description or scan this QR code and dive right in.

[00:11:25]It's there waiting for you right now.

[00:11:27]Here's a sneak peek. Dynamic pricing changes that relationship completely because now FIFA can continually push prices upwards depending on demand and capture some of that consumer surplus.

[00:11:38]That surplus previously sat with a fan now it belongs to Infantino himself. But while FIFA are making billions from the World Cup, the host nations are the ones taking the real financial risk because hosting a World Cup is unbelievably expensive and the costs have exploded over time. This graph shows the estimated costs of again the last five World Cups. Germany 2006 $4 billion.

[00:11:59]Similar amounts in South Africa before things started escalating quickly.

[00:12:02]Brazil shot up, Russia went one bigger and then Qatar.

[00:12:08]Yeah, that cost an estimated $220 billion. That number is honestly difficult to actually comprehend. Qatar spent money on stadiums, roads, airports, hotels, an entirely new metro system, even the development of entire districts like Lucel City. To be fair, not all of that spending was exclusively for football. It's almost as if the World Cup was a proxy for Qatar to improve country infrastructure. You could argue a lot of it was long-term national investment. But even then, the scale is staggering. To put it into perspective, Qatar's World Cup reportedly cost almost 20 times what Russia cost. And this is where hosting the World Cup starts to become really complicated. Because unlike FIFA, host nations are not guaranteed to make their money back. In fact, like the Olympics, many economists argue that most countries do not. Supporters argue that the tournament accelerates development that the countries needed anyway.

[00:13:00]Critics argue that many projects are oversized, politically motivated, or economically inefficient. And honestly, both sides probably have a point. But increasingly, hosting the World Cup is not just about direct financial return.

[00:13:13]It's about image, prestige, influence.

[00:13:16]This was the entire Qatar playbook. And again, if you watch my Saudi series, especially episode 1, you know that's what's coming in 2034. For many nations, the World Cup is effectively a giant global advertising campaign. An opportunity to attract tourism, investment, and international attention.

[00:13:33]And in some cases, to reshape how the world sees them entirely.

[00:13:38]But this is the 2026 World Cup.

[00:13:39]Financially, this one is completely different because unlike Qatar, the US, Canada, and Mexico are not building entirely new World Cup infrastructure from scratch. All 16 host stadiums already existed before the tournament.

[00:13:52]Most are brilliant NFL venues already constructed and already in place. Many have been privately financed for many years. And many host crowds larger than a typical World Cup match every single week during the NFL season. Which means the 2026 World Cup is likely to cost dramatically less than recent tournaments and will put the USA, Canada, and Mexico in the shopfront for thousands of tourists. I mean, if I see another visit Seattle ad on another podcast.

[00:14:19]So, it's interesting for the host nations, especially for this particular World Cup. I'm intrigued to see when the numbers are released in some months time what this graph looks like for this year. I'm pretty certain it's going to come right back down from this number.

[00:14:32]The question is, will it be lower than this number or this one? Time will tell.

[00:14:35]But while FIFA broadcasters and host nations are all making billions around the World Cup, the actual faces driving the entire economy are the players themselves. Without the players, none of this works. The players are the product.

[00:14:50]So, do footballers actually get paid to play at the World Cup? Because instinctively, a lot of people assume representing your country is purely an honor thing. In fact, I got an email recently from a viewer called William that summed this up perfectly. William said, "With the World Cup coming up this summer, I've always wondered how and if footballers get paid or receive bonuses for playing for their country." And honestly, William is asking a really good question because when people think about players getting paid at the World Cup, they usually only think about prize money. But there are actually two completely different financial systems operating during the tournament. The first is something called the FIFA club benefits program. And this is honestly fascinating. FIFA understands something very clearly. The players are the ones powering the entire World Cup economy.

[00:15:31]But FIFA does not employ those players.

[00:15:34]Their clubs do. Manchester City pay the wages for their players. So do Real Madrid pay the wages for their players.

[00:15:40]So every four years, FIFA effectively borrows the best footballers on earth from clubs around the world to stage the World Cup. And because of that, FIFA compensates clubs for releasing their players to the tournament. This is called the FIFA Club Benefits Program.

[00:15:54]And the amount of money involved, again, unsurprisingly, has exploded over time.

[00:15:58]For the 2010 World Cup, FIFA distributed $40 million to clubs. Brazil 2014 increased that to $70 million. Russia jumped to 209 million. Qatar distributed the same. And FIFA has already agreed to increase that number again to 355 million across the 2026 World Cup.

[00:16:16]That's almost a 788% increase since 2010. And the way FIFA calculates his payments is actually pretty interesting. For Qatar, FIFA took the entire $29 million pool and divided it across the total number of player tournament days across the competition.

[00:16:30]That worked out at approximately $10,950 per player per day. So every single day a player remained at the World Cup, their club was getting paid. And crucially, it's not just the current club getting the money either. FIFA actually splits payments across every club the player was registered with during the previous 2 years. So even smaller clubs can sometimes receive an unexpected World Cup windfall years after developing a player and selling them on which is kind of amazing when you think about it. But the club benefits program is only one side of the equation because the second way money flows through the World Cup is through direct tournament prize money. And this is where William's question becomes really interesting because technically the players are not usually being paid by FIFA here either. The money goes to the national federations but indirectly the players are absolutely still driving the value. Without the players, there is no World Cup product to monetize in the first place. These World Cup prize balls have generally become much larger over time, too. There's a theme in this video. This graph shows the prize money for the World Cup tournaments in the last five World Cup cycles. Germany 2006 distributed $266 million in direct tournament prize money. Again, up in South Africa 2010. Now, quick caveat here. Some of the historical FIFA reporting around South Africa 2010 is slightly inconsistent depending on whether certain preparation payments are included or excluded. But broadly speaking, the direction of travel is particularly obvious. It's going up. The money kept increasing across future cycles as well. Brazil 2014 distributed around $358 million. Russia increased that to $400 million and Qatar reached $440 million. That was the biggest prize pool in World Cup history. Just for qualifying for the tournament, every national federation received at least $9 million. Teams eliminated in the round of 16 earned $13 million.

[00:18:10]Quarterfinalist 17 million. Fourth place $25 million. Third place $27 million.

[00:18:16]Runners up got $30 million. And then the winners Argentina got $42 million. The really interesting thing is what happens to this money afterwards. FIFA doesn't just wire $42 million directly into Lion Messi's bank account. FIFA pays the Federation and what the Federation decides to do is entirely up to them.

[00:18:33]Every country handles distribution differently. Some federations negotiate player bonuses, some pay appearance fees, some distribute performance incentives, some reinvest significant amounts back into the football infrastructure itself. And this is where the expanded 2026 World Cup becomes really interesting because the tournament increasing from 32 teams to 48 teams means more countries than ever before are about to enter this World Cup prize pool. FIFA has already confirmed that every qualified federation will receive at least $10.5 million for this 2026 World Cup. That is 9 million in guaranteed participation prize money plus another $1.5 million in preparation funding. For some countries, that money is transformational. For football economies like England and France, they're already enormous. But for smaller nations, countries like Haiti, Kurissau, Capver, these countries that are entering the World Cup for the first time, $10.5 million can completely change what is possible. Newmies, new facilities, coaching investment, travel budgets. So, while the players are not necessarily receiving all of this money directly, they are still the reason the money exists in the first place, and that money hopefully trickles down to the players themselves. Now, we've already covered some ground in this video. FIFA themselves host nations, playing federations. Lots of people are getting rich off the World Cup, but players themselves can get rich, too.

[00:19:48]And these ways are more direct and more valuable than the trickle down economics of prize money. Let's be serious. The Football World Cup is the biggest shop window in all of World Football. And once again, Colt Kits came through with the goodies.

[00:20:03]And if a player performs well on that stage, their career can change almost overnight. The perfect example is James Rodriguez. Before the tournament, James was playing for Monaco. Then he exploded at the World Cup. Six goals that volley against Uruguay. Within weeks, Real Madrid had signed him in a deal worth €80 million. His commercial profile exploded too. Shirt sales, it's a fire kit as well. global recognition. One tournament completely changed the scale of his career. More recently, Enzo had the same thing at Qatar 2022. Before the World Cup, Benfica signed him for 14 million euros.

[00:20:35]A few weeks later, Chelsea paid £16 million to sign him. Then you have Sophian Amrabat. I remember Morocco's run to the semi-finals at Qatar 2022. He was one of their best players. It turned him into the breakout name of the tournament. Suddenly, he turned up at Carrington for my club. Crazy scenes.

[00:20:54]Mbappé of course was already an incredible young player before Russia 2018, but that World Cup turned him into a superstar. At 19, it was clear he was becoming the face of the next generation of football. And once that happens, the commercial opportunities change completely. Bigger sponsorship negotiations, bigger endorsement campaigns. I mean that Meta Oakley deal for Mbappe, I see it everywhere. Must be massive. But more importantly, contracts, transfers will change the life of players completely. You can get rich with a good few weeks of the World Cup. The same thing is going to happen in the summer of 2026. I already know someone is going to get a big money deal after the tournament or in the season after the tournament and a player is going to become a superstar. Someone like Jude Bellingham is going to get even bigger. Someone like Michael Elise is going to get even bigger. A huge World Cup campaign can take you beyond football. And this is why the World Cup is so powerful economically for players.

[00:21:43]Sometimes it's not about winning the trophies. It's big visibility and that visibility is monetizable. And players can get rich.

[00:21:51]Hamz, what a kit and what a player. Colt kits, watch my videos. They recognize that I have a jersey in the background of every single video. If you like these jerseys, they are the best place to get jerseys. Retro, new training jackets.

[00:22:04]Head to the cold kits website, link in the description, and get all the jerseys that you want. And thank you to them for partnering with me. Now, look, we're not finished. There's lots more people who get rich. And the next chapter again is exploding in size. Betting companies.

[00:22:16]Now, look, I'll be honest. I don't like gambling. I've never really liked gambling. If you followed this channel for a while, you know I made an entire video about gambling in the Premier League and how deeply embedded it has become within football culture. If you read my newsletter, I repeatedly say this, too. Honestly, I think a lot of it is pretty unhealthy. But whether I like it or not, gambling is not going anywhere. And for the 2026 World Cup, it's massive business for betting companies. The really interesting thing about this World Cup though is that it's not just only traditional betting, it's prediction markets. This feels like the first World Cup where prediction markets are properly entering the mainstream. In America, two companies are exploding right now and most of you will know who they are. Koshi and Poly Market. Both basically allow people to trade outcomes around real world events. And honestly, this is where things start to get a little bit dystopian. It's not just who wins the World Cup, who wins the golden boot, what stage of the competition do England exit at. You can create markets around almost anything. In fact, while researching this video, I found a live market on Koshi asking, "Will any 2026 World Cup game scheduled in the US be relocated abroad before June 11th?" At the time of recording this video in early May 2026, nearly $30,000 has been traded on that question alone. The platforms take fees and spreads on trading activity flowing through each market. And the valuations of these companies have become ridiculous. Look at this graph. This graph shows the valuation of Koshi across 2025 alone.

[00:23:34]They went from being worth $2 billion to $22 billion in a matter of months. Poly market is reportedly seeking funding at a $15 billion valuation right now, too.

[00:23:44]And this is where things start to get a bit weird because FIFA now has an official prediction market partner called ADI Predict Street, a company I and most people have probably never heard of. There's basically no meaningful public financials about them.

[00:23:55]Yet somehow they have landed a FIFA sponsorship. Remember, they are in the top tier of partners that I mentioned at the beginning of this video. The platform is built on the ADI blockchain.

[00:24:05]And if you look at the website, it doesn't even exist yet. But honestly, I find the whole thing pretty murky. With 104 matches, millions of users, and constant media attention, these prediction market companies could become some of the biggest financial winners of the entire tournament. They are the ones that are going to get rich. They are tech companies, and they are valued with tech multiples rather than gambling company multiples. They figured out a way to be very valuable very quickly.

[00:24:27]They therefore can spend more on marketing and infiltrate the minds of the populace. Personally, I'm not sure this is a good thing for football. I'm not sure this is a good thing for fans.

[00:24:34]I'm not sure this is a good thing for anyone. But the video is called Who Gets Rich of the World Cup? Koshi Poly Market and ADI Predict Street.

[00:24:44]They might be at the top of the pile.

[00:24:45]We're going to take a breath. This is one of the longest videos I've ever done. We're not finished, by the way, but I want to take a moment to thank you. We recently crossed 150,000 subscribers on this channel. We recently launched new formats of content, and the growth of this channel has not slowed down. I am building a media company here. What started as this YouTube channel that I wanted to scale has grown faster than I thought it would, and it's made me want to double down on my efforts more than ever before. More videos like this are coming. More member content is coming. More interviews like this are coming. So, if you've liked this video or if you've liked any other video that I've released, whether it's here or on short form platforms, please give this video a like. I didn't realize how important likes were when I started making content. The fact that you're still watching this means you probably enjoy this video so far, too. Now, we've been here for a while now, but honestly, there are still loads of people quietly getting rich off the World Cup that we've not even touched yet. So, what I want to do now is a rapid fire through a few more categories and I'm going to show you specific examples and specific numbers that shows you how much money flows through this tournament. The first category are airlines. In 2022, the numbers of people going to Qatar was fairly modest. But then look what happens around November and December.

[00:25:48]The World Cup arrived. Visitor numbers exploded. Qatar finished 2022 with roughly 2.56 million visitors to the country. But interestingly, 1.18 million of those arrived during the World Cup period itself. Meaning almost half of the country's annual tourism came during the World Cup window alone. And honestly, the interesting thing is what happened afterwards because the momentum did not completely disappear once the tournament ended. By August 2023, the following year, Qatar had already matched the entire tourism total from the previous year. And airlines of course are one of the biggest beneficiaries of that. This was massive business for Qatar Airways who are already one of FIFA's major sponsors.

[00:26:25]More flights, higher prices, and honestly, we're probably about to see something very similar in America, but not for Spirit Airlines. Next, kit manufacturers. The shirt sales can become completely insane. After Argentina won the World Cup, Adidas literally sold out of messy shirts globally. Not sold well, sold out everywhere. It showed up in the numbers, too. Adidas said its football sales grew by 30% during the 2022 World Cup year.

[00:26:48]And now, we are already seeing the same thing starting ahead of 2026. Adidas in their Q1 earnings recently revealed that they generated approximately €250 million in World Cup product bookings in Q1 alone. And the company expects another €250 million in Q2. That is half a billion in World Cup related merchandise before the tournament has even started. They brought forward a lot of inventory ahead of time and it's paid off for them. Adidas have started well especially with that incredible advert that they generated at the beginning of May. Next, and this one is particularly interesting, payment companies quietly love the World Cup. The transaction volume is mad. Companies like Visa sit right in the middle of this whole thing.

[00:27:28]During the opening weekend of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, international visitors spent more than $27 million on Visa cards alone. That doesn't actually sound too impressive, but when researching this video, I found that that was a 73% increase across the same period the year before. Then by the end of the group stage at Qatar 2022, Visa said consumer spending at official World Cup venues was already 89% of the entire 2018 World Cup total. And that's before the knockout stages had even properly finished. So again, clear as day, you can see the World Cup makes things bigger. Payment companies like Visa, yes, Visa are one of the title sponsors of the World Cup. It works for them. And honestly, there are loads of other businesses quietly making fortunes around this tournament, too. security companies, hospitality companies, hotels, private transport operators, event staffing firms. I don't even need to do a graph or show you any numbers for these. It's obvious. When you suddenly drop millions of traveling fans into the United States, Canada, and Mexico over a 6 week period, entire local economies temporarily reshape themselves. And honestly, even this video is part of the World Cup economy.

[00:28:37]Yes, the World Cup is football, broadcasters, sponsors, airlines, betting companies, shirt manufacturers.

[00:28:43]It's also content. Billions and billions of pieces of content, podcasts, Tik Toks, reaction videos, streamers, Twitter clips, which is why every creator, every media company, every platform on Earth suddenly becomes obsessed with this tournament every four years. So, the last category of people who get rich off the World Cup are content creators. This is one of my longest videos ever, including longer than some of the Saudi series episodes.

[00:29:06]Those Saudi series videos haven't gone anywhere. All of them, episodes four, five, six, seven, and eight, along with a lot of other member content, lives right here on my Substack. Click the link in the description to tap into all of those episodes, as well as the extra content around tickets and why tickets have been craziness for this World Cup.

[00:29:20]That ticket video is free for the first time. It's there waiting for you right now. Some of you will know that I have launched my new podcast called Off the Pitch. The first episode was with Ria Ferdinand. It breaks down his business empire that he's building. You can click right here to watch that. Those episodes will come out as I record them. So, do not expect a regular cadence initially.

[00:29:40]Otherwise, if you made it this far in this video, please like this video if you haven't already. And this video right here is about Cristiano Ronaldo's massive business empire. This will be Cristiano Ronaldo's sixth World Cup. If you want to see how much money he has made in his career, check that out.

[00:29:53]Thank you for watching and thank you for Colt Kits for supplying these beautiful jerseys. Come on land.