Kambi reports zero downtime as AI traded World Cup, over 100 million bets

Kambi said its AI-run trading platform recorded zero downtime across more than 100 million bets at the 2026 World Cup, which ended in July with Spain lifting the trophy. The supplier describes the tournament as its first World Cup traded entirely by AI, and reports an 18% operator trading margin.

Most of the figures come from Kambi itself. One independent benchmark is attached.

What happened

According to an iGaming Business interview with Oliver Lamb, Kambi's SVP of trading, AI covered every stage of the pricing lifecycle across 104 matches. That included data intake, market creation, liability management and bet settlement. Kambi reported:

• no downtime during the tournament.
• an operator trading margin of 18%.
• more than one million unique bet combinations processed during the final alone.

Lamb described the change inside the company this way: "In simple terms, what we have undertaken is a shift from machine-assisted human trading to human-assisted machine trading," he said. He said traders can now concentrate on work such as developing and testing new products rather than pricing established markets.

Kambi began investing in AI trading in 2021, deployed it at scale during Qatar 2022 and had it fully embedded in trading operations by 2024. Across the Kambi network, AI now trades over 70% of bets, with every football and tennis bet included. The company is rolling it out to basketball, ice hockey and American football.

Kambi also reported a shift in what bettors wagered on. Bet Builder bets doubled compared with the 2022 World Cup, and live Bet Builders rose sevenfold. They made up 22% of all live bets, against 3% four years earlier. Player propositions featured in 65% of Bet Builders, against 25% in 2022. Bets outside the match-winner market made up 63% of pre-match turnover, versus 57% in 2022.

On latency, Kambi said its dynamic live delay technology can set a bespoke delay for each individual bet. It said live betting delay across the Premier League and World Cup fell by more than 40% from August 2025 to July 2026.

Kambi also cited independent analysis by Bettormetrics. It found Kambi partners led or shared the lead on measures including time to market, live uptime and bet delay. The analysis also found Kambi outperformed B2C and B2B rivals on live uptime in World Cup markets including total goals over/unders.

Why it matters

The margin is a single-tournament result reported by the supplier, so it is not a benchmark for other sports or events.

Kambi's data points to growing demand for player-based and in-play Bet Builders. It also reinforces what the company calls the importance of depth beyond traditional markets. Lamb's position is that meeting these expectations through manual trading is "no longer realistic at scale".

Kambi's network includes more than 70 partners, and the company says its annual liquidity exceeds €17 billion. It argues that this depth of data improves pricing, risk management and product development.

What's next

Kambi said it is working on more pre-match shots-on-target options and additional automated in-play intervals. It is extending AI trading across more sports. Its longer-term stated aim is an on-demand sportsbook that offers the right bet to the right customer at the right time. No dates were given for these plans.