At the 2026 North and Central America World Cup hosted by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), AdTech corporations are moving as busily as the players. Companies that started as startups have grown into advertising technology suppliers for global sports events, drawing assessments that the sports industry is establishing itself as a new market for venture technology.
According to the venture and startup sector on the 1st, this World Cup expanded to 48 participating countries and 104 matches, increasing opportunities to apply advertising technology. WARC Media, a global advertising and media research firm, projected that the tournament will generate an additional $10.5 billion, or about 15 trillion won, in ad spending for the global ad market. Along with the increase in ad spending, competition in ad delivery and measurement technology has intensified.
The key change first is that ad exposure opportunities have expanded. In addition to the number of matches increasing from the previous 64 to 104, FIFA operates one hydration break in each half, increasing the in-game ad exposure windows.
FIFA says it is a player protection measure, but the industry sees broader room to use ads. In fact, there was an estimate that Fox, the U.S. broadcaster, could generate about $250 million in ad revenue through hydration break ads.
Ad delivery methods are changing as well. Moving away from sending the same ad to all viewers, technology that serves different ads in real time depending on country, platform, and viewer is spreading.
The technology that makes this possible is "server-guided ad insertion (SGAI)." Previously, all viewers received a video with the same ads embedded, but with this method, when a viewer plays a video, the smartphone or TV attaches and shows an ad tailored to the situation. Even when viewership suddenly surges—such as during a goal scene or video assistant referee (VAR)—it provides seamless, personalized ads.
Yospace, a U.K. AdTech corporation, is a representative case. Yospace said this North and Central America World Cup is the sixth World Cup for which it has supported ad monetization. Based on this technology, at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics held early this year, it delivered 5.4 billion one-to-one personalized ads over 17 days through streaming services, proving its technical prowess at a large-scale live sports event.
Ad formats are also diversifying. Sportradar, which started in Norway in 2001 as a sports betting data startup and is listed on Nasdaq, offers an ad solution for brands and betting operators seeking to use the World Cup for marketing that combines real-time match data with technology that automatically changes ad copy and video according to the flow of the game.
It is a structure that provides B2B services to advertisers seeking to improve ad execution efficiency during the World Cup. Sportradar also said, "At Euro 2024, advertisers who applied this method saw an increase in new sign-ups."
The industry says the World Cup is becoming more than an event that draws ad spending; it is becoming a global showcase for AdTech corporations. However, as viewing environments diversify across TV, mobile, and online streaming, measuring ad exposure and effectiveness by a unified standard remains a challenge.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), a U.S.-centered digital advertising organization, noted, "The streaming ad market is growing rapidly in the ad performance measurement guide, but as platforms diversify and it is difficult to consistently secure viewing data, there are limits to accurately measuring ad effectiveness."