Sales of single-match football betting games through China’s state-run Sports Lottery reached approximately RMB83.3 billion ($11.6 billion) across the six weeks of the FIFA World Cup, according to official lottery data, underlining sustained domestic appetite for the tournament despite the national team’s absence.
The figure covers weekly sales from the opening match on June 8th through the eve of the final on July 19th. Weekly totals across that period were RMB6.87 billion ($956 million), RMB15.15 billion ($2.11 billion), RMB16.27 billion ($2.26 billion), RMB17.20 billion ($2.39 billion), RMB16.84 billion ($2.34 billion) and RMB10.98 billion ($1.53 billion).
The data relates specifically to single-match betting products rather than total Sports Lottery turnover, and the six-week window closes before the final between Argentina and Spain. Total wagering across the full tournament and across all lottery products would be higher. Sales in the opening week represented a 97 percent increase on the preceding week, according to earlier reporting by the South China Morning Post.
Weekly volumes then more than doubled and held above RMB15 billion ($2.09 billion) for four consecutive weeks before tapering in the final week as the tournament moved to its closing stages.
The China Sports Lottery and the China Welfare Lottery remain the only legal gambling products available in mainland China. Betting on football is offered through the sports lottery’s single-match products, which allow wagers on match results, handicaps, correct scores and goal totals.
The market is operated exclusively by the state, which sets the fixture list and payout structures, and the lottery carries an overall return-to-player rate of approximately 73 percent.
Legal turnover represents only a portion of Chinese wagering activity. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, citing industry estimates, has valued China’s illegal gambling market at more than $145 billion annually, drawing on offshore sportsbooks, underground bookmakers and online betting agents that target mainland customers.
Actual World Cup wagering by Chinese residents is therefore likely to have exceeded the official figures by a substantial margin.
Broadcast figures pointed to comparable engagement. State broadcaster CCTV said its tournament coverage, including match broadcasts, special programming and news output, generated more than 70 billion cumulative cross-media views by the eve of the final.
The final itself drew a cumulative audience of 282 million across the broadcaster’s platforms, with peak real-time viewership of 41.23 million. The figures represent cumulative views across television and digital channels rather than unique viewers.
China did not qualify for the 2026 tournament, finishing fifth in its six-team qualifying group and losing 7-0 to Japan along the way. The country has reached the World Cup finals once, in 2002.
President Xi Jinping set out an ambition in 2015 for China to become a footballing power capable of hosting and winning the tournament, though national team performance has declined despite sustained investment.
