Peru retains 7% of World Cup 2026 betting traffic gain, report says

Peru retained only 7% of the additional online betting traffic generated during the 2026 World Cup, according to an Apuesta Legal Perú report published on 13 October and. Monthly visits to betting sites averaged 87.4 million in August and September, close to the 83.6 million monthly recorded between January and May, before the tournament.

During June and July the average had reached 136.9 million monthly visits. The World Cup was played between 11 June and 19 July 2026. The report was drawn from Similarweb data and revenue figures from the Banco Central de Reserva del Perú (BCRP).

Q3 2026 was the quarter with the highest traffic in the series analysed, with 309.4 million visits, 1.8% more than in Q2 2026 and 37.2% above the same period of 2025. July accounted for 44% of the quarter's visits. Year-on-year traffic growth was 11% in Q1 2026, 32.4% in Q2 and 37.2% in Q3.

The report says market expansion had begun before the World Cup: from October 2025, sites were already receiving between 81 million and 92 million monthly visits, above the range of 71 million to 81 million recorded in the first half of that year.

Net revenue grew less than traffic. During the World Cup, monthly net revenue, meaning what operators keep after paying prizes, rose from S/394m ($114.9m) to S/426m ($124.2m), an increase of 8%, while visits grew 65% over the same period. July was the sector's strongest month of the year, with about S/4,400m ($1,283m) wagered and S/456m ($133m) in net revenue. Estimated net revenue for Q2 2026 reached S/1,160m ($338.2m), 72% more than the S/676m ($197.1m) recorded in the same period of 2025.

Apuesta Legal Perú says its estimates are based on collection of the remote gambling and sports betting tax, levied at 12% on the relevant revenue. It says the rise in collection should be read with caution because collection of the tax began in February 2025 and part of the growth reflects formalisation of the market. In March 2026, collection also included S/111m ($32.4m) in extraordinary payments: S/90m ($26.2m) for the remote gambling and sports betting tax and S/21m ($6.1m) for the Impuesto Selectivo al Consumo (ISC). The report says these payments were linked to regularisation of debts from earlier periods and prevent a direct comparison with Q1.

Amounts wagered grew more slowly than traffic. Based on tax payments recorded in July and August, corresponding to bets placed in June and July, the amount wagered reached S/4,170m ($1,216m) monthly, 17% more than the March-to-May average of S/3,560m ($1,038m). In August the Peruvian state received S/44.2m ($12.9m) from the ISC and S/53.6m ($15.6m) from the remote gambling and betting tax on July bets, the largest payments of 2026 excluding the extraordinary March revenue. The ISC is levied at 1% on the value of each online bet.

The report also found growing concentration of visits among leading operators. In September, the three brands with the most traffic gathered 65% of visits to sector sites, the highest share since the series began in January 2025. In Q3, those three companies held 61.5% of traffic, against 58.7% in Q2 2026 and 58.5% in Q3 2025. The most visited platform's share rose from 27% in Q2 to 36% in Q3, while the combined share of the five most visited houses stayed stable at around 75%. The Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) rose from about 1,500 points before the World Cup to 2,059 in September. Among the 10 houses with the most visits in Q3, three ended August and September well above their pre-tournament levels, three were stable and four were below.