USA Soccer (USMNT) Creates Huge Liability for Sportsbooks in North America

While the possibility of a deep World Cup run from the United States would help generate more betting action, there is one sportsbook praying for an early exit for the host country.

Global operator BetOnline.ag moved the USMNT's odds from 80/1 to 100/1 on May 26, the day head coach Mauricio Pochettino announced his final roster.

On average around the betting world since then, USA's odds have been 60/1. Some platforms are as low as 45/1 while the best odds (other than BetOnline) are around 75/1.

"We have a healthy eight-figure liability on the U.S., so not exactly eager to see them get through the Knockout Stage or anything near the Final," BetOnline Sportsbook Manager Adam Burns said. "The US support to win was much greater than we anticipated, but we're not sweating this in the least bit...yet."

Burns said USMNT’s true odds should be around 200/1, but they are half that because they know bettors will enthusiastically back the home side no matter what price. 

“It’s like when Tiger Woods would play in majors later in his career,” Burns added. “They would bet him blindly whether or not his odds were 25/1 or 250/1, so you can always shave some value off with the homer picks.” 

North American facing sportsbooks will typically be dealing with a significant liability, with less exposure felt throughout other worldwide markets.

Interestingly enough, Haiti with its 5000/1 odds, comes in as the second biggest liability at BetOnline.  While we here at Gambling911.com are not privy to actual numbers in terms of bet volume per side coming into sites like BetOnline, Haiti has obviously gotten some love from the sports betting public.  It only takes a few hundred dollar bets to do some damage with odds like these. 

BetOnline has more than 1,000 World Cup betting markets available.  They've been taking bets since 1999.  In fact, we were in their office visiting the very first week the company launched. 

Here are the Top 5 liabilities for BetOnline, as it pertains to hoisting the 2026 FIFA World Cup trophy:

1. USA (100/1)

2. Haiti (5000/1)

3. Colombia (50/1)

4. Mexico (45/1)

5. Portugal (8/1)

And here are the Top 5 most bet on teams:

1. Spain (5/1)

2. France (5/1)

3. USA (100/1)

4. Portugal (8/1)

5. Brazil (10/1)

• Don Shapiro, Gambling911.com