For a company built on speed, accuracy and real-time sports data, a FIFA World Cup is not just a sporting event – it is the single biggest marketing opportunity in the calendar. Flashscore, the global sports scores and statistics platform, is preparing for World Cup 2026 with what may be its most ambitious campaign to date.
The goal: to reach tens of millions of new users across the globe, and to make sure they stay long after the final whistle.
The evidence that major football events drive explosive user growth at Flashscore is well established. When the World Cup was held in Qatar four years ago, the platform gained 16 million new users over the course of the tournament. Two years later, when the European Championship and Copa América ran simultaneously in the same summer, the combined impact brought in 20 million new users. Even last year’s Club World Cup, a comparatively smaller event, added 5 million people to the Flashscore universe.
But 2026 is shaping up to be different in scale. An expanded tournament with more teams, more matches and more storylines running in parallel across multiple time zones creates more moments for fans to seek out live scores, statistics and analysis. Flashscore is targeting up to 27 million new users during the tournament. A figure that reflects both the size of the opportunity and the ambition behind the platform’s preparation.
“Every major tournament teaches us something new about how fans consume sport and what they expect from a platform like ours,” says Martin Matějka, Marketing Director of Flashscore. “But World Cup 2026 is genuinely a different order of magnitude. More teams, more matches, more markets – and for the first time, a host country with the scale of the United States. The potential there is enormous, and we are going after it.”
It takes the whole company. But marketing carries a lot of the weight
Preparing for an event of this scale is not the work of a single department. Engineering, which recently passed a tough test during the final day of the Champions League group stage, does not anticipate extreme traffic levels given the match schedule — but remains fully focused on keeping the platform fast and stable at all times.
The Product department has prepared a revolutionary overhaul of Player Ratings ahead of the World Cup. Thanks to the partnership with Stats Perform and an extraordinary volume of data, up to 70 different statistics now contribute to a player’s overall rating, and the player card has been updated as well. Users will now see a colour-coded overview of the most important events forming the core of the final rating displayed prominently at the top.
Several Flashscore News reporters will be on the ground in the USA, Canada and Mexico, meaning the content team will be delivering updates directly from individual matches and host cities alike. The team also introduced Aila — our own avatar, who will help us present various types of content in the future.
But a significant share of the responsibility rests with marketing. The central challenge is not simply attracting new users during the tournament – it is attracting the right users: people who discover Flashscore through the excitement of the World Cup and then remain engaged long after the competition is over.
“Anyone can get a spike in downloads during a World Cup,” says Matějka. “The real question is what happens in August, when the tournament is over and major leagues are back. That’s what we’re designing our campaigns around.”
The marketing plan Flashscore has built for 2026 is comprehensive, multi-channel and global in scope. It spans influencer partnerships, original video content, SEO/GEO, digital PR, paid app campaigns and in-store app placements. All running in coordination across dozens of markets.
Flashscore Marketing Director Martin MatejkaInfluencers and creators: full-funnel, global, football-first
One of the most significant pillars of Flashscore’s World Cup campaign is its influencer and creator strategy. It is built on what the team describes as a Full Digital Ecosystem Presence.
Rather than using creators purely for app download campaigns or purely for brand awareness, Flashscore is pursuing both simultaneously in key markets. The priority geographies read like a map of global football fandom: the UK, Spain, France, USA, Brazil and Mexico are among the core targets, with content produced primarily in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are the natural hunting grounds. These are the platforms where younger sports fans consume football content daily — and where Flashscore sees its biggest opportunity for growth.
“Creators are not a bolt-on for us. They are an essential part of how we create and distribute content during the World Cup,” says Matějka. “We want fresh, relevant, unique content that works on our own platforms and on theirs at the same time.”
Beyond general sports audiences, Flashscore is also running targeted influencer projects aimed specifically at users who engage with sports betting. A segment with its own content needs and its own influential voices online.
Social media: more video, more exclusivity, more relevance
Feeding directly into the influencer and creator strategy is Flashscore’s broader social media content plan for the World Cup. A significant portion of what appears on the platform’s own social channels during the tournament will originate from the creator partnerships. But that is only part of the picture.
Flashscore is planning a substantial increase in video output during the World Cup, with a deliberate focus on exclusive content produced directly from the United States, where the tournament will be hosted. The aim is to be genuinely present at the event rather than simply reacting to it from a distance.
On top of organic content, Flashscore will be running paid social media advertising – primarily on Instagram – for content that warrants it. The bar for paid promotion is set deliberately high: campaigns will be activated when there is something truly unique to push, ensuring that spending is concentrated where it can have the most impact.
Additional editorial coverage for top markets will be layered on top of the regular content calendar, ensuring that the platform’s most valuable audiences see a meaningfully deeper level of engagement during the tournament.
“The World Cup is not a moment to play it safe on social,” says Matějka. “We are significantly scaling up our video production, and we want to be as close to the action as possible.”
Content marketing: predictions, SEO and digital PR at scale
Behind the social-facing activity lies an extensive content marketing operation designed to drive both organic traffic and long-term search visibility.
Odds and predictions form one of the largest content components. Before the tournament begins, Flashscore publishes editorial content covering topics such as betting guides and how-to articles for those looking to add an extra layer of engagement to their World Cup experience. Once the competition is underway, the focus shifts to match previews, predictions and tournament analysis – up to 1,500 pieces of content across 13 different markets. Supporting this content layer are push notifications: short, timely alerts sent directly to users’ mobile screens, keeping Flashscore’s audience connected to the moments that matter, in real time.
SEO content operates on a different timeline and with different objectives depending on when it is published. Pre-tournament SEO targets the search demand that builds in the weeks before a major event: team previews, player profiles, historical data. Once matches begin, the content strategy shifts to capture the high-intent search traffic generated by live fixtures and results.
Digital PR adds a third dimension to the content mix. Flashscore is planning a series of interviews with high-profile figures from the football world like former players, coaches and analysts, with a particular focus on top-tier markets including the UK, France, Spain, Brazil, Portugal and Germany. This content serves a dual purpose: it is distributed through Flashscore’s own editorial channels, but it is also made available to external media, encouraging coverage that generates inbound links and builds domain authority in search.
“Content at this scale is genuinely complex to execute well,” says Matějka. “But it is also where long-term value is built. A well-ranked article about a team’s World Cup record can bring in traffic for years, not just weeks.”
YouTube is also receiving significant investment. Flashscore’s video content plans include interviews with elite players, both current and former, as well as coaches and football analysts. Alongside these, the platform is developing data-led formats that translate the statistics at the core of Flashscore’s product into engaging editorial content. During the tournament itself, daily wrap-up videos and betting tip series will keep the channel active throughout.
Paid campaigns: app stores, Google, Meta and OEM
Organic content and influencer activity will be amplified by a broad paid media strategy running across approximately 50 countries.
Google and Apple Search Ads will target users at the moment they are actively searching for World Cup-related content or sports apps. Ad copy focuses on Flashscore’s core value proposition: giving users an informational edge, and highlighting new features available during the World Cup.
For Apple Search Ads, the focus is on strategic keyword optimisation targeting terms with a direct link to the tournament.
Meta Ads will run a mix of campaign types worldwide, combining app installation campaigns with content that supports the platform’s betting-related editorial.
“The paid side of our campaign is not just about volume. It is about precision,” says Matějka. “We have done the creative testing, we know what works, and now it is about deploying that at scale in the right markets at the right moments.”
OEM partnerships: getting Flashscore on new phones from day one
One of the more distinctive elements of Flashscore’s World Cup strategy is its OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) campaign. A channel that places the app in front of users at the very moment they are setting up a new device.
When a user powers on a new smartphone during the World Cup period and begins the setup process, Flashscore is positioned to appear as a recommended application. The reach this delivers is genuinely significant: these users are in a state of active discovery, open to installing apps that are surfaced as relevant to their interests.
For a platform whose core audience is sports fans who want fast, reliable information on their phones, this is a remarkably direct line to exactly the right people.
App Store presence: built for the World Cup
Flashscore is also overhauling its app store presentation specifically for the tournament period. The updated layout makes creative use of full-device screenshots in the preview screens — a format that allows greater flexibility in what is highlighted and how.
Rather than static, generic app store listings, Flashscore will use this space dynamically, ensuring the features and content most relevant to World Cup users appear prominently. The logic is straightforward: a fan searching for a football app during the tournament needs to understand immediately what Flashscore offers that competitors do not. The app store page is, in many cases, the last moment before a decision is made.
“Our app store presence during major tournaments is a key part of the acquisition funnel that sometimes gets overlooked,” says Matějka. “We are treating it as a proper campaign channel – with dedicated creative, clear messaging and regular updates throughout the tournament.”
The bigger picture: building a base, not just a spike
Taken together, Flashscore’s World Cup 2026 campaign is a serious, multi-layered piece of marketing infrastructure, one that has been built with a clear understanding that the real prize is not the surge in downloads during the group stage, but the size of the engaged user base that remains when the trophy has been lifted.
“The World Cup is the biggest stage there is in football. And for us, it is the biggest single opportunity of the year,” says Matějka. “We have been building towards this for a long time. Now it is time to deliver.”
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