Council of Europe Presses FIFA Over Prediction Market Deal

The Council of Europe has publicly challenged FIFA over its embrace of prediction markets. In an open letter published on July 19, 2026, the day of the World Cup final, Secretary General Alain Berset warned that FIFA's partnership with prediction market platform Predictstreet risks the tournament's integrity framework. He also urged the governing body to build new safeguards before the 2030 World Cup.

The letter's core complaint is scope, stating that betting has moved from the result of a match to moments a single player can produce, a shift it considers to be an open door to fraud. The Council also questions how:

• live and player-linked trades will be supervised
• information on suspicious activity will be shared
• alerts will actually work in practice.

Is a Macolin-Style Framework for Prediction Markets Coming?

The Council of Europe already runs the Macolin Convention, the 2014 treaty against match-fixing that underpins cross-border data sharing between regulators, sportsbooks and integrity units.

The body is now weighing post-World Cup moves that could extend that model to prediction markets, which sat outside the treaty's scope when it was drafted.

With prediction platforms taking an estimated 27% of US sports-event volume during this World Cup, the pressure for formal oversight will only grow. The Council has asked FIFA to open a working dialogue on a stronger integrity framework.

What Impact Will Regulation Have?

With more and more regulators increasing their scrutiny, it feels inevitable that integrity rules for prediction markets are coming. Cleaner markets in the long run benefit traders, since manipulated single-player contracts hurt the people on the other side of the trade.