Holidays and major events are great for boosting conversion rates. This holds true across almost every vertical:

• Dating and Valentine’s Day
• eCommerce and Black Friday
• Travel and Christmas

And of course, the same works for iGaming, particularly when aligning your promotional efforts with major sports events. Highlighting a tournament is a great way to attract bettors from all over the globe. And adult traffic can provide enough users willing to place a bet or two.

Since iGaming is our main focus for today, we’re here to explain why you should keep an eye on major sports events when working with this vertical. We’ll also cover some of the most popular sports worldwide, along with their key tournaments.

The most popular sports and events worldwide

There are 50+ sports worldwide, from historically strong soccer to modern eSports. Some of these sports are popular locally, such as baseball, while others are played worldwide, such as basketball. While the aforementioned soccer dominates in terms of fan base, the list of globally popular sports includes (in order of popularity): cricket, basketball, hockey, tennis, and volleyball.

That’s right, cricket has a worldwide fan base of 2.5 billion people, second only to soccer. During spring and summer, there are tons of tournaments that attract people from all over the globe, such as the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the Indian Premier League (IPL), and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.

Cricket is all the rage in spring and summer, but there are other sports and tournaments, attracting bettors worldwide. Here are the top 10 most-watched sports events of 2025:

• World Cup – 5 Billion Viewers
• Tour de France – 3.5 Billion Viewers
• Cricket World Cup – 2.6 Billion Viewers
• Women’s World Cup – 2 Billion Viewers
• Summer Games – 2 Billion Viewers
• Winter Games – 2 Billion Viewers
• UEFA Champions League Final – 145 Million Viewers
• Super Bowl – 127.7 Million Viewers
• Wimbledon – 69.3 Million Viewers
• World Series – 51 Million Viewers

Even local tournaments, e.g., the IPL, captivate fans from all over the globe. Yes, it’s an Indian league, but there are players from England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, and so on. Bettors from these countries tune in to place a wager and leverage their experience to win some cash. And the same principle applies to virtually any other sport.

Leveraging sports calendars: cricket edition

When it comes to betting, people gradually get hyped until the ultimate showdown. Think of the Super Bowl in the USA, which is akin to a national holiday. It’s estimated that Americans wagered $1.76 billion on Super Bowl LX in 2026, and it had approximately 127 million viewers. For comparison, the final match of the Cricket World Cup drew 500 million viewers back in 2023.

Major tournaments in general are ideal for sports betting, and you have lots of them. Obviously, you should focus on the Tournament Winner or Live Match Betting when promoting iGaming products. Now, when it comes to cricket in particular, there is usually a small gap between tournaments when users can churn, e.g., after the World Cup. Offer either early bird deposit bonuses or IPL season pass promotions to compensate for it.

Speaking of IPL, which follows the World Cup, its matches are held almost every day, so you can offer free bets or accumulator insurance to keep the users coming back at night.

Generally, cricket leans heavily toward the “in-play” sport category, meaning most of the wagering happens live during the match (on individual overs or wickets). This necessitates the use of fast-loading, live-odds banners.

Cricket is the most popular sport in India, the world’s most populous country. Therefore, cricket is somewhat localized, but it has some moderate popularity in Tier 1 GEOs as well: the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. In this regard, India delivers volume, while T1 gives higher ARPU.

One more thing to note here, the most popular sports in the world are not always the best pick for a particular GEO. For example, the 2nd most popular sport in India is kabaddi, which could be a missed opportunity if you don’t research your GEO thoroughly.

Promoting iGaming with TwinRed

Now you might be wondering why promoting iGaming products with an adult network like TwinRed. Well, the main reason is that the audience profile is virtually the same: 80–90% of men, looking for a quick dopamine rush.

Adult websites are a great fit for iGaming products for a number of reasons:

• Stable user flow
• Higher flexibility in creatives and approaches
• Relatively stable costs and bids
• High-intent users

Couple engaged users and other advantages with our updated platform, retargeting pixel, diverse ad formats, and full-scale support to get a one-stop shop for cross-vertical promotion.

At TwinRed, we regularly attend major adult and iGaming conferences, seeking emerging opportunities and intervertical gaps to fill with our traffic.

Consult us on Telegram to start working with TwinRed and capitalize on adult, iGaming, or almost any other vertical. Depending on your product and niche, we’ll pick an optimal set of sources, develop a unique strategy, and help you find highrollers.