World Cup offers drinks trade a much-needed boost
As the 2026 FIFA World Cup gets underway, drinks companies across the UK and North America are hoping football can help lift sales. Brewers and spirits groups are investing heavily in the tournament despite continued pressure on alcohol consumption in key markets.
With the football World Cup kicking off tomorrow, drinks companies are hoping for England and Scotland to progress far into the tournament.
Pubs in England and Wales can stay open until 1am or 2am for home nation matches, depending on kick-off times, with extended hours applying from the round of 32 to the final.
At a time of acute difficulty, licensees are hoping for the sort of bumper returns that swelled their takings when England made the final of Euro 2022.
North America in focus
But it is in the host nations of Mexico, Canada and the USA that drinks companies are pinning their greatest hopes.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken, Molson Coors and Diageo are all pouring big money into the footy festival of 104 games being played over the next six weeks.
But the games are largely taking place in the USA where consumers have been turning away from alcohol in their droves.
“The alcohol business in the United States is struggling more than in virtually any other part of the world,” said Bourcard Nesin, a beverage analyst for Rabobank in an interview with CNN. “We’re seeing dramatic declines in consumption that aren’t taking place elsewhere.”
“The World Cup will increase consumption of beer, wine and spirits without question,” he said. “It’s a big boost for them at a time when they need it in a market where they need it most.”
Diageo has bought the spirits exclusivity at all the venues and official fan zones and is looking for a fillip in the US especially. Revenue for North America, its biggest market, dropped 9% in its most recent quarter when its US spirit sales fell 15%.
“North America remains our biggest challenge,” CEO Dave Lewis said last month.
Tequila and whiskey are “huge with soccer consumers,” according to Rick Pineda, Diageo’s vice president of global sports partnerships. The company will focus its marketing in the US on Buchanan’s Scotch, the super premium Don Julio 1942 and Casamigos tequilas.
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“This is a huge opportunity for us to lead in the spirits category and to bring all of our customers, distributors, retail partners that have never had the ability to leverage a spirits partnership with the World Cup,” he told CNN.
Lewis, however, is less gung-ho. He recently told analysts that a North America-based World Cup is “going to be a bit more of a voyage of discovery” in seeing how consumers respond.
Beer brands step up spending
Beer faces much the same conundrum with volumes further declining in 2025 by 6%, according to IWSR.
But people more commonly associate sports with beer, Nesin said, so the World Cup will be a bigger boost to their business than liquor. “This is a Super Bowl that lasts a month,” he said.
Anheuser-Busch, the World Cup’s official beer sponsor, has held that deal for more than 40 years. But this year Michelob Ultra will be behind the player of each match.
Heineken is increasing its marketing spend by nearly 200% at bars in hopes of reviving sales, while Molson Coors is increasing its spending by 60% this summer on ads focused on soccer.
Analysts caution, however, that even all the attention in the next six weeks is unlikely to fully reverse a broader slowdown affecting the alcohol industry.
“The World Cup could lead to transitory bump in demand, but will do little to change long term trends,” said BNP Paribas Equity Research senior analyst Kevin Grundy in a recent note.
Fans face stadium sticker shock
And that depends on the fans buying the booze. Some may well baulk at the prices.
The Sun reports one fan sharing a picture on Reddit of a US stadium price list, which included a premium large beer priced at $18 with an ultra premium double cocktail going for $26.50, and even a bottle of water costing $7.50.
The Estadio Azteca in Mexico City will charge just £2.04 for a pint but when England kick off their campaign against Croatia on 17 June at the AT&T Stadium in Dallas a pint there costs £7.30, much the same as at some UK grounds.
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