Warning to South Africans who want to bet on FIFA World Cup games
There is an Internet-wide scam campaign set to take off amid the 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, targeting people who want to place bets on the games online.
Cybercriminals are looking to exploit South African football fans by launching spoofs of international and local betting websites to steal their money and data.
According to research from international cybersecurity firm Check Point Software, a sample of hundreds of Internet domains revealed that the campaign was set to take off just before the first game.
In the 2024/25 financial year, South Africans wagered R1.1 trillion in bets, accounting for the vast majority of total gambling activity.
According to Stats SA, online gambling services, which included digital sports betting, generated R152.6 billion in 2023 from services rendered, up sharply from R10.1 billion in 2018.
As the appetite for digital sports betting grows in South Africa, partly thanks to the accessibility of highly advertised digital betting platforms, scammers are looking to exploit gamblers.
Criminals have set up fake websites that look like official sportsbooks, online betting sites, and apps, staging them in advance of kick-off and an influx of football fans looking to put money down.
“Domains are sitting with placeholder content, Cloudflare error pages, or generic gambling themes, and are consistent with operators staging infrastructure,” Check Point said.
“Mobile-app impersonation has surged to approximately 60 times the non-tournament baseline compared to the same window in 2025.”
Check Point’s research suggested that as soon as the FIFA World Cup begins, with the first match of South Africa versus Mexico on 11 June, these sites will launch.
“Cyber criminals will look to exploit local fans by spoofing both international sportsbooks and domestic favourites,” said Ian Jansen van Rensburg, security engineering head at Check Point Africa.
Sean Coleman, CEO of the South African Bookmakers’ Association (SABA), told MyBroadband that Check Point’s findings were concerning but not surprising.
“Major sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup invariably attract cybercriminals who seek to exploit heightened public interest and increased online betting activity,” he said.
“For South African consumers, the most important protection is to ensure they are betting only with operators that are licensed by a South African provincial gambling regulator.”
Difficulties in policing online betting scams in South Africa
Coleman said that consumers should be particularly cautious of websites that offer unrealistic promotions, unusually large sign-up bonuses, claims of guaranteed wins or urgent calls to action.
“Fraudulent operators frequently use these tactics to attract unsuspecting customers,” he said, explaining why it was so difficult for entities in South Africa to police this fraudulent activity.
A major challenge is that many fraudulent and illegal gambling websites are operated entirely outside South Africa’s jurisdiction.
“A website can be registered anonymously in one country, hosted in another, process payments through a third jurisdiction, and target South African consumers online,” he said.
This makes enforcement significantly more complex than dealing with a locally-based operator, he said. Some of these fraudulent sites may also claim to be licensed when they aren’t.
Some illegal websites claim to hold licences from what Coleman called “pseudo-licensing jurisdictions” — countries like Curaçao, Malta, or the Philippines.
Legal South African betting websites and digital platforms that adhere to local regulations and are safe to use are licensed according to a provincial gambling board jurisdiction.
“If you are on a website that does not show a South African licence jurisdiction or province, then you are most likely on an illegal site,” said Coleman.
Coleman explained why the 2026 FIFA World Cup was the perfect environment for the rapid proliferation of fake betting sites, ensuring maximum impact with minimal investment.
“Criminal actors can register hundreds of lookalike domains within weeks and launch aggressive digital marketing campaigns,” he said.
“They can then shut down or migrate to new domains before enforcement measures can be implemented.”
The sheer scale of the Internet and the widespread nature of such campaigns mean that disrupting the activity is the responsibility of multiple entities and requires substantial resources.
“Regulators, law enforcement agencies, Internet service providers, financial institutions and cybersecurity companies all have roles to play,” said Coleman.
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