With less than four weeks to go before the men’s World Cup, secondary ticket sellers in the United States are already treating the tournament as a major trade. Three brokers who spoke on Zoom and asked to be called brokers rather than touts or scalpers described a market where they buy early, resell fast and rely on secondary platforms to keep the money moving.
One broker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he had already logged his best year of sales in the 2026 World Cup market. He shared a spreadsheet showing the number of tickets sold to individuals for World Cup games through the 10 platforms he operates on, including the U.S. group-stage opener against Paraguay on July 12 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. He said he bought those tickets at an average of $1,300 and sold them at $2,200, a $900 markup per ticket that produced $45,000 in profit on that one game.
The same broker said the scale of the business is far beyond a side hustle. “There are thousands of brokers in the U.S.,” he said, estimating that about 500 do over £1 million a year. He said the tournament had already become his biggest market because it offers 104 matches across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. For comparison, he said, “For a typical Super Bowl, I’ll usually sell about $1million worth of tickets in a year,” and “I usually do about $3m a year.”
Another broker pointed to the way the trade is presented to customers. “It’s legal. A service. I help people get tickets. I’ve never held a gun to anyone’s head,” he said. The same broker added, “I look at us no different than a travel agent, when you go on holiday.” A third said simply, “Nobody ever feels bad for me when I lose money.”
That defense sits at the center of a market that is both open and tightly controlled. Brokers use secondary platforms and must fulfil orders to members of the public or face penalties, sometimes up to 100 per cent of the ticket price. They are also charged a premium by the sites, which take a cut from the buyer. One broker said that structure keeps the market functioning. “That’s the reason why most orders get fulfilled,” he said. “Once you have a pattern or history of not fulfilling orders, you would be out of business.”
For fans who missed out through official channels, that system is the practical reality of getting into games. The brokers’ numbers show why the market has surged so quickly: one said he bought four tickets at $225 and sold them for $3,000 for the Mexico game on June 11, the first match of the tournament. He said he made around $11,000 on those four tickets. The episode captures the basic arithmetic behind world cup tickets this cycle: limited supply, huge demand and a resale market that can turn one match into a windfall.
What happens next is already clear enough. As July 12 approaches and more buyers search for seats, the resale market is likely to stay busy, expensive and heavily policed by the platforms that profit from it. For brokers, the race is to keep filling orders. For fans, the price of getting in may keep climbing.
