Senne Lammens makes World Cup debut for Belgium as sports betting markets heat up

Belgium’s Senne Lammens has officially made his senior FIFA World Cup debut at the 2026 tournament, stepping onto the biggest stage in football as the Red Devils’ number one goalkeeper. For the 24-year-old, it caps a remarkable rise from a deadline-day transfer to Manchester United to starting between the posts at a World Cup in under a year.

From bargain signing to World Cup starter

Lammens joined Manchester United in September 2025 for a reported $25M transfer fee. At the time, it was considered a relatively modest outlay for a Premier League goalkeeper.

During the 2025/26 Premier League season, Lammens racked up 32 appearances, recording 8 clean sheets and 79 saves. Those numbers caught the eye of Belgium coach Rudi Garcia, who named him the primary goalkeeper in Belgium’s 26-man World Cup squad.

Born on July 7, 2002, Lammens only made his senior international debut in November 2025. Going from first cap to World Cup starter in roughly seven months is the kind of trajectory that makes scouts look like geniuses and makes the word “bargain” appear in every headline.

Why crypto markets care about the World Cup

Blockchain-based prediction markets like Polymarket and Azuro have seen substantial volume spikes during major sporting tournaments in recent cycles. The 2024 European Championship and the 2024 US presidential election demonstrated that crypto-native prediction platforms can attract serious capital when high-profile events capture public attention.

The 2026 World Cup, being the first hosted across the US, Mexico, and Canada, is expected to be the most commercially significant edition of the tournament ever staged.

Fan tokens also enter the picture. Several national football associations and major clubs have launched tokenized fan engagement programs over the past few years. While the fan token market cooled considerably from its 2021-2022 peaks, World Cup cycles have historically reignited interest. Platforms like Chiliz and Socios have built their entire business model around the idea that supporter engagement can be tokenized and traded.

The bigger picture for sports and blockchain

The 2022 FTX collapse, which had tentacles in sports sponsorships from Formula 1 to Major League Baseball, left a reputational crater. Crypto.com’s long-term naming rights deal for the former Staples Center in Los Angeles became a punchline during the bear market.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s evolving stance on event contracts in the US has given platforms more room to operate legally. Polymarket’s volume during the 2024 election cycle proved there’s genuine product-market fit for decentralized forecasting tools.

For investors watching the crypto sports ecosystem, the key metric to track during this World Cup isn’t just which team wins. It’s how much volume flows through decentralized platforms versus traditional sportsbooks.

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