Scottish pubs set for 40% sales boost, as Scotland campaign kicks off

June 13, 2026

Scotland’s first World Cup appearance in 28 years is expected to see fans pack pubs to watch the games.

Scottish pubs and bars are in line for a significant sales boost as Scotland kicks off its World Cup campaign against Haiti in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Sales boost

According to analysis of transaction insight by Reward, Scotland games during Euro 2024 delivered 38% year-on-year sales growth.

Despite the later than usual kick-off times, UKHospitality Scotland said it expects similar levels of demand from Scotland fans watching the games in their local.

The majority of local authorities across Scotland have provided extensions to licensing hours to accommodate the games, and fans wanting to watch in the pub.

Leon Thompson, Executive Director of UKHospitality Scotland, said: “Scotland’s return to the World Cup after 28 years is a huge moment for the country.

“While the Tartan Army is well represented in Boston and Miami, there will be millions of Scots heading to their local to cheer the team on and celebrate Scotland’s rightful return to the biggest footballing stage.

“We saw fantastic support for our locals during the Euros, delivering a 40% sales boost, and I expect we will see similar scenes in pubs across Scotland, even in the early hours of the morning.

“It will be a much-needed boost for our pubs and bars, which continue to grapple with cost challenges, so I urge as many Scots as possible to brave the late kick off and head to the pub for the games.”

The analysis is based on anonymised transactional and merchant information from Reward’s hospitality intelligence datasets, tracking the spending behaviour of 10.2 million people across more than 160,000 individual hospitality venues across the UK.

The analysis covers the period of the UEFA European Football Championship Tournament between 14 June 2024 – 14 July 2024. All data is fully anonymised and aggregated in line with GDPR and privacy requirements.