Tony Wang

Posted on Aug 7 • Edited on Aug 11 • Originally published at crawlora.net

Every World Cup Since 2014, Visa's SEC Filings Call It Out By Name — Marketing Spend Swings From -9% to +44%

#datascience #finance #worldcup

Key takeaways

Visa's SEC filings have named the FIFA World Cup as a driver of marketing-expense growth in every tournament cycle since at least 2014 — four World Cups running, always inside the "Marketing expenses" discussion of a 10-Q or 10-K.
The size of that swing is not a clean escalation. Marketing expense fell 9% year-over-year in the quarter tied to Brazil 2014 (a tough comp against the prior year's Sochi Olympics spend), then rose 8% for Russia 2018, 18% for Qatar 2022, and 44% for the 2026 tournament — its biggest jump of the four, and the only quarter that isn't final yet.
Every single cycle credits the World Cup jointly with that year's Winter Olympics, never alone. Visa sponsors both, and since 1994 the Winter Games and World Cup have always shared a calendar year — no filing isolates a World-Cup-only dollar figure.
Qatar 2022 is the only cycle where the reporting quarter fully contains the tournament dates (Nov 20 – Dec 18, 2022 sits entirely inside Visa's fiscal Q1 2023). The other three cycles' figures come from quarters that only partly overlap, or precede, kickoff.
The 44% figure for 2026 is a leading indicator, not a final result — it's from the quarter before the tournament (January–March 2026). The quarter that actually contains the June 11–July 19 tournament isn't due until early August 2026.

Visa's SEC filings have named the FIFA World Cup as a reason its marketing spend moved — every tournament cycle since at least 2014. We pulled the exact sentence from Visa's 10-Q or 10-K for Brazil 2014, Russia 2018, Qatar 2022, and the ongoing 2026 tournament, along with the dollar figures behind each one. The naming pattern holds for over a decade. The dollar swing behind it does not: marketing expense fell 9% year-over-year the quarter tied to 2014, then rose 8%, 18%, and 44% in the three cycles since.

What this post draws on

All filing text below is quoted directly from Visa Inc.'s (SEC CIK 1403161) own EDGAR filings — one 10-Q or 10-K per World Cup cycle since 2014 — pulled live via Crawlora's SEC filing-sections endpoint. Two caveats up front: the comparison windows aren't perfectly uniform, since each row uses whichever filing actually contains Visa's World Cup sentence, and that sentence lands in a different position relative to kickoff every cycle (exact dates in the table below); and every quote credits the World Cup jointly with that year's Winter Olympics, never in isolation — see "The World Cup never travels alone" below for why.

The pattern, cycle by cycle

Cycle	Host	Tournament dates	Filing	Period covered	Marketing expense	Prior year	Change
2014	Brazil	Jun 12 – Jul 13, 2014	10-Q, filed Jul 24, 2014	Q3 FY2014 (3 mo. to Jun 30)	$228M	$252M	−9%
2018	Russia	Jun 14 – Jul 15, 2018	10-Q, filed Jul 27, 2018	Q3 FY2018 (3 mo. to Jun 30)	$240M	$221M	+8%
2022	Qatar	Nov 20 – Dec 18, 2022	10-Q, filed Jan 27, 2023	Q1 FY2023 (3 mo. to Dec 31)	$332M	$280M	+18%
2026	USA / Mexico / Canada	Jun 11 – Jul 19, 2026	10-Q, filed Apr 29, 2026	Q2 FY2026 (3 mo. to Mar 31)*	$545M	$381M	+44%

*Pre-tournament quarter — the quarter that actually contains the 2026 tournament hasn't been filed yet.

What each filing actually says

2014 (Brazil) — 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, filed July 24, 2014:

"Marketing decreased during the three month comparable period and increased over the nine month comparable period primarily due to elevated spend supporting the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics campaign beginning in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 through the first half of fiscal 2014. The nine month comparable period also increased due to spend supporting the 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign."

2018 (Russia) — 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, filed July 27, 2018:

"Marketing expenses increased primarily due to the higher level of spending to support a number of campaigns, including the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games and 2018 FIFA World Cup."

2022 (Qatar) — 10-Q for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, filed January 27, 2023:

"Marketing expenses increased primarily due to increased spending in various campaigns, including the FIFA World Cup 2022™ and client marketing."

2026 (USA/Mexico/Canada) — 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, filed April 29, 2026:

"Marketing expenses increased over the three and six-month prior-year comparable periods primarily due to higher spending for client marketing and various campaigns, both driven in part by the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 and the FIFA World Cup 2026™."

Four filings, four different fiscal quarters, one recurring sentence.

The World Cup never travels alone

Notice what's in every quote above: the World Cup is never the only event named. It's always paired with that year's Winter Olympics.

World Cup cycle	Same-fiscal-year Winter Olympics
2014 (Brazil)	Sochi 2014 (February)
2018 (Russia)	PyeongChang 2018 (February)
2022 (Qatar)	Beijing 2022 (February)
2026 (USA/Mexico/Canada)	Milano Cortina 2026 (February)

That's not a coincidence specific to Visa — since 1994, the Winter Olympics and the World Cup have shared the same calendar year every time, both running on their own four-year cycles offset from the Summer Olympics. Visa sponsors both events, and its October–September fiscal year always contains both in the same reporting window. The practical result: no Visa filing anywhere in this dataset isolates a World-Cup-only marketing figure. Every dollar change above is a joint attribution, and there's no clean way to split it from the filing text alone.

2026 is still a leading indicator

The 44% figure is the biggest of the four cycles, but it's also the least finished. It comes from Visa's fiscal Q2 2026 (January–March) — the quarter before the tournament's June 11 opening match. By contrast, 2014's and 2018's quarters ran through most of their tournaments, and 2022's quarter (October–December) fully contained Qatar's entire November 20 – December 18 window.

Visa's fiscal Q3 2026 10-Q — the filing that will actually cover the June 11–July 19 tournament window — is due in late July or early August 2026, roughly following the same ~30-day filing lag as its Q1 FY2023 report after Qatar. Until then, 44% is what Visa's pre-tournament ramp-up looked like, not what the World Cup itself did to its books.

How we measured this

Pulled directly from Visa Inc.'s (CIK 1403161) 10-Q and 10-K filings via Crawlora's SEC filing-sections endpoint, one filing per World Cup cycle — specifically, the fiscal quarter (or year, checked for 2022) in which Visa's own Management's Discussion and Analysis names the FIFA World Cup as a driver of marketing-expense growth. Accession numbers for the two oldest filings (2014, 2018) were located via SEC's company-submissions filing index rather than EDGAR's full-text search, which is tuned to surface recent filings first. Every figure is the as-reported GAAP marketing-expense line item — not adjusted or non-GAAP — read directly from each filing's Operating Expenses table.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Has Visa mentioned the World Cup in its SEC filings before 2026?

Yes. Visa's own 10-Q and 10-K filings have named the FIFA World Cup as a driver of marketing-expense growth in at least four consecutive cycles: 2014 (Brazil), 2018 (Russia), 2022 (Qatar), and 2026 — always inside the "Marketing expenses" discussion of its Management's Discussion and Analysis.

How much did Visa's marketing spend change in each World Cup cycle?

Comparing the same fiscal quarter year-over-year: -9% in 2014 ($228M vs $252M), +8% in 2018 ($240M vs $221M), +18% in 2022 ($332M vs $280M), and +44% in 2026 ($545M vs $381M, though the 2026 figure is from a pre-tournament quarter).

Why did Visa's marketing spend fall during the 2014 World Cup quarter?

Because the year-over-year comparison quarter (fiscal Q3 2013) had unusually high marketing spend of its own, tied to the build-up for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Visa's own filing says marketing spend fell for the quarter but rose over the nine-month period, "due to spend supporting the 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign."

Does Visa break out how much it spends on the World Cup specifically?

No. Every filing credits the World Cup jointly with that year's Winter Olympics — Visa sponsors both, and because the Winter Olympics and World Cup have shared the same calendar year since 1994, they always land in the same fiscal-year reporting window. No filing isolates a World-Cup-only dollar figure.

Is the 2026 44% marketing jump the final number for this World Cup?

No. It's from the quarter ended March 31, 2026 — before the tournament started on June 11. Visa's next 10-Q, covering the quarter that actually contains the tournament, is due around late July or early August 2026.

Where does this data come from?

Directly from Visa Inc.'s (SEC CIK 1403161) 10-Q and 10-K filings, pulled via Crawlora's SEC filing-sections API — the same "Marketing expenses" line item and MD&A narrative Visa reports to the SEC every quarter. Accession numbers for the 2014 and 2018 filings were located via SEC's company-submissions filing index rather than full-text search.

Originally published on crawlora.net. Google Finance API returns structured company financials, market data, and news as JSON for sponsorship and market research.

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