Unlike the previous World Cup, this time around a big part of maximising commercial success will come from successfully optimising low & no alcohol beer sales.
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Readers will know that low & no beer sales have dramatically increased in recent years while British Beer & Pub Association research shows June and July are, generally, two of the most popular months each year for low & no beer consumption – and major tournaments during these months (Euro 2024, for example) cause additional spikes.
Two years on from the Euros, the market is bigger, the demand is higher, the timing of games later… and there’s now a new wave of low & no alcohol beers appearing that genuinely taste delicious, such as our own World Beer Cup Gold-winning Mash Gang IPA.
We can all be confident low & no beer sales this June and July will reach unprecedented levels.
Open goal
However, many publicans will miss this open goal for extra sales through dismissing low & no beer drinkers as drivers or health fanatics. That may have been the case in the 2010s but, since the lockdowns, there has been a huge and continuing shift towards moderation across all ages.
Our research confirmed what others also observe: people who drink the most non-alcoholic beer are regular beer drinkers. For instance, research we undertook in September 2025 found 20% of people say they drink low & no beer regularly and the biggest beer drinkers drink the most low & no beer with 50% of people who drink a beer daily also reporting they drank low & no beer regularly.
There’s a mix of reasons people are drinking less alcohol, ranging from health and work considerations, avoiding drink driving, through to wanting to extend the evening by pacing their alcohol consumption.
But the key point is they’re beer drinkers looking for a low-alcohol option that is enjoyable and helps them fit in with their crowd – not some naff-tasting liquid poured from a can that was hidden on the bottom shelf of the drinks fridge.
Just as the England and Scotland football managers will be making sure they have the very best squads for the tournament, licensees need to do the same with their entire drinks line-up, and particularly their low & no beers because this is a rapidly evolving market where new standards are being set by an emerging wave of low & no beers that taste genuinely delicious, even compared to their alcoholic counterparts.
Better margins
In particular, make sure you are ready to maximise all the opportunities from the World Cup, particularly the booming low & no demand, through:
1. Looking at your low & no selection, drop poor performers from your squad and replace them with the very best tasting, high-quality, ones now available.
2. Making them visible and promote them. Low & no beer has better margins for publicans than sodas, waters and juices. There’s a real opportunity to get better margins while giving established and new customers what they really want: a delicious low & no beer option.
3. A big part of enjoying your experience at a pub is getting a draught beer poured. The same applies for low & no beer so do get one on tap if there’s room. Low & no lager is, of course, popular but so too are beers with a bit of taste, so consider a low & no IPA or stout too – especially where you have room for a second low & no tap.
4. Letting customers enjoy low & no drinking as part of the ritual of being with friends in your pub, rather than inadvertently “ringing the bell” through expecting them to compromise and not fit in.
