The FIFA World Cup in Qatar begins in just a few days, but fans are already betting on who will advance in this year's tournament, and it appears to be a popular choice in Saudi Arabia's cryptocurrency industry right now.

Sales of "Saudis," a collection of Saudi Arabian-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs), increased 387% on Tuesday following the country's 2-1 victory over Argentina, widely regarded as one of the best football teams in the world.

Argentina's fan token dropped 21% following the team's loss on Monday. Argentina's fan token (ARG) has dropped 21% in the last 24 hours and is currently trading at $5.44, according to CoinMarketCap data. For Monday's match, the South American team led by Lionel Messi was clearly the favorite.

Crypto tokens became popular among World Cup players this year. Chiliz (CHZ), the native token on the Chiliz blockchain that powers Socios.com, the world's largest token generation platform for sports fans, is up 39% in the week leading up to the competition, as fans experience a renewed surge of enthusiasm.

However, the scam was quickly exposed, and other fan tokens, such as those from Portugal (POR) and Brazil (BFT), dropped after Monday, outperforming both bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

"Big events frequently present great opportunities for traders," Delphi Digital's Priyansh Patel wrote on Monday. "Some market participants begin taking positions a few weeks before the event in order to profit when it occurs." The World Cup was no exception, he wrote, with fan tokens experiencing "strong corrections just two days before the event kicked off."