Toca Social, the London-born soccer entertainment franchise, has opened its first United States venue in the Dallas area and established its first franchise unit in Mexico — both landing just weeks before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across North America on June 11. The brand opened its first US location in March 2026 and is now actively recruiting international franchisees to lead growth beyond the United States and United Kingdom.
Toca Social pairs interactive, technology-driven soccer games with food, drinks and social spaces, a formula designed to attract groups rather than athletes. The Dallas debut puts the brand in the same metro that will host nine World Cup matches this summer.
Toca Social is an experience-economy franchise that turns soccer into a social game anyone can play in a private bay, combining ball-striking technology with dining and entertainment. The concept deliberately widens the sport’s audience beyond players.
“But we made a version of soccer anyone can do,” said Toca Social President Alex Harman.
Harman noted that relatively few soccer fans globally ever kick a ball competitively, so the venues shrink the sport — normally played by 10 to 20 people on a large field — into something a small group can enjoy in a private space. The model places Toca Social alongside golf- and dart-based eatertainment brands competing for group spending, a category increasingly shaping the global foodservice market’s growth outlook.
The World Cup gives Toca Social a once-in-a-generation marketing tailwind in its two newest markets, since the tournament is co-hosted by the United States and Mexico. Founder Eddie Lewis — who played for the US Men’s National Team from 1996 to 2008, reaching the 2002 World Cup quarterfinals and winning the 2002 Gold Cup — says soccer’s growth has been consistent, and the tournament should supercharge demand. Details on the tournament’s North American footprint are available from FIFA.
Lewis built Toca Soccer around touch-training technology inspired by the tennis-ball machines he used as a player. Toca Social extends that intellectual property into hospitality, a path other fitness and sports brands have followed as they cross borders — much as Orangetheory’s entry into Italy shows established concepts using franchising to reach new continents.
Toca Social’s sequencing — prove the concept in London, enter the US corporately, then franchise into Mexico — illustrates how experiential brands de-risk international expansion before handing territories to local partners. For investors across Asia and the Middle East, sports-anchored social venues remain a largely open category with strong demographics: young populations, mall-centric leisure culture and governments investing heavily in sport. As with recent large-scale cross-border franchise commitments, the operators who secure country rights early in a proven experiential format tend to capture outsized value when the category matures.
Source: Franchise Times — Soccer Experience Brand Toca Social Kicks Up Development Ahead of World Cup
