Russia’s licensed online sports betting operators are expecting a surge in activity during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but they still think the government isn’t doing enough to help them beat back international rivals.

Last week, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Oleg Syromolotov gave a speech at an anti-sports corruption conference in Vienna, in which he projected that Russian-licensed bookmakers will see betting volumes rise by 50% during the month-long World Cup, which Russia is hosting.

Russia’s online bookmakers were already enjoying a traffic surge ahead of the World Cup, and that was before the formal imposition on May 26 of new restrictions barring local financial institutions from processing payments between Russian punters and international gambling sites.

Syromolotov’s optimistic view was echoed by Yuri Krasovsky, president of the First Self-Regulatory Organization of Russian Bookmakers (First SRO), who issued a statement last week saying the new restrictions “will definitely complicate the activities” of non-Russian operators and “increase the inflow” to Russian-licensed sites.