How to bet on the 2026 World Cup

The World Cup represents the pinnacle of football.

Held every four years since 1930, with the exception of 1942 and 1946 owing to World War Two, Uruguay hosted the first edition, with Canada, Mexico and the United States co-hosts for 2026.

It's a tournament that has turned countless footballing greats into footballing immortals, and you can take a look at the basics of how to bet on the World Cup below, as well as the different types of bets you can place.

Each-way betting

What is an each way bet in football?

Available on most outright markets, each way betting gives bettors the a better opportunity to win. For example, on the top goalscorer market, an each way bet would double the stake, with half placed on the win part, and half on the place part -- for that particular market, returns would be at 1/4 odds for the first four places.

For example, if one player scores six goals and three players score five, the players scoring five would all receive returns.

Goalscorer betting

Top goalscorer

While the Golden Boot refers to the award given to the top goalscorer at the World Cup with ties settled by assists, bet365 offers a market purely on the top goalscorer at the tournament. In the event of a tie, dead heat rules would apply, with bets settled at the original odds and stakes divided by the number of ties.

Top team goalscorer

Rather than betting on a player to score the most goals at a tournament, you can back a player to be the top goalscorer in his team.

Group betting

While everyone might have their opinions on who will win the World Cup, bets can be won long before the final, with betting available on individual groups. Markets include to win group, to qualify from group, not to qualify from group and to finish bottom of group.

Many groups at this year's expanded World Cup have heavy favourites, but you can still squeeze out a slightly bigger price by taking a look at the forecast market, where you back a side to win the group and one to finish second.

To reach stage

While you might not have total faith in a team going all the way, you can bet on them reaching certain stages of the World Cup. You can back a team to reach the last 32 by betting on them to qualify from their group as well as backing them to reach the last 16 quarter-finals, semi-final or final.

Stage of elimination

While pre-tournament brackets are always popular ahead of a World Cup, plotting who could play who and when, there's also the chance to make money off your predictions by betting on a team's stage of elimination.

Accumulator

What is a football accumulator?

A football accumulator bet is when multiple bets are placed across different matches, with all required to win for a return.

The winnings of each match will be rolled onto the next selection in the accumulator.

The benefit of a football accumulator is that the winnings can be substantial from a small stake, but the flip side is that it's tough to pick out the winners of several matches, making accumulators difficult to land.

Check out our Bet Calculator to see what the potential returns would be on your World Cup accumulators.

Tips for betting on the World Cup

Monitor team news

If there are question marks around a certain team's marquee player, their price might not be entirely accurate, with odds changing when team news becomes more clear.

If Lionel Messi is reported to be injured for Argentina, their price will likely drift. If there are doubts around his fitness and he's then named in the starting line-up, their price may shorten.

Similarly, if Messi is injured, consider who will take his place on penalties, as they may be worth considering in goalscorer markets.

React to results

While bookmakers have a strong idea about the strengths and weaknesses of teams in the Premier League, where millions of people are watching the league week in, week out, there are a lot more variables in the World Cup.

There are fewer matches available to build a sample size on how good a team is. For example, heading into the 2022 World Cup, there were question marks around hosts Qatar; how would they fare on home ground? How good are they given their lack of competitive games? It quickly transpired they were vastly inferior, and unlike in a long domestic season, there isn't time to wait for them to turn it around.

Managers may be forced to react to bad results immediately, and teams will be re-evaluated quickly, especially during the group stage.