Who are the favourites to win the 2026 World Cup?

Currently, Spain is ahead as the bookmakers' favourites to win the tournament but many other teams are also well fancied. These include holders Argentina. Brazil are well priced as well as big European sides like England, France and Germany.

How many teams are in the 2026 World Cup?

There will be 48 nations at the 2026 World Cup. This is the largest ever, having increased from 13 in 1930, 24 in 1982 and 32 post 1998. This includes a new knockout round at the last 32.

When is the 2026 World Cup?

The first match and opening ceremony is due on the 11th June, the knockout stage starts on 29th of June. The actual World Cup Final is to be played in New Jersey, USA On the 19th July 2026.

Where Can I Find Your World Cup Predictions?

This is easy just follow the link in the article and you can jump straight to all our up-to-date World Cup Final tips for upcoming matches.

FIFA World Cup 2026 Predictions & Tips

By Saul Mumford | Last update at 29 October, 2025⏲️ Reading time: 14 minutes

In the text below, we are going to be looking at how we have put together our tips and predictions for betting on the 2026 FIFA World Cup. These bets and odds come from the best bookmakers across the world.

With the football World Cup approaching its 100th anniversary, this tournament will have 3 host nations, an extra 12 teams and 40 more matches than 2022. So this means it is likely to have more money gambled on it than the incredible 35 billion dollars that were spent that year.

We will be supporting you along the way with regular predictions for World Cup Final matches to ensure you are getting the greatest odds and value from your bets. It will also give you something to think about when you are betting on matches in the group or knockout stages.

Why Do We Offer Free World Cup Betting Tips?

Our website is an expert in the field of betting, and we offer you, the reader, a wide range of predictions for various sports around the world. Our goal is to help you win whether you are a professional or just starting in your betting journey.

To do this, we keep tips free and we also find you the best odds from our partner sites. We hope that you can use our tips and combine them with their generous Sportsbook welcome offers. This will help you make the most of your hard-earned bankroll when gambling online.

We provide this free service for you as standard, allowing you to be able to access the very best predictions across the internet for many sports. We will be offering the same service during the upcoming World Cup in 2026.

What Are Betting Tips?

Betting tips are a predicted outcome by an expert in the field on what they believe the outcome of an upcoming event will be. This can be on a wide range of sports and can be in a variety of available markets. The best tips concentrate on finding value bets, which are ones where the bookmaker's odds are potentially longer than we feel the actual odds of the incident we are considering happening. These tips can be used by bettors to enhance their gambling experience and save time on research. This allows them to quickly find winning and profitable wagers from across the internet and safe and secure betting sites.

How Do Our Experts Make Predictions?

All of our tipping experts are experienced professionals in the field of their chosen sport. They specialise in choosing the best online bets via their own methodology based on their experience, current statistics and in-depth analysis of sporting events. They will look into team form, team news and many other criteria. For every sport we offer tips for we have compiled a team of experts who are fans and analysts of their particular sport. This can be something well known like football or basketball but also includes more niche sports like cycling and even handball.

We are going to look at some of these perimeters we investigate in a bit more detail below to give you a full idea of exactly how our predictions are created. This will help you build trust in the probability of these tips being correct more times than not.

1
Odds Analysis
The higher the odds, the more value is added to potential winnings from a wager. We like to create value bets, which are when we can find odds on an outcome that may be higher than the perceived probability of this occurring. The bookmakers we recommend will all include regular competitive odds on football and also the World Cup Finals when they are ongoing. You can also find promotions to help boost these bets, in the form of either sign-up bonuses or regular promotions for account holders. You can use these to boost odds and bankroll.
Many proposition markets are offered beyond match winner bet when you are gambling on the World Cup. We are going to discuss these further down. These are often the best places to discover wagering opportunities where bookies hold longer odds than they should. This often makes them the best markets to target when searching for bets with the greatest odds.
2
Importance of Using Analysis and Data
By following statistics and patterns, this gives you the best way of predicting what will happen in the future. Of course, there can always be surprise results and outcomes but general patterns should prove you right more often than not.
The most important statistics for World Cup predictions is a team’s form in both attack and defence so far in the tournament. This is useful information for a variety of markets. Also look into individual players' stats such as how many shots/tackles per game for instance.
With the popularity of the football World Cup there are a great many stats and data to be found across the internet. Our tipping team will save you the time of researching this, by looking into them all before the start of the big game.
3
What Is a Tipster?
A tipster is a person who makes predictions or tips on an upcoming event. This could be in a sport or a number of other things, for example, political elections or who may win a game show. Of course everyone will have an opinion on what they think will happen, but a tipster is generally one who has put some extra thought and consideration into this. The best tipsters are ones who have done a good deal of extra research into past results and are creating their predictions based on many metrics rather than just a single opinion.
4
Meet Our Tipsters
Our team of football experts from all over the globe will be on hand throughout the World Cup Finals 2026 to keep you well fed with the latest tips for the many ongoing matches. We have a team that is top of their chosen field for every sport you can think of gambling on. They carry out thorough and in-depth research to ensure their tips are the best that they can be. They aim to miss nothing when looking into the chances of a prediction they make coming true.

Past World Cup Winning Tips

With the World Cup Finals being a month-long tournament, it is generally the strongest teams that come up trump. A large part of this is that they have squads with good depth and players with the most big-match experience. That being said, there have been some surprise finalists down the years, and we have inserted the odds at the start of the tournament in the table below to illustrate this.

Year	Champions (Odds)	Runner Up (Odds)	Result
2022	Argentina (6/1)	France (6/1)	Argentina Pens 3-3
2018	France (13/2)	Croatia (33/1)	France 4-2
2014	Germany (6/1)	Argentina (4/1)	Germany 1-0 AET
2010	Spain (4/1)	Netherlands (10/1)	Spain 1-0 AET
2006	Italy (10/1)	France (14/1)	Italy Pens 1-1

Past World Cup Key Stats

The World Cup Finals have taken place 22 times and were first held in 1930. Only eight teams have ever won the competition - Brazil (5), Germany & Italy (4), Argentina (3), France & Uruguay (2) and England and Spain (1). Let’s look at some of the other records from the history books.

🥇 Most World Cup Final Appearances Team - Brazil (22)
🔥 Most Games Won All Time Team - Brazil (114)
🥅 Most Goals scored in a tournament - Hungary, 27 - 1954
⏳ Longest Gap Between Titles - Italy - 48 years (1938-1982)
🗓️ Longest Gap Between Qualifying - Wales - 64 Years (1958-2002)
❌ Most times failed to Qualify - Luxembourg (22)
🏃‍♂️ Most Matches Played Player - Lionel Messi (ARG), 26 (5 Tournaments)
🏆 Most Tournaments Won Player - Pele (BRA), 3 (1958,1962,1970)
⚽ Most Goals Scored in Matches Player - Miroslav Klose (GER), 16 (4 Tournaments)
🎯 Most Goals in a Match Player - Oleg Slaenko (RUS) (5) Russia vs Cameroon, 1990
💥 Most Finals scored in - Cristiano Ronaldo (POR), 5 (2006,2010,2014,2018,2022)
🚀 Biggest ever win - Hungary 10-1 El Salvador -Group Stage, 1982
⚡ Highest Scoring Game - Austria 7-5 Switzerland - Quarter Final, 1954
🏟️ Highest Attendance - 173,850 - Brazil vs Uruguay - World Cup Final, 1950.

Past World Cup Golden Boot Winners

The golden boot is given to the man who scored the most goals over the course of the tournament. The golden boot winner is a popular and fun market to bet on for punters, and there are often plenty of promotions that are run by websites online as well around this market. Some other player awards can be won as well, including the Golden Glove and team of the tournament, on which you may find some sites will offer odds to you on as well.

The most goals in a tournament were 13 scored by Frenchman Just Fontaine back in 1958. More recent winners are listed below.

Year	Scorer	Nationality	Goals
2022	Kylian Mbappe	France	8
2018	Harry Kane	England	6
2014	James Rodríguez	Colombia	6
2010	Thomas Muller	Germany	5
2006	Miroslav Klose	Germany	5
2002	Ronaldo	Brazil	8

World Cup Betting Markets

Quite a few proposition markets exist in World Cup betting, and these can often be more profitable than the match winner markets. Below, we will discuss the main markets in further detail. Predictions will be offered for all the markets in certain games, with careful odds analysis towards the probability of them coming true.

Below, you will find details of the most common markets our tipsters provide predictions for.

1x2 - A 3-way bet that means you can back or lay a home win, a draw or the away win.
Total Over/Under - A market that offers you the chance to bet over or under on a specified event in the game, this could be corners, goals or yellow cards etc.
Handicap - You can add or minus an imaginary goal score to a team. This increases the odds for favourites against underdogs. Handicaps usually go up or down in 0.5 goal margins.
Outright Betting - A simple bet on an exact outcome, for instance a correct score result or first goalscorer.
Half/Full Time Betting - This is where you make a bet on the result at both half and full time. Or gamble just on the final or halftime scoreline.

Tips on How to Make a Successful Prediction

Making a football World Cup prediction is the same as when you are making a prediction on any upcoming football match. The list of things below should all be considered when you are doing this;

Check World Cup Finals News
Keeping track of the most up-to-date team news and stats is a big factor in making solid predictions. Keep up to date on what is happening in the Tournament. There will be plenty of online news sites to follow.
Evaluate Tournament Standings
The placing of a team in the group stage makes a big difference to how a team will approach a match. Equally a team’s route through the knockout stage can be vital to them making it to the later rounds.
Check Team Form
Team form pre-match plays a big part in who you think will win. Also check past head-to-head, friendlies, qualifying and player form at the start and dutring the competition.
Check Team Line Ups
Injuries and suspensions to major players can markedly affect a team's performance. Sometimes, a team that is already through may rest players for later matches. This can weaken the favourites on paper and cause a surprise upset.
Gain Early Odds
More of a tip, and admittedly last-minute changes can alter odds. However if you make your prediction and bet as early as possible, you will heighten your potential profits. This can be tricky and can go wrong if someone picks up a surprise injury but it is a good way to get the best market value on your predictions. You will find early odds higher with most bookmakers.

Mistakes to Avoid in Sports Predictions

While there are things you should ensure you take into account there are also some things to try and avoid. The mistakes below can be costly when you are putting together your World Cup Final predictions.

Do not bet bigger than you can afford - Bankroll management is key when you are betting, do not suddenly up your stakes and leave yourself short.
Do not fall to the gambler's fallacy - Gambler's fallacy is that if an event has been happening regularly, it will not happen again in the future. This is best explained with the “They are due a win” mentality when applied to football betting.
Having Unrealistic Expectations - You might feel that you are going to be hitting a 70-100% success rate, but this is unrealistic. Anything over 55% is a good return on predictions. Try some practice bets to see how you get on and then base your chances on these results.

Recommended Sites for Betting on the World Cup 2026

While almost every site will offer World Cup Final odds on every match the 5 below are the ones that we feel really stand out from the crowd.

1xBet

These guys love football and you will find a huge amount of promotions and bonuses for punters, plus some of the most competitive odds online.

22Bet

A really strong website for football and they include many in-play and live streaming options. 22Bet also has great regular odds on matches.

Megapari

What we like about Megapari first of all is their 200% matched deposit bonus that you can pick up when you join. They followed this up with plenty of other promotions and were excellent in the 2022 World Cup.

Rabona

Rabona offers its punters a wealth of statistics and data to help them make informed bets on the biggest matches. This is as true of the World Cup Finals as of any of the other football leagues they cover.

20Bet

With one of the best online apps you will find on the internet these guys offer a chance to wager on the World Cup Finals wherever you are. This means that you never miss out on placing a bet.

FAQ. Frequently Asked Questions

Who are the favourites to win the 2026 World Cup?
Currently, Spain is ahead as the bookmakers' favourites to win the tournament but many other teams are also well fancied. These include holders Argentina. Brazil are well priced as well as big European sides like England, France and Germany.
How many teams are in the 2026 World Cup?
There will be 48 nations at the 2026 World Cup. This is the largest ever, having increased from 13 in 1930, 24 in 1982 and 32 post 1998. This includes a new knockout round at the last 32.
When is the 2026 World Cup?
The first match and opening ceremony is due on the 11th June, the knockout stage starts on 29th of June. The actual World Cup Final is to be played in New Jersey, USA On the 19th July 2026.
Where Can I Find Your World Cup Predictions?
This is easy just follow the link in the article and you can jump straight to all our up-to-date World Cup Final tips for upcoming matches.