The World Cup gets underway on Thursday with five weeks of wall-to-wall football to look forward to!
As it does every four years, it will prompt huge interest from casual observers of the beautiful game who are less interested in the tribalism of club football.
And while it is easy to get behind the likes of England and Scotland, what happens if they go out early? Is that the end of World Cup 2026? Absolutely not. If you add a second team to follow it could keep things exciting until the latter stages. Before you know it you’ll be staying up till 4am to watch Iran versus New Zealand!
So how do you have some fun, and engage everyone in the office, down the pub or in your WhatsApp group? With a sweepstake of course!
They can be difficult to organise, though, especially when it comes to working out the distribution of teams. Everyone wants Spain or France over Curacao or Jordan, right?
Well, let 101 Great Goals take the stress out of the situation with our sweepstake generator.
All you have to do is put the names of your friends, or colleagues, into the generator and it will spit out the results, delighting some and infuriating others!
Don’t worry if you haven’t got 48 players as it will allocate multiple teams to one player if necessary.
Best of all, it is free!
How a World Cup sweepstake works
The format is simple. Everyone pays the same amount in, the teams get drawn at random, and the winnings come out of the pot. Whoever ends up with the eventual champions takes the prize. It is the easiest way to get a whole office or group chat caring about teams they would never normally watch.
Most groups pick one of two payout structures. Winner takes all is the cleanest: the pot goes to whoever drew the winners and that is that. Tiered payouts spread the money about, with a share for the champions, a smaller share for the beaten finalist, and often a bit for each losing semi-finalist. Tiered keeps more people interested deeper into the tournament, which tends to be more fun.
Plenty of sweepstakes add a wooden spoon too: a small prize, or a forfeit, for whoever’s team is the first one knocked out. It gives the worst draw something to play for.
Running a sweepstake with 48 teams
2026 is the first World Cup with 48 teams instead of 32, and that changes the maths. In a normal office or group-chat sweepstake of 10 to 20 people, everyone ends up with two to five teams each rather than just one. This generator works that out for you and shares the teams as evenly as it can.
If some people are putting in more than others, you can give them a bigger share. Just set the number of teams next to their name when you create the draw, and everyone else splits the rest.
Holding a few teams is the best part, really. You have more to follow through the group stage, more chance of landing a contender, and more to talk about when one of your lot crashes out in the first week. Some teams in the pot are obvious prizes, like Argentina, France or England. Others will almost certainly be home before the knockouts. Not knowing which you will get is the whole point.
Sweepstake prize ideas
- Entry fees. £1 to £5 a head is the usual range for an office sweepstake. Enough to make it matter, cheap enough that everyone joins in.
- Winner takes all, or tiered. A tiered split, say 60% to the winner, 20% to the finalist and 10% to each semi-finalist, keeps more people in it for longer.
- Non-cash prizes. Where money changing hands feels awkward, play for a bottle of something, a daft trophy, or bragging rights until the next Euros.
- The wooden spoon. A small prize or a forfeit for whoever’s team goes out first. The one nobody wants to win.
The 2026 World Cup: key facts
- Dates: 11 June to 19 July 2026
- Host nations: United States, Canada, Mexico
- Venues: 16 cities, 16 stadiums
- Format: 12 groups of 4, 104 matches in total
- Opening match: Mexico vs South Africa, Estadio Azteca, 11 June
- Final: MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, 19 July
- Four debut nations: Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, Uzbekistan
- Notable absence: Italy, out for a third tournament running
- Former winners in the field: France, Spain, Argentina, England, Germany, Brazil, Uruguay
2026 World Cup groups
Group A
- Mexico
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Czechia
Group B
- Canada
- Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Qatar
- Switzerland
Group C
- Brazil
- Morocco
- Haiti
- Scotland
Group D
- USA
- Paraguay
- Australia
- Turkey
Group E
- Germany
- Curacao
- Ivory Coast
- Ecuador
Group F
- Netherlands
- Japan
- Sweden
- Tunisia
Group G
- Belgium
- Egypt
- Iran
- New Zealand
Group H
- Spain
- Cape Verde
- Saudi Arabia
- Uruguay
Group I
- France
- Senegal
- Iraq
- Norway
Group J
- Argentina
- Algeria
- Austria
- Jordan
Group K
- Portugal
- DR Congo
- Uzbekistan
- Colombia
Group L
- England
- Croatia
- Ghana
- Panama
