The FIFA World Cup 2026 runs from June 11 to July 19, giving you 39 days of football — and 39 days of reasons to keep your office, family, or friend group engaged in a sweepstakes. With 48 teams for the first time ever, there are enough nations to go around for almost any group size, which makes this the best World Cup in history for running a sweepstakes pool.
This guide walks you through everything you need to know to run a fair, fun, and drama-filled World Cup office pool — from setting the rules to assigning teams to handling the prize payout.
There are two main formats for a World Cup sweepstakes pool. The first is a team draw sweepstakes, where each participant is randomly assigned one or more national teams and wins based on how far their team goes. The second is a score predictor, where everyone predicts match results and earns points for correct scores or outcomes.
For most groups, the team draw sweepstakes is far easier to run. There is no skill involved — everyone has an equal chance, which means the marketing intern has the same shot as the football expert. This also means the pool stays active much longer since participants are emotionally invested in their assigned teams from day one through the final.
The score predictor format rewards knowledge and requires updating throughout the tournament, which works well for dedicated football fans but can lose casual participants quickly. For a mixed office group, stick with the team draw.
The buy-in is the amount each participant pays to enter the pool. Common amounts range from $5 to $20 per person depending on group size and how competitive you want the pool to feel. The total prize pool is simply the buy-in multiplied by the number of participants.
For a group of 20 people at $10 each, you have a $200 prize pool. You can award the full amount to the winner, or split it across multiple placements. A common split for World Cup pools is:
Some groups add bonus prizes for the group stage — for example, a small payout if your team wins their group, or a penalty for the person whose team exits first in the round of 32. These side bets keep the pool interesting even during the early matches when elimination is not yet a factor.
💡 Tip: Use our Prize Pool Tracker on the sweepstakes wheel to automatically calculate each participant's prize share based on your buy-in amount.
The fairest way to assign teams is a random draw. This avoids arguments about who gets Brazil or Argentina and ensures no one can claim the process was rigged. Traditionally this was done by putting names in a hat, but that only works if you have exactly 48 people — which most groups do not.
If your group has fewer than 48 people, you have two options. First, you can assign each person multiple teams — for example, 12 people each get 4 teams, or 16 people each get 3 teams. Second, you can assign only the "top" teams based on world ranking or tournament seeding, leaving lower-ranked teams unassigned. The first option is generally fairer and keeps more people invested throughout the tournament.
The easiest way to run the draw is to use a digital tool that handles the random assignment automatically. Our World Cup 2026 Sweepstakes Wheel assigns all 48 teams randomly to any number of participants, distributes multiple teams per person when the group is smaller than 48, and lets you export the results as a PDF to share with your group.
The draw itself can be a social event. For office pools, consider running the draw live during a lunch break or team meeting — put it up on a shared screen and spin the wheel one by one for each participant. The suspense of watching the wheel spin builds excitement and gets people invested from the first moment.
For remote teams, share your screen during a video call and spin for each person in turn. Send the exported PDF results immediately afterward so everyone has their official team assignments.
For friend groups on WhatsApp, use the "Assign All at Once" mode to generate results instantly, then post the results image in the group chat. This usually generates a flurry of reactions as people discover which teams they drew.
Once the tournament begins on June 11, keep your group engaged by sharing updates when participants' teams play. A quick message in the group chat — "Sarah's Brazil plays today at 3pm ET!" — goes a long way to keeping people watching and caring about their teams.
Maintain a simple standings chart showing who is still alive and whose teams have been eliminated. As the group stage ends and teams begin to exit in the Round of 32 and Round of 16, the excitement builds naturally. By the time you reach the quarter-finals in mid-July, your pool is likely to have half the office actively following the matches.
Collect buy-ins before the tournament starts — not after. Once the matches begin and people can see how their teams are performing, some participants may try to back out if their team is eliminated early. Collecting money upfront avoids this issue entirely.
Pay out promptly after the final on July 19. Nothing kills enthusiasm for next year's pool faster than a delayed payout. Transfer or hand over the prize money within 24 hours of the final whistle.
💡 Note on legality: Workplace pools involving money exist in a legal grey area in some jurisdictions. In most places, small informal pools among colleagues are tolerated, but it is worth checking your company's policy and local gambling laws before collecting money.
Use our free World Cup 2026 Sweepstakes Wheel to assign all 48 teams to your group in seconds. Spin one by one, draw live, or assign all at once — then export a PDF of the results.
⚽ Open the Sweepstakes Wheel