By the time the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off on Thursday, June 11 inside Estadio Azteca, sports bettors won’t just be sweating who wins the match or the over/under on goals. They’ll be wagering on the emotional collapse of global powers, the rise of teenage superstars, which celebrities will be in attendance and whether some shirtless fan will sprint across the pitch in the 83rd minute.
Because in today’s modern era of sports betting, the World Cup has officially become the Super Bowl on steroids.
The Super Bowl is one game, one day a year, and is notorious for some of the weirdest and wackiest prop bets you’ll ever see.
Well, the World Cup has them too, only there are 104 total matches to be played over six weeks in the middle of summer when most of the major professional sports are in their offseason.
Of course, traditional bets still dominate the books, but this year’s props allow bettors to predict which teams will win their group, how far they’ll advance, individual player bets and who will lift the World Cup trophy on July 19 at MetLife Stadium.
A lot of action this summer will live in the prop market where sportsbooks like DraftKings and prediction giant Kalshi have turned the World Cup into a month-and-a-half-long carnival of chaos.
For example, England’s 60-year drought has become its own betting category.
You can now wager on exactly when the Three Lions will break their fans hearts again. England currently has the third-best odds at +650 to win their first World Cup since 1966, but bettors are flooding the market with another painful exit in the knockout stages.
Clearly, the sportsbooks understand England fans better than therapists do, but in a month where Arsenal won the Premier League and the New York Knicks made it back to the NBA Finals, then perhaps this is the year for droughts to end.
England’s exit is part of the “stage of elimination” market, one of the fastest-growing World Cup props in the industry. It allows gamblers to bet on the exact round when a team will crash out.
The United States are sitting at 40/1 odds to win the tournament, but how far they’ll advance is a hot topic of conversation that comes with wild optimism and brutal reality
Do you think the U.S. will reach the quarterfinals? Bet on it. Think they’ll crash out in Group Play? Put your money where your mouth is.
Bettors can also wager on individual player props as well, such as the Golden Boot, Golden Glove, Young Player Award and even Goal of the Tournament. Every touch from Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Kane and Vinicius Junior suddenly carries financial consequences for millions worldwide.
There are country-specific scoring props too. Kane is the heavy favorite to lead England in goals. Vinicius and Raphinha are neck-and-neck for Brazil. Germany has no clear favorite. Pulisic of course is the favorite for the U.S., but the real money is on Folarin Balogun.
And because modern sports gambling has completely abandoned shame, sportsbooks offer odds on anything and everything they can conjure up:
Will all three host nations — Canada, Mexico and the United States — win their groups?
Which continent wins the tournament?
Will there be a first-time World Cup champion?
Will Messi or Mbappe threaten Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup goals record?
Will there be a match scoreline never before seen in tournament history?
What songs will Madonna, Shakira, and BTS perform during the halftime show of the World Cup Final?
Which celebrities get caught by FOX cameras courtside-style in the stands?
How many pitch invaders will security tackle?
Welcome to the modern World Cup: part sporting event, part reality television show, part stock market, and part global casino.
But honestly? The prop bets above might be exactly why the entire planet will be watching.
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