How to run a sweepstake for World Cup 2026
World Cup 2026 is right around the corner and there’s no better way to get people into the spirit of the world’s biggest tournament and have some fun than through a sweepstake. Throw all 48 teams in a hat and let fate run its course. Who knows - you could be the lucky winner this December!
Sweepstake generator
So first things first - a sweepstake generator for you. Simply pop in the team names, then the names of the participants (it doesn't matter how many) and you're ready to go!
Second things second - a super easy, faff-free way to collect the money:
Start collecting money now
When and where is the World Cup 2026?
The 2026 World Cup will be the 23rd edition of the tournament, the first of which was held all the way back in 1930. World Cup 2026 will be held in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, with the first game kicking off on 11th June and the Final set to be played on Sunday 19th July *makes note in calendar*.
How do I set up a World Cup sweepstake?
Firstly, let’s take a look at what a sweepstake is;
A sweepstake is a contest usually based on major sporting events, the World Cup being a perfect example, where entrants pay an equal stake before choosing a team at random. In most scenarios, the name of every team involved is placed in a hat before being pulled out blindly to ensure a random selection. The ‘hat’ can be very literally a physical hat, but at the very start of this article is an online generator that does all the hard work for you!
This creates a ‘pot’ with the final amount up for grabs and for World Cup 2026 there are 48 teams involved, so there’s the opportunity for 48 entry fees to be contributed to the pot. Don’t worry if you don’t have exactly 48 people to get involved though - the generator sorts all this out for you so if there are less than 48 it will allocate at random more than one team to some people or if there are more, people will need to share certain teams (and therefore the winnings!)
Following the event, the entrant(s) who has picked the winning team takes home the winnings (sometimes, the 2nd and 3rd place teams may also win a lesser amount of the total pot - depending how generous you want to be!).
Making the most of the 2026 format
You might have noticed that this World Cup is going to be a little bit different—and by different, we mean bigger. For the first time ever, the tournament is expanding. While previous years featured 32 teams, the 2026 edition is set to welcome a massive 48 nations to the stage.
With more teams comes more opportunity. More teams mean more underdog stories, more matches to watch, and most importantly, a bigger prize pot for the winner. If you’re running this in a large office or a big group of friends, you can now get 48 people involved in the action.
Why you should include "Booby Prizes"
With 48 teams in the mix, someone is inevitably going to end up drawing a nation that is, shall we say, "just happy to be there." To keep the engagement high even for the person who draws a massive longshot, we recommend shaking up the prize structure.
Instead of a "winner takes all" approach, why not split the pot?
- The Champions: 60% of the pot.
- The Runners-up: 25% of the pot.
- The "Wooden Spoon" (Team with the worst goal difference): 15% of the pot.
Giving a prize to the person whose team performs the worst is a guaranteed way to keep people checking the scores, even if their team is trailing 5-0 in the group stages!
Setting the stakes
Deciding how much to charge for entry is the final piece of the puzzle. You want it to be enough to make the win feel "juicy," but not so much that people hesitate to join.
For a casual office sweepstake, £2 or £5 per team is usually the sweet spot. If you have 48 entries at £5 each, that’s a £240 jackpot sitting in your Collctiv pot. That is definitely enough to buy the winner a very nice victory dinner (or at least the first three rounds at the pub).
Sweepstake Etiquette: A few Golden Rules
To ensure your 2026 sweepstake runs smoother than a Lionel Messi dribble, keep these three rules in mind:
- Pay before you play: Don't let anyone "draw a name" until they’ve tapped that Collctiv link. It prevents the awkward "oh, I don't want this team" excuse later on.
- Update the group: Send a quick message after the group stages and quarter-finals. It keeps the hype alive!
The World Cup only comes around every four years, and with the games spread across three time zones in 2026, it’s going to be a wild ride. Don't let the admin spoil the fun.
How do I collect the money for a sweepstake?
So you’ve got commitment from everyone, the teams are all ready to be selected from your physical/virtual hat, but before you go any further you need people to chip in their entry fee. None of this works without the prize money, right?
This is the part where you may be scratching your head or preparing yourself for the dread that comes with chasing people up every single day for the entirety of the tournament to pay the entry fee you were promised days/weeks ago. It’s a surefire way to take the enjoyment out of something so fun.
No matter how many reminders you send by WhatsApp, Slack, Teams, carrier pigeon, people still aren’t paying up. Especially if they get a team that is highly unlikely to win! Suddenly it becomes like getting blood out of a stone.
The next problem comes in the slightly unusual form of actually receiving the money (yes, receiving money can actually cause a problem), as you receive 32 different payments to your personal bank account on different days and at different times. All of a sudden you’re losing track of who has and hasn’t paid and the admin to keep up with has become a full-time job. You may also have a hybrid way of working which means a number of people want to give you cash in the office instead.
Now you’ve got a mixture of random coins/notes in your hand that need to be cashed into your bank, payments in your bank account hidden amongst your personal transactions and the ongoing problem of some people who haven’t got around to paying you because setting up someone new to pay on their online banking and actually paying you has become a job for later, and then for tomorrow, and then for the day after…… (you get the point).
The easy way to collect money from a group of people
We’ve made it easy for you as an organiser to collect money and we’ve also made it super simple for contributors to pay into your pot. Setting up a Collctiv pot can be done in less than a minute and sharing the payment link or QR code with your group is even easier, no matter the channel you use to communicate.
People use the link/QR code to access the payment screen and then tap to pay into your pot using their desired payment method, including ApplePay and GooglePay. They don’t need to download an app, sign up to anything or do any banking. Within a couple of taps and 10 seconds later you’ve got your money. It really is that simple.
The money sits in the pot you’ve created for the specific event and can then be withdrawn to your bank account or sent to the winner(s).
Say goodbye to the time and effort that comes with scrolling through pages of lunch meal deals and morning coffees to find out if Paul from IT has actually paid the money he owes. Instead, you can track the total amount you’ve received along with the names of the people who have paid you.
Take back control of your time. Take away the friction of payment. Take away the excuses. Get paid what you’re owed.
Download Collctiv today to get started.
To find answers to your questions and learn more about the guidelines and regulations, please visit the Gambling Commission website, the responsible regulatory organisation
Organisers Bring People Together
Since 2019 Collctiv has helped more than 2 million people from over 175 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's a sweepstake, gifts for teachers, group holidays or grassroots sports teams - download our free app today and start bringing people together!
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