November 18, 2022

Your Guide to Sports Betting for the Qatar World Cup 2022

The World Cup is About to Dominate Online Sports Betting: Here’s How You Can Get in on the Action

Why World Cup Betting is on the Rise this Year
The World Cup Tournament Explained
Bets You Can Make on the World Cup and Tips for Making Them

With this year’s World Cup being the first held while online sports betting is legal across much of the United States, experts are predicting that Americans will bet upwards of $1.8 billion on the tournament, according to the American Gaming Association, the casino industry’s national trade group.

About 20.5 million American adults plan to bet on the biggest soccer tournament in the world, legally or otherwise, the American Gaming Association estimated Tuesday. The majority plan to place bets at an online sportsbook, with a bookie, or at a brick-and-mortar sportsbook.

The survey is the organization’s first for World Cup betting.

“As the first World Cup with widespread availability of legal sports betting, this will certainly be the most bet-upon soccer event ever in the U.S.,” said Casey Clark, the American Gaming Association’s senior vice president. “With more than half of all American adults having access to legal betting options in their home market, legal sports betting will deepen American fan engagement in the most-watched sporting event in the world.”

Legal wagering is currently available to 132 million Americans in their home states. That is up dramatically from the 2018 World Cup, when only 10 million had access to legal gambling, in just three states.

That was the year New Jersey won a U.S. Supreme Court case clearing the way for all 50 states to offer legal sports betting if they so choose.

The survey asked respondents what they would bet on if they were given $50 to make a wager on the winner of the tournament. The results were: United States (24%); Brazil (19%); Argentina (17%) and Germany (10%).

It also shows plenty of room for growth in terms of betting on the World Cup. Less than 3 in 10 Americans who plan to watch the tournament say they will bet on it.

How To Get In On the World Cup Action

With Qatar, home of this year’s World Cup, recently announcing that alcohol sales will be prohibited at or near the events, many Americans can appreciate the fact that they can both place a bet and sip a cold one legally from the comfort of their own homes. First, though, it is important to understand how the World Cup works.

The World Cup is a massive soccer (or football, depending on where you are from) tournament featuring 32 of the best soccer teams, each representing their home country, that the world has to offer. These teams already qualified by advancing through their respective regional qualifying matches.

The exception to those qualifying standards is Qatar, which automatically received a bid as a result of being the hosting country.

Because it’s such a massive tournament, it can be difficult to grasp what terms, such as group stage or knockout stage, mean.

The 32 teams are divided into eight groups of four teams. Each team plays the other three teams in their group one time in the first round called the group stage. The groups are as follows:

Groups Teams

Ecuador, Netherlands, Qatar, Senegal

England, IR Iran, USA, Wales

Argentina, Mexico, Poland, Saudi Arabia

Australia, Denmark, France, Tunisia

Costa Rica, Germany, Japan, Spain

Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Morocco

Brazil, Cameroon, Serbia, Switzerland

Ghana, Korea Republic, Portugal, Uruguay

The two teams with the most points advance to the knockout stage. Points are awarded to a team in amounts of three for a win, one for a tie, and zero for a loss. The knockout stages encompass the Round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, and the finals. This stage is called the knockout stage because if you lose, you go home in single elimination fashion.

Unlike the group stage, where you can tie, overtime is played in the knockout stage to try and yield a winner. If a winner is not determined in overtime, an NHL style shootout decides the game, with both teams taking penalty kicks.

The World Cup schedule in its entirety is:

Stage

Group Matches

Nov. 20-Dec. 2

Round of 16

Dec. 3-Dec. 6

Quarter Finals

Dec. 9-Dec. 10

Semi-Finals

Dec. 13-Dec. 14

3rd Place Game

Dec. 17

Finals

Dec. 18

World Cup action this week

Game Day & Time

Qatar vs Ecuador (Group A) – Sun, Nov. 20. 11:00 a.m EST
England vs Iran (Group B) – Mon, Nov. 21. 8:00 a.m. EST
Senegal vs Netherlands (Group A) – Mon, Nov. 21. 11:00 a.m. EST
USA vs Wales (Group B) – Mon, Nov. 21. 2:00 p.m. EST
Argentina vs Saudi Arabia (Group C) – Tue, Nov. 22. 5:00 a.m. EST
Denmark vs Tunisia (Group D) – Tue, Nov. 22. 8:00 a.m. EST
Mexico vs Poland (Group C) – Tue, Nov. 22. 11:00 a.m. EST
France vs Australia (Group D) – Tue, Nov. 22. 2:00 p.m. EST
Morocco vs Croatia (Group F) – Wed, Nov. 23. 5:00 a.m. EST
Germany vs Japan (Group E) – Wed, Nov. 23. 8:00 a.m. EST
Spain vs Costa Rica (Group E) – Wed, Nov. 23. 11:00 a.m. EST
Belgium vs Canada (Group F) – Wed, Nov. 23. 2:00 p.m. EST
Switzerland vs Cameroon (Group G) – Thu, Nov. 24. 5:00 a.m. EST
Uruguay vs South Korea (Group H) – Thu, Nov. 24. 8:00 a.m. EST
Portugal vs Ghana (Group H) – Thu, Nov. 24. 11:00 a.m. EST
Brazil vs Serbia (Group G) – Thu, Nov. 24. 2:00 p.m. EST
Wales vs Iran (Group B) – Fri, Nov. 25. 5:00 a.m. EST
Qatar vs Senegal (Group A) – Fri, Nov. 25. 8:00 a.m. EST
Netherlands vs Ecuador (Group A) – Fri, Nov. 25. 11:00 a.m. EST
England vs USA (Group B) – Fri, Nov. 25. 2:00 p.m. EST

Bets You Can Make on the World Cup

Many World Cup bets aren’t much different from traditional betting odds you’d come across for leagues such as the NFL and NBA. However, there are a few nuances, so it’s worth going over.

Moneyline

Ultimately, the moneyline is one of the most simple things a sports bettor can wager on, and is offered by every sportsbook.

The moneyline is just betting terminology for who you think will be the outright winner of the match.

Three-way Moneyline

The three-way moneyline is a bet more exclusive to soccer. This is because with three-way moneyline bets, you can bet on the game resulting in a draw, a relatively common occurrence in soccer.

In major North American sports like the NBA, MLB, and NHL, the games will go to overtime as long as needed to determine a winner, or in the NHL’s case, a shootout will occur after overtime.

In the NFL, ties can happen, but are very rare. However, ties are a much more common occurrence in soccer. If you believe a certain game is destined to end in a draw, this is the best sports betting prop for you.

Spread

Another extremely common form of sports betting is betting on the spread. In sports betting terminology, the spread is how many points will differentiate the two teams by the end of the game.

Understanding spread odds betting can get slightly confusing if you’re a new player. The first key is to know which team is favored to win. The team that’s favored going into a match will still have a “-” sign next to their odds, while the underdog will have a “+” sign. The corresponding odds have the same meaning as other sports betting wagers.

If you pick a favored soccer team with a spread of 1.5 that means you think they’ll win the game by at least two goals. If their spread is 1.0, you predict they’ll win by at least one goal.

However, if you pick the underdog team with a spread of +2.5, you can win the bet if they either upset the favored team, or lose by two or fewer goals.

If the underdog team has a spread of 1.0 and loses by two goals, you’ll lose the bet.

Totals

The final traditional level of sports betting comes in the form of totals. This is exactly what it sounds like. You’re wagering on the total combined number of points scored in a game.

This type of bet is commonly referred to as an over/under bet as well.

If a soccer game has an over/under of 2.5 goals, you can either bet they’ll score more than 2.5 goals or less than 2.5 goals. Like the other forms of wagers listed above, these props often can be bet on as live bets with live odds, should you so choose.

World Cup Prop Bets

Live Bets

Soccer fans aren’t limited to wagering on props before a game starts. With live betting, you can place wagers on soccer games as they’re happening in real time.

This is an incredibly handy feature, particularly in soccer, where the action is nonstop. For example, if you’re more comfortable watching the first half of a game before betting on the moneyline, you can do so.

Of course, odds will fluctuate as a game goes on. If a team is winning 3-0 with five minutes left in a match, their moneyline odds to win will be incredibly low and won’t yield you hardly any return.

You can generally place live bets on moneylines, spreads, and totals (over/unders) during the tournament. Sportsbooks often also offer live odds boosts incentives, so keep an eye out for those before the matches start as well. Live odds boosts will often have much better odds than traditional props, but may also be tougher to predict correctly.

Futures Bet

Futures bets are bets surrounding things that won’t be resolved immediately. Futures bets are extremely popular in the World Cup due to the extended tournament format. For example, soccer bettors can place wagers on who will win the World Cup final, or just wager on which teams will will make it out of their assigned World Cup Group.

Other types of futures bets include who will win the golden ball award, the golden boot award, or the golden glove award.

These odds fluctuate regularly until they are resolved. Therefore, if you are looking to place a wager on who will win the World Cup and you see odds that you like, jump on them before they’re gone.

Team Props

Team props are wagers regarding specific statistics surrounding a team in a particular game. Rather than having to decide how many points your team will score if if they’ll win or not, you can place wagers on other aspects of team performance.

Team props can be based on certain events happening throughout the course of a game in addition to pure statistics. A lot of these wagers are simple yes or no formats. Some examples of team props could include:

Will the U.S. and Mexico each score a goal in the second half?
Which team will score first?
Will there be a goal scored in the final 15 minutes of the game?

Player Props

Similarly to team props, you’re not betting on traditional types of wagers when placing a player prop. Player props are betting on individual aspects of how an individual will play in any given game.

Player props are often more statistic-based. But like team props, they may be related to certain events happening at certain points of the game. Examples can be such as:

Will Kylian Mbappe score a goal?
Will Cristiano Ronaldo record an assist?
Will Hugo Lloris hold shut out his opponent?

Parlays

Parlays are a common “go big or go home” sports betting method. A parlay is when you wager on multiple props, or legs, to occur in order for your parlay wager to win. If even one leg goes wrong, you will lose your bet.

An exception to the rule that one wrong leg can end your parlay is when sportsbooks run a parlay insurance promotion, where you can still win your parlay or receive some bonus funds back if only one leg is unsuccessful. These parlay promotions will also have their own unique terms and conditions regarding how long your odds must be, generally requiring at least three legs.

The longer odds your parlay is, the more your potential payout can be.

World Cup Betting Tips

Look at injuries and lineups

Nobody ever wants injuries to happen, but they are an unfortunate part of reality in every sport. Injuries are especially common in tournaments like the World Cup, where teams will play multiple games without much rest in-between.

Before placing your bet it’s smart to research whether or not someone is hurt and isn’t going to play. Injuries are also more susceptible in hot and humid environments, and the weather for the World Cup in Qatar this year is likely to be both.

Look at previous head-to-head matchups

Looking a prior matchups can give you some insight into what a smart World Cup bet may be. However, don’t forget that the World Cup is only held once every four years, so each roster can look noticeably different due to this four year span.

However, if two teams recently faced one another in the another tournament or an international friendly game, it could be instructive to see who won that game and by how many goals.

Don’t be afraid of an underdog

People are often hesitant to bet the team not favored to win, aka the underdog, particularly when the oddsmakers place them as heavy underdogs.

However, think about March Madness. When filling out your March Madness bracket, you don’t pick every higher seed to advance to the second round, otherwise your bracket gets busted very early on.

The World Cup is a single elimination tournament, just like March Madness, and anything can happen in these types of environments with that kind of pressure.For example, look no further than Croatia stunning the world to make it to the championship game in 2018!

As long as you familiarize yourself with the competition, bet smart, and use promotions to your advantage, World Cup wagers are a great way to introduce yourself to a new betting opportunity.