The FIFA World Cup is the single biggest and most cared about sporting event in the world. It takes place every four years, similar to each Olympics, but the national pride that is at stake and the eyes of the world watching even exceeds that of either Olympic Games.
The final World Cup tournament takes place for about a month every four years, generally starting in June and ending sometime in July. There are 32 countries present at the final tournament, with 8 groups of 4 teams battling it out in the group stage before 16 teams emerge into the knockout phase of the tournament. From there the team that wins there last four matches is crowned the World Cup Champion.
The final tournament is what really captures the worlds attention, but as you know there are far more countries in the world than 32, so qualifiers for the Finals must take place. Some countries start their qualifying efforts as early as three years prior to the World Cup Finals as nations battle it out for a chance to compete in the final World Cup tournament.
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How To Bet On The World Cup
Betting on the World Cup at any stage is as easy as three simple steps:
- Open a Betting Account – Click on any of our recommended World Cup bookies above to visit their website and set up an account. Every online sportsbook recommended here at BetOnIt.org is of the highest quality and trust in the industry and these sportsbooks also offer some great World Cup promotions. Setting up a new account will only take a couple minutes.
- Fund Your Account – You will need to make a deposit in order to have money with which to bet on the FIFA World Cup. Find the ‘cashier’ or ‘deposit’ section of the sportsbook and choose one of the many deposit methods available. If you run into any problems don’t hesitate to contact customer support. Their job is to make sure your transactions go smoothly.
- Place Your Bets – You are now ready to bet! Find the soccer section of the sportsbook and click on ‘World Cup’ or ‘International’ bets to place your wagers.
Types of World Cup Bets
2×1 and Asian handicap bets are the most common forms of wagering on World Cup soccer matches. With 2×1 bets you wager on the exact outcome of the match (which team wins or whether the game will end in a draw), while with Asian handicap bets the oddsmaker provides a spread where there are only two potential outcomes and you place your wager on either side. You can learn more about the bets on individual soccer matches here.
The more unique bets that you can make for the World Cup include betting on the tournament winner or other futures bets such as ‘which team will win Group A’, ‘whether a team will qualify for the knockout stage’, ‘whether a team will qualify from CONCACAF’, etc. There are really an endless number of things to bet on for the World Cup and these bets can usually be made years in advance of the World Cup Finals actually being played. Check out the online sportsbook that you signed up with for their current World Cup odds.
For more information about the World Cup including it’s structure and history check out the FIFA World Cup wiki page. And to keep up with how the current World Cup is shaping up click here.