the World Cup Thursday kicks off with five weeks of all-round football to look forward to!
As happens every four years, it will generate great interest from casual observers of the beautiful game who care little for the tribalism of club football.
And while teams like England and Scotland are easy to catch, what happens if they go out early? Is this the end of the 2026 World Cup? Absolutely not. If you add a second team to follow, this could keep things interesting until the latter stages. And before you know it, you’ll be staying up until 4am watching Iran vs New Zealand!
So how can you have some fun and engage everyone in the office, at the bar or in your WhatsApp group? With the lottery of course!
However, it can be difficult to organize, especially when it comes to distributing teams. Everyone wants Spain or France instead of Curacao or Jordan, right?
Well, let 101 Great Goals take the stress out of the situation with our lottery generator.
All you have to do is put the names of your friends or colleagues into the generator and the results will appear, much to the delight of some and the ire of others!
Don’t worry if you don’t have 48 players, as multiple teams will be assigned to one player if necessary.
Best of all, it’s free!
How does the World Cup Sweepstakes work?
The format is simple. Everyone pays the same amount, the teams are drawn randomly, and the winnings come out of the pot. Whoever ends up as the final champions takes the prize. It’s the easiest way to get a whole office or group chat interested in teams they don’t normally watch.
Most groups choose one of two payment structures. Winner Takes All and Cleanest: The bet goes to whoever drew the winners and that’s about it. Tiered payouts distribute the money, with a share for the champions, a smaller share for the defeated finalist, and often a little for each semi-final loser. The classes keep more people more deeply interested in the tournament, which tends to be more fun.
Many sweepstakes also add a wooden spoon: a small prize, or forfeit, for whichever team is eliminated first. It gives the worst draw something to play for.
Conducting a lottery with the participation of 48 teams
2026 is the first World Cup to feature 48 teams instead of 32, and that changes the calculations. In a typical office sweepstakes or group chat of 10-20 people, everyone ends up with two to five teams instead of just one. This generator solves this problem for you and shares the teams as equally as possible.
If some people invest more than others, you can give them a larger stake. Simply set the number of teams next to their names when the draw is made, and everyone will split the rest.
Keeping a few teams is really the best part. You have more to keep track of during the group stage, a greater chance of landing an opponent, and more to talk about when one of your groups goes down in the first week. Some of the teams in the pot are clear prizes, such as Argentina, France or England. The others will almost certainly return home before the knockout. Not knowing what you’re going to get is the point.
Lottery Prize Ideas
- Entry fees. £1 to £5 per head is the usual range for an office sweepstakes. Enough to make it important, and cheap enough for everyone to get on board.
- Winner takes all, or tiered. A tiered breakdown of, say, 60% for the winner, 20% for the finalist, and 10% for each semi-finalist, keeps more people in it longer.
- Non-cash prizes. When trading money gets awkward, play for a bottle of something, a silly trophy, or bragging rights until the next Euro.
- Wooden spoon. A small prize or forfeit for whoever gets out first. Which no one wants to win.
World Cup 2026: key facts
- Dates: From June 11 to July 19, 2026
- Host countries: United States, Canada, Mexico
- Access: 16 cities and 16 stadiums
- appearance: 12 groups of 4, 104 matches in total
- Opening match: Mexico vs. South Africa, Estadio Azteca, June 11
- last: MetLife Stadium, New Jersey, July 19
- Four countries for the first time: Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan, Uzbekistan
- Noticeable absence: Italy is out of the tournament for the third time in a row
- Previous winners in this field: France, Spain, Argentina, England, Germany, Brazil, Uruguay
2026 World Cup kits
Group A
- Mexico
- South Africa
- South Korea
- Czech Republic
Group B
- Canada
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Qatar
- Switzerland
Group C
- Brazil
- Morocco
- Haiti
- Scotland
Group D
- USA
- Paraguay
- Australia
- turkey
Group E
- Germany
- Curacao
- Ivory Coast
- Ecuador
Group F
- Holland
- Japan
- Sweden
- Tunisia
Group G
- Belgium
- Egypt
- Iran
- New Zealand
Group H
- Spain
- Cape Verde
- Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- Uruguay
First group
- France
- Senegal
- Iraq
- Norway
Group J
- Argentina
- Algeria
- Austria
- Jordan
Group K
- Portugal
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Uzbekistan
- Colombia
Group L
- England
- Croatia
- Ghana
- Panama
