World Cup 2026 betting: Free bet offers and odds - June 18

England finally get their World Cup campaign up and running today, taking on Croatia in Dallas in one of four games taking place on day seven of the tournament.

England are third in the outright market on betting sites ahead of kick-off at AT&T Stadium and bookmakers have produced a raft of England free bet offers for their opening match.

Evening Standard is your one-stop shop for all things World Cup betting, pulling together the best World Cup betting offers, the latest match and outright odds, and a few predictions for the upcoming matches

Evening Standard’s betting experts have picked out the best World Cup betting sites, assessing bookmakers based on welcome offers, ongoing promotions, mobile app quality, and market depth.

England don’t start their World Cup campaign until June 17, but already many fans will be turning their thoughts towards the Three Lions, who have been boosted to 100/1 with BetVictor to win the tournament.

The BetVictor World Cup offer is available until the end of the group stage and if England do win the tournament, bettors will be paid out in a mix of cash and free bets.

For the opening day, BetVictor have a good selection of price boosts for the opening game on both singles and multiples, while bettors can use the Lucky Dip feature to get enhanced odds on a random selection on selected World Cup markets.

Bet365 are the home of World Cup boosts for the 2026 tournament. On the opening day, they boosted Mexico to score to from 1/7 to even money, a bet that landed within 10 minutes.

Check Bet365 socials to find out what today’s Super Boost will be, while new customers can secure up to £30 in free bets to wager on the tournament with the Bet365 World Cup offer.

Bet365 are also offering winnings boosts on successful bet builder and accumulators at the World Cup, along with a £250,000 tournament challenge, early payouts if the team you backed goes two goals ahead and the Sub On Play On.

The Betfred World Cup offer gives new customers who sign up and bet a minimum of £10 on any event on the sportsbook £50 in free bets to wager on the World Cup.

Bettors can also secure a £10 free bet by wagering on every England and Scotland match at the tournament. Put together a bet builder with three or more legs and combined odds of 3/1, and wager £10 to qualify.

Betfred are also running a bet and get offer for selected World Cup games, where punters can claim a £5 in-play free bet by wagering the same amount on a qualifying fixture.

On top of that, there’s money back on losing accumulators, and the unique double-delight & hat-trick heaven promo.

The Ladbrokes sign-up offer features £30 in free bets, which isn’t the largest welcome offer on our list, but it is one of the best value World Cup welcome offers, requiring a £5 deposit and wager to unlock.

Accumulator bettors can get their stake refunded as a free bet if one leg of their World Cup acca doesn’t win, so long as their multiple has at least five legs. There’s also a £5 free bet builder wager available daily for bettors who deposit £10 in shop using a Club Ladbrokes card and then wager £10 online.

New customers who join Midnite can get £30 in free bets to wager on the World Cup. There’s also the option to claim £20 in free bets each week of the tournament via Midnite’s Bet Club.

With an app Store rating of 4.7/5, mobile-first bookies Midnite offer one of the best app experiences on this list.

The Betfair welcome offer for the World Cup features £30 in free bets. The free bets are exclusively for bet builders, which may or may not suit football bettors.

Betfair all offer a 90-minute guarantee on all World Cup games. That means if a wager on a match result market is winning when the clock strikes 90, it will be marked as a winner, no matter the final outcome.

Grosvenor gives new bettors a 100% profit boost when joining, while they are offering a 25% boost token on World Cup bet builder bets.

There’s also cashback available on selected matches if certain conditions are met, with bettors eligible for a free bet refund up to £25.

The Paddy Power World Cup offer is likely to change throughout the tournament, with the bookie regularly running special offers for selected matches. The standard welcome bonus is a bet £5, get £30 in free bets scheme.

England bettors will also be interested to know that there is a free bet builder bet available for every England group stage game.

With Paddy’s Rewards Club, enhanced odds, free bet builder for every England game, and Paddy’s Wonder Wheel, there is plenty of draw to Paddy Power’s World Cup offerings.

Tote’s welcome offer is bet £10 and get £40 in free bets, although not all of the welcome bonus can be used to wager on World Cup games.

Tote’s top World Cup promotion is both novel and unique with bettors able to get their money back on losing World Cup outright bets if the team they backed goes out on penalties.

Tote are offering a maximum refund of £25 on those losing World Cup outright bets, while users can who bet £25 on accumulator wagers can get a £5 free bet each week.

Spreadex are providing a special World Cup sign up offer which includes up to £100 in free bets. The offer features a guaranteed £30 in free bets, while bettors who wager £10 on Spreadex’s World Cup outright market will receive an extra £10 fixed-odds free bet for every game their selection wins in the tournament.

Spreadex’s other selling points include a 100 per cent winnings boost for World Cup accumulators and 2 up early payouts on all tournament games.

As we enter the second round of group stage matches at the World Cup, here are the best free bet offers at the tournament today.

Bettors can find the best odds for World Cup fixtures below. The odds are live so any changes made by bookmakers will be reflected instantly.

Below are live outright winner odds for the 2026 World Cup, which will change significantly throughout the tournament.

Team news can make or break a country’s chances at the World Cup - and your bets. Keep up to date with all the latest top stories from the World Cup.

Czechia vs South Africa

South Africa’s performance at the Estadio Azteca was perhaps among the most forgettable of matchday one. A 2-0 defeat complete with two red cards - there were few positives to take, if any.

Czechia, meanwhile, faced what was arguably a stiffer opponent in South Korea and more than held their own, save for the obvious late capitulation.

Start well and impose themselves, this stricken South Africa should not be too difficult for Czechia to sweep aside. We expect them to chalk up their first three points of the summer.

Czechia to win 3-0.

Evening Standard took a close look at all the World Cup offers listed on this page before putting them forward. Here are some of the criteria we considered when looking at free bet promotions and other offers.

We weigh the value against the qualifying stake, as a high free bet figure means little if the qualifying bet is £20 at evens, for example.

Headline figures (£30, £40, £50) are only one factor - lower qualifying stakes often win out for casual bettors.

Free bets can be paid out in different ways, which might impact the overall value of an offer.

For example, bonuses split into 4x £10 free bets give bettors more wagering options, allowing them to potentially diversify their bonus, whereas one big £40 free bet token forces a single decision.

Restrictions on qualifying bets and free bet tokens can also make or break a welcome offer. Bettors should look out for minimum odds restrictions or caps on winnings from World Cup free bet offers.

Bettors may also be hindered by the type of wager a free bet can be used for. If the bookmaker offers a large bounty of free bets for joining, but all the free bets are restricted to correct score or more niche markets, the offer loses some value.

Some World Cup betting offers require bettors to wager any winnings, which subtracts from the value of any welcome offer.

Plenty of bookmakers will continue football-specific promos such as 2 Up, money back on losing bet builders, acca insurance, daily price boosts, and free-to-play games for the World Cup.

Ongoing promotions provide return value for bettors, so regular punters are set to benefit more from promotions.

Evening Standard has an in-depth guide on how to bet on the World Cup with plenty of useful insights, but for those seeking some quick hints and tips, here’s our top advice for World Cup betting.

Understand World Cup betting markets

Knowing how each betting market works and what has to happen in order for a bet to win is critical. Bettors should never bet on a market they don’t understand.

A novice bettor may want to keep it simple, wagering on markets like the World Cup winner or match result while building up their betting knowledge.

Outright vs match betting

Outright markets, such as tournament winner, top scorer, and Golden Ball, tend to offer the best value before the tournament starts, when the field is wide open and prices have not yet been sharpened by results.

Outright prices shorten quickly during the knockout rounds and that value tends to evaporate once the field narrows past the round of 16.

However, there are occasionally opportunities to get a bit of extra value on outright bets during the tournament following a surprise group stage defeat, i.e. Saudi Arabia beating eventual winners Argentina in 2022.

Match betting is the safer ground once teams are actually playing and form is visible.

Bet builders and accumulators

Bet builders combine multiple selections from a single match, such as match result, over/under, and an anytime goalscorer.

Accumulators instead combine selections from multiple matches and the odds compound across each leg.

Large accas can look tempting, with huge potential returns, but don’t forget the risk factor is being multiplied with each leg added, just like the odds. That being said, acca insurance is offered by some bookmakers such as Ladbrokes, which refunds your stake (up to £10) if just one selection of your 5+ leg acca fails.

Bet builder boosts, provided by bookies such as William Hill and Bet365, can also add a little extra value on the bettor’s side.

Reading odds and finding value

UK bookmakers default to fractional odds, but you can change odds to decimal in the app or website settings.

Bettors can work out their potential return with fractional odds: the right number shows the stake, and the left shows the winnings. So, if a £1 bet was placed at 3/1 odds and it won, bettors would make a £3 profit and also get their £1 stake back.

Decimal odds show how much you would receive back, including your stake. So, 4.00 in decimal odds is equivalent to 3/1.

The implied probability of a bet winning can also be determined from the odds. A price of 2/1 means the bookmaker rates the outcome at a 33.3 per cent of happening. If a punter rates it higher, that is where value sits.

You can find further value by comparing prices across multiple bookmakers using Evening Standard’s odds tool.

Bankroll discipline across a tournament

Set a total tournament budget before the opening match and stick to it - avoid chasing losses with bigger stakes on the next match.

Treat bets on your own nation's matches with extra caution - emotional bets are usually bad bets.

All bookmakers will provide various responsible gambling tools such as deposit limits, time-outs, and self-exclusion via GAMSTOP, but you can find further support at BeGambleAware or Gamcare and the NHS gambling support page.

For the first time, three countries will host the World Cup. The USA will host the majority of games, including all matches from the quarter-finals onwards - 78 matches across 11 cities in total. Canada and Mexico will host 13 games each, across two and three cities, respectively. The final is at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Evening Standard’s picks are re-ranked daily based on the current state of each promotion and the World Cup.

Personal preference can play a big part in what a punter views as the best offer - if you prefer accas, promotions that offer an accas winnings boost or minimise risk with free bet refunds might be preferable over boosted in-play odds, for example.

Yes, every UK-licensed bookmaker on this list offers in-play betting on World Cup matches.

If live in-play betting is your thing, LeoVegas Sport's welcome offer is a 100% profit boost on a first in-play bet.

Grosvenor also offers a strong variety of in-play bet builder markets.

Yes, the 2026 FIFA World Cup is scheduled to take place across the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The 2026 tournament is the first to feature the expanded 48-team format, with 104 games across 39 days confirmed by FIFA.