Alternative World Cup Sweepstake

May 31
5 min read

Is there a better alternative to a regular World Cup Sweepstake? We think so...

With less than two weeks till the World Cup, offices up and down the UK are scrambling to organise World Cup Sweepstakes. Emails are being fired out, and messages are being hastily shared on Slack channels.

But we at Peripheral are tired of the same old sweepstake format. With 48 nations at the 2026 tournament, and more disparity that ever between the teams the lack of parity of the 48 nations at the World Cup, the harsh reality is that barring a massive upset, only a few teams have a genuine chance of lifting the trophy.

This is a problem for the World Cup sweepstake. Nobody wants to enter, just to find out that their hopes for victory rest in the hands of tournament debutants Uzbekistan.

For that reason, Peripheral have created a World Cup sweepstake we think people can actually get behind.

A new World Cup sweepstake model

Type	Activity	Top	Mid	Low
Per Game	Win	3	4	5
Per Game	Draw	1	2	3
Per Game	4+ Goals in a game	2	4	6
Progression	Progress through group stage	3	4	5
Progression	Progress to Round of 16	2	3	4
Progression	Progress to QF	3	4	5
Progression	Progress to SF	2	4	6
Progression	Final loser	3	5	7
Progression	Winner	7	12	15
Penalties	Penalty Shootout win	1	1	1

Rules:

Bonuses stack if a team keeps progressing

Win/draw goes by results in 120 minutes

Third place play off does NOT count

Top Tier (15 teams)	Mid Tier (15 teams)	Low Tier (18 teams)
France, Spain, Argentina, England, Portugal, Brazil, Netherlands, Morocco, Belgium, Germany, Croatia, Colombia, Senegal, Mexico, United States	Uruguay, Japan, Switzerland, Iran, Turkey, Ecuador, Austria, South Korea, Australia, Algeria, Egypt, Canada, Norway, Panama, Ivory Coast	Sweden, Paraguay, Czechia, Scotland, Tunisia, DR Congo, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Iraq, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, Ghana, Curacao, Haiti, New Zealand

Based on Fifa World Rankings at the time of print

We've split all 48 qualified nations into three tiers based on their current FIFA World Rankings which gives every team, and every entrant, a genuine stake in the tournament.

Points are assigned based on performance milestones, and crucially, the lower the tier a team, the more each milestone is worth. A win for Uzbekistan scores more than a win for France, which gives teams more parity within the sweepstake.

The rules

We recommend organisers follow one of the following structures.

Regular draw

Organisers can do a regular random draw. If there is more than 15 participants, each participant gets one team. If there is less than 15, each participant can get one or more teams from each pot.

Example: If 5 players are taking part in the sweepstake, each can be drawn 3 teams from each pot. The winner of the sweepstake will be the player whose teams have the most cumulative points

The Draft

Groups can also do a draft to decide who gets assigned which team. If there are more than 15 people, we would recommend a random draw to decide the draft order. If there are less than 15, and every player gets more than one pick, we would recommend doing a snake system to decide the teams they want assigned.

Example: If 5 players are taking part, first assign the 15 teams in tier 1, 3 each. One person picks their first team, and each of the 5 chooses one. The last player to pick a team, gets 6th and then the system rotates back. This is repeated for all 3 pots

Things to keep in mind

The Peripheral World Cup Sweepstake rules are as follows:

Scores are taken into account after 120 minutes (e.g a 1-1 draw in extra time is counted as a draw, plus any penalty shootout bonuses)
Points are cumulative e.g a team who are knocked out in the semi-final get points for getting through each round before that
Win and draw bonuses are counting in all games apart from a third placed play off, which is not counted

Points calculation example

Below is an example calculation, for Ecuador (tier 2)

Group Stage: Ivory Coast 1-1 Ecuador (2 points for a draw)
Group Stage: Germany 3-0 Ecuador (0 points)
Group Stage: Curacao 0-4 Ecuador (4 points for a win, 4 points for 4+ goals, 4 points for progressing)
Round of 32: South Korea 0-4 Ecuador (4 points for a win, 4 points for 4+ goals, 3 points for progressing)
Round of 16: Ecuador (P) 1-1 England (2 points for a draw, 1 point for penalty shoot out win, 4 points for progressing)
Quarter Finals: Sweden 3-1 Ecuador (0 points)

In this situation, Ecuador would get 32 points for their tournament peformance.

Why our alternative sweepstake format works better

The main benefits of the Peripheral World Cup Sweepstake against a regular draw are that:

All teams have a chance of doing well, even if they can't win the tournament
In a draft situation, competitors can use their football knowledge to choose underrated teams, similar to Fantasy Football player picks
The tiered system allows for a more equal, competitive competition

How to track a teams' points

Peripheral will also update this page with each teams' score to make it easy for competitors to understand how their team is performing.

Formats for differnet numbers of participants

For 3 participants

Each player gets:

5 teams from tier 1
5 teams from tier 2
5 teams from tier 3

Use a snake drafting system or random draw to allocate teams