Complete Guide
How to run a
World Cup sweepstake.
Everything you need to know — from choosing your group size to crowning a winner. Five steps, five minutes to read, two minutes to set up.
Complete Guide
Everything you need to know — from choosing your group size to crowning a winner. Five steps, five minutes to read, two minutes to set up.
Step by Step
A World Cup sweepstake works with anywhere from 3 to 48 players. With 48 teams in the 2026 tournament, smaller groups mean more teams per person, while larger groups mean fewer. The sweet spot is 8 to 24 players — enough for variety, small enough for everyone to stay engaged.
Tip: With 12 players, each person gets 4 teams. With 24, each gets 2. With 48, everyone gets exactly 1.
Give people a clear date by which they need to join. The World Cup 2026 kicks off on 11 June, so set your deadline a day or two before. This creates urgency and stops the "I'll do it later" problem.
Tip: A week before kickoff is ideal. Enough time for stragglers, not so much that people forget.
Once you've created your sweepstake, you get a unique link. Share it in your group chat, Slack channel, email thread, or wherever your group communicates. Everyone joins by entering their name, email, and phone number — no accounts needed.
Tip: Pin the link in your group chat so latecomers can find it easily.
When everyone has joined, run the initial draw. All 48 teams are distributed among your players using a cryptographically fair shuffle. Each player gets their teams by SMS and email. No hat, no accusations of cheating.
Tip: sweep.football uses crypto.getRandomValues() with Fisher-Yates — the gold standard for fair randomisation.
This is where sweep.football is different from traditional sweepstakes. After each round, we check which teams were eliminated. If all of a player's teams are out, that player is eliminated. Everyone who survives gets completely new teams for the next round. The field narrows naturally through the tournament until two people face off in the Final.
Tip: The redraw mechanic keeps everyone engaged. Even if your Group Stage teams were weak, you might get Brazil in the Quarter-Finals.
You don't need to track results, calculate eliminations, or send messages. Create your sweepstake in two minutes and the platform handles everything from the first draw to the Final.
Create Your Sweepstake — £20FAQ
Minimum 3, maximum 48. Any number in between works. The system adjusts team distribution automatically — if the total doesn't divide evenly, some players get one extra team.
If you have 10 players and 48 teams, 8 players get 5 teams and 2 players get 4 teams. The allocation is random, so nobody is disadvantaged.
After each round, we check every player's teams. If ALL of your teams have been knocked out of the World Cup, you're eliminated. If even one of your teams is still in, you survive and get redrawn.
After eliminations, the remaining teams are redistributed among surviving players. So you get completely new teams every round. This is what keeps the sweepstake exciting.
Six: Group Stage (48 to 32), Round of 32 (32 to 16), Round of 16 (16 to 8), Quarter-Finals (8 to 4), Semi-Finals (4 to 2), and the Final (2 to 1).
No. The organiser pays a one-off £20 fee for the software. Participants join for free. Any private arrangements between participants are their own business.
sweep.football is a software platform. You pay £20 for software that runs draws, tracks results, and sends notifications. We do not collect entry fees, hold funds, or arrange prizes. Any financial arrangements between participants are entirely private matters.
Yes. Each sweepstake is a separate £20 fee. You might run one for the office and one for the family.
One organiser pays £20. Everyone else joins free. Takes about two minutes.
Create Your Sweepstake — £20