World Cup Fantasy Football Strategy: How To Play, Boosters, Tips

By Mark Fordham

Jun 8th, 2026 10:40 AM EDT

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With the Premier League season over, there will be plenty of you who have been struggling to work out what to deliberate over for hours if not your fantasy football team. But worry no more, because you can focus your attention on the World Cup Fantasy Football game. 

While broadly similar, there are some differences to pay attention to, so we’ll run through the game works, which boosters to look out for and some fantasy football tips for the first round of the group stage. We'll also lay out some of the best World Cup free bets that betting sites are running right now.

How To Play World Cup Fantasy Football

There’s a pretty good chance you’ll be familiar with the Fantasy Premier League game. If you are, then you’ll have a decent idea of what to expect in the World Cup version. 

The aim of the game is to score as many points as possible with your squad of players. Points are awarded based on real-life performance for things like appearances, clean sheets, goals and assists, while points are deducted for conceding two or more, being booked or sent off and some other criteria.

The World Cup games are split into rounds (like Gameweeks in Fantasy Premier League). The first, second and third round of group games are the first three fantasy rounds. Transfers can be made in between these. From there, each knockout phase will be its own fantasy round. 

To get started, you’ll need to build your squad. All players are assigned a value for the purposes of the game. The better the player is expected to do, the higher his value. Choose a squad of 15 players that fits within your $100m budget. Picking superstars will need to be offset by finding some diamonds in the rough in order to stay within budget. 

Transfers can be made throughout the World Cup, but you’ll only have a set amount available for free. Additional transfers will be available, but they’ll cost you points. Make sure to use these wisely and plan ahead. The number of transfers available, and indeed the maximum number of players you can have from the same team, increases as the tournament progresses. 

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How Does World Cup Fantasy Football Work?

As ever with fantasy football, you’re trying to pick the players who you think will score the most points through positive contributions in real-life games. Chances are you’ve played Premier League fantasy football at some point in your life, and the World Cup game isn’t much different, but there’s a few things worth noting.

One of the main differences is substitutions. In the Premier League edition, you choose your team before the gameweek locks 90 minutes before the first game of the round kicks off – but the World Cup version is much more lenient as you can actually make subs whilst a round is going on.

So, if one of your starters has a shocker or simply doesn’t live up to expectations, you can swap them out for someone who is yet to play. You can’t substitute players who are in the middle of a game, and you can’t put someone you’ve taken off back into your lineup for that round, but it still affords you flexibility if one of your initial starters disappoints.

There’s similar versatility with captains and vice-captains, too. Unlike in FPL where you have to choose your captain before the gameweek locks, the World Cup version allows you to switch your captain as many times as you like during the round to someone who hasn’t played.

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What World Cup Fantasy Football Boosters Are There?

With so many managers picking similar players for their squads, your leagues will generally be won by whoever uses their boosters best. Make sure you know how they work to extract the maximum value from each of them.

Wildcard: Playing this gives you unlimited transfers for your chosen round. However, it can’t be used in the round of 32 so plan accordingly around that. The later you can leave playing this the better, ensuring you can field a full 11 in the latter stages of the competition. Unlike the other boosters, once you click to use your Wildcard Booster you are locked in. The rest can be cancelled before the round starts if you change your mind.

12th Man: Pick one extra player to be part of your team for that round. Again, another that needs a bit of planning as the player can’t be in your active squad, and also once you have picked them they can’t be substituted, captained or transferred.

Maximum Captain: Forget having to make that dreaded captaincy decision for one round. Playing this booster will make whoever scores the most points in your team the captain.

Qualification Booster: One you need to use in the knockouts, playing this booster will give two points to every player in your starting 11 who qualifies for the next round. This will not double to four points if your captain qualifies for the next round.

Mystery Booster: This booster will be revealed when the round of 32 is open. The suggestion is this will be related to clean sheets in some way, with players possibly retaining their bonus if they only concede one goal in a game. This is something to keep an eye out for confirmation on as early as possible.

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World Cup Fantasy Football Strategy - Who Should You Pick for Round 1?

Manuel Neuer, Germany (vs Curacao) - $5m

Manuel Neuer hasn’t played an international game since Euro 2024, but he has come out of retirement just in time for the World Cup. Manager Julian Nagelsmann has confirmed he will be the starting keeper in the tournament, and he gets himself going against World Cup debutants Curacao.

A clean sheet is the least we can expect from him. It won’t be an unusual sight to see him standing nearer the centre circle than his own penalty area, where he can use his great passing range to add some extra points.

Scott McTominay, Scotland (vs Haiti) - $6.5m

There likely won’t be an easier fixture at the World Cup this year as facing Haiti. Scott McTominay is sure to be a popular choice for fantasy teams when Scotland face them in their World Cup opener. The Scot has four goals in his last eight games for club and country, and 14 in his last 31 appearances for Scotland.

In a game they’ll likely be gunning to build their goal difference to try to secure one of the third-place qualification spots at a minimum, we fancy McTominay to be heavily involved.

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Arda Güler, Türkiye (vs Australia) - $7m

Türkiye’s 21-year-old midfielder was one of the stars of Euro 2024 and will again be the main man his country are looking to for inspiration. He’s coming off a great season for Real Madrid and played some of his best football when Xabi Alonso gave him more responsibility before he left. He’s going to get that role again here, as you feel anything good Türkiye does will come through him.

$7 million is a great price to get a team’s talisman, especially as they have a nice opening fixture against Australia in their first game. It’s not just about this one game, though. With further matches against Paraguay and the USA, he could be a great budget option to leave in your team throughout the group stages.

Jonathan David, Canada (vs Qatar) - $7m

It was not a stellar first year playing for Juventus. After lighting up Ligue 1 with Lille, the Canada striker was supposed to take the next step in his career, but six goals in Serie A is not going to get it done for the Bianconeri. However, he is the undisputed star striker for Canada and even more important with Alphonso Davies struggling for fitness.

Canada line up against a Qatar team that haven’t won since October last year. In the time since then, they have been defeated by Ireland, Tunisia, Palestine and Zimbabwe. David and Canada should get off to a high-scoring start against last World Cup’s hosts.

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Mike Oyarzabal, Spain (vs Cape Verde) - $8.1m

All eyes will be on Lamine Yamal when Spain take on Cape Verde, but his $10m price tag plus the fact he may not be fully fit makes him a potentially prohibitive pick, so it’s worth pivoting to Mikel Oyarzabal for a couple of million less. The Real Sociedad forward scored 15 times in La Liga this season, his best-ever return, and was Spain’s joint top scorer during qualifying with six goals in as many games.

Oyarzabal should be able to feast against one of the lowest-ranked teams in the tournament in Cape Verde and add to the 24 goals he’s scored for La Roja. $8.1m does make him one of the more expensive players in fantasy football, but he could barely be opening his campaign with an easier fixture.

Here is our recommended squad of 15 for the opening round of fixtures:

How Points Work in World Cup Fantasy Football

One of the keys to success in fantasy football of any kind is knowing how the points are scored for specific players. As with any iteration of the game there are some convoluted rules, but being on the right side of them could be the difference between winning and losing.

In addition to the below, you will see an additional bonus point on top a goal scored for any player you have scoring a direct free-kick. There are also two extra points up for grabs if any of your players score more than four points in a game and fewer than five percent of players have picked them. Here are the points breakdowns.

All Players

Goalkeepers

Defenders

Midfielders

Forwards

About the Author

Mark Fordham

More About Mark

Mark spent over a decade as a sports reporter and editor with Goal.com and Bleacher Report. He is now a Content Manager at Bookies.com covering all manner of sports from the Premier League and cricket to the NBA and NFL. Mark also has years of experience working in the online casino industry and knows how to rate a good one over a bad one.

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