World Cup Qatar 2022 Betting Schedule

With the official tournament draw not scheduled until April 2022, there aren’t many bets a punter can make on the World Cup right now apart from an outright wager on which nation you expect to be holding up the World Cup Trophy after the Final on December 18th. There are some sportsbooks that will also be offering Player of the Tournament or tournament high-scorer outright markets ahead of the actual draw as well, but with limited markets.
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Most Popular World Cup Betting Markets

There are loads of different betting markets to choose from once the tournament actually starts, but if you want to get a jump on things, there are a couple of markets that should already be open on most sportsbooks.

The most common pre-tournament bet is undoubtedly the outright winner bet, where a punter is wagering on which team they expect to win the whole tournament. Because this is such a long-term bet, the odds are usually offering a ton of value even for the top favorites. We’re pretty partial to Brazil, France, and Belgium in this regard, and considering that their value is likely to go down after the draw, a bet on one of that trio nice and early could prove very lucrative.

Player of the Tournament and top goalscorer are a couple of other futures bets that are often offering a few markets before the draw will be made, as many of the usual suspects such as Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Romelu Lukaku, and Harry Kane have already clinched their spots in the tournament.

Once the draw is made, the options really open up for the World Cup 2022 betting schedule. Punters will be able to make matchday wagers on which team they think will win (or whether it’ll be a draw) which are the most common types of bets you’ll come across.

A bet on a certain player to score in a given match is also a pretty good wager during the World Cup as well, as the best of the best usually come out and play their best during the tournament, which leads to some pretty predictable goalscorers.

Another very popular wager to make during the World Cup or on any soccer match is on the total goals scored. Based on the nation’s form during the qualification tournament as well as the domestic form of their top players, a punter can make a pretty well-educated guess as to how many combined goals will be scored in a given match.

Our personal favorite betting market is the group winner wager, where you predict which team will finish top in any given World Cup group. These are usually offering pretty reasonable odds considering the quality of the 32 teams that make it into the tournament. If you want to add value though, you can take your single bet and turn it into a parlay or accumulator, which is basically several single bets rolled up into one.

A parlay will always offer much more lucrative odds than a single bet, but since each different bet in the parlay has to hit for you to reap your rewards, there’s a considerable amount of risk involved with betting parlays. A three or four-team Group Winner parlay is usually one of the safest bets you can make while still maintaining reasonably high value.

Because of the summer heat in Qatar, the 2022 World Cup is being played in November and December, which means it interrupts the seasons of nearly every major domestic league. Because of this, tournament organizers have made the World Cup schedule much more condensed, completing the tournament in just 28 days, the shortest schedule since the 1970s.

Taking this into account, bets on teams with deeper benches and a longer list of talented players should be safer, as fatigue is likely to play a large role at the tournament, what with the condensed schedule and the Qatar heat (yes, it’s still very hot even in November). It’s worth looking into which teams have shown their stripes in the realms of fatigue, stamina, and toughness as well.

Another way to give yourself an advantage while betting on the World Cup is to make sure you keep yourself closely apprised of the recent results of a nation as well as the form of its players before you place a wager on them. Teams from different continents basically only play one another at the World Cup every four years, so oddsmakers don’t always handicap group stage games as accurately as they do for other markets. There is surely value to be found.

Because all of the venues are in such close proximity, there won’t be any sort of travelling advantages as there have been in some previous tournaments. As soon as the draw is made in April and we know who’s in which group, punters will be able to start betting on each individual match.

Qualifiers

The final window for qualification games for all six confederations will take place between late January and late March, after which all but two spots will have been decided. In June, the Inter-Confederation play-offs will decide which nations get those final two spots.

13 teams qualified before that final window even opened, with 10 group winners from Europe joined by the top two from South America in Brazil and Argentina as well as the host nation, Qatar. All told the CAF (Africa) gets 5 slots, the AFC (Asia) gets 4.5, UEFA (Europe) gets 13, CONCACAF (North/Central America) gets 3.5, OFC (Oceania) gets 0.5, and CONMEBOL (South America) gets 4.5. A 0.5 means that confederation will send one team to the Inter-Confederation play-offs.

Final Tournament Schedule

Every match on the World Cup schedule has already been set with a date and time, we just don’t know which teams are playing which matches yet. The official tournament draw will go down in April 2022 once the bulk of the qualification process has finished.

Knockout Stage

The knockout stage follows the group stage at the World Cup and will feature the top two teams from each of the eight groups from the group stage being redrawn in the Round of 16. A single-match knockout tournament begins here, with the quarter finals, and semifinals following the Round of 16 before we whittle the field down to two nations for the December 18th Final.

Prior to the various confederations returning to World Cup 2022 qualification competition in January 2022, 13 nations have already booked their tickets to Qatar next November. Here we’ll break down who’s already in and how they got there.

AFC

• Qatar → The first team to qualify as the host nation, this will be Qatar’s first-ever participation in the World Cup.

CONMEBOL

• Brazil → The favorite to lift the trophy on nearly all sportsbooks, Brazil was the first South American team to confirm their spot in this World Cup, doing so on November 11th after amassing enough points to clinch a qualifying position with four matches still remaining in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying tournament.
• Argentina → Five days after their northeastern neighbors confirmed their qualification, Argentina—one of three South American nations, along with Brazil, to have won the World Cup—also amassed enough points in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying round robin to clinch their spot with four games still to play.

UEFA

• Germany → The Germans dominated a pretty weak qualifying group, winning 9 of 10 games and punching their World Cup 2022 ticket on November 11th with a disrespectful 9-0 win over Liechtenstein.
• Denmark → Since national captain Christian Eriksen went down last summer at the Euro, the Danes have been a force to be reckoned with, taking a lead in a Euro semi final before going on to nine straight wins in a pretty tough qualification group. They clinched their World Cup berth on November 12th with a 3-1 win over the Faroe Islands before finally losing to Scotland in the 10th and final match, though that one didn’t mean much for Denmark.
• France → The French emerged triumphant from qualifying Group D without a loss, solidifying their successful World Cup qualifying campaign with an 8-0 dusting of Kazakhstan on November 13th. Why Kazakhstan is attempting to qualify through Europe is beyond me by the way.
• Belgium → On the same day as their French neighbors qualified, Belgium did likewise thanks to a 3-1 win over Estonia. Belgium emerges from Group E with six wins and two draws and will—along with France—be the European favorites to win the 2022 World Cup.
• Croatia → The Croatians just barely snuck out of Group H with their hide, winning 1-0 over Russia on November 14th in the final game to pass the latter in the table and finish atop Group H with 23 points to Russia’s 22. Talk about a close call.
• Spain → The Spaniards also had a bit of luck as well, as they were able to pass Sweden for the top spot in Group B after the Swedes dropped their final two matches of the group stage, including the last one, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Spain on November 14th that punched La Furia Roja’s World Cup ticket.
• Serbia → Probably the biggest surprise on this early list of qualifiers, the Serbians somehow beat out Portugal for the top spot in Group A thanks in large part to their 2-1 win over Selecao in the final match of the group stage on November 24th. They sent Portugal into the second round of UEFA qualification, where they’ll have to get past Italy to make the World Cup.
• England → The Three Lions never had to worry about taking their group, winning eight and drawing the other two. Their classless 10-0 win over San Marino on November 15th confirmed their World Cup spot.
• Switzerland → Another relative surprise on this list of early qualifiers are the Swiss, who were able to edge Italy in Group C and clinch their World Cup berth with a 4-0 win over Bulgaria on November 15th. Italy drew its final two group stage ties, and now they’ll have to contend with Portugal for one of the final three play-off spots.
• Netherlands → The last of the UEFA group winners to clinch their spot on the World Cup 2022 schedule were the Dutch, who did so with a 2-0 win over Norway on November 16th to close out the UEFA World Cup qualification first round or group stage.

No nations from CONCACAF, OFC, or CAF clinched a qualifying spot in World Cup Qatar 2022 prior to the January-Wednesday window when all confederations finish off their qualification tournaments.

Because of the strange time and format in which the World Cup 2022 schedule has been put together, it’s important to be aware of all of the important dates and times as soon as you can. And if you ever forget any, you can always come back to this page to remind yourself!

Qualification tournaments for all six confederations will continue with matches being played sporadically from late January 2022 to late March 2022 before the official draw is made some time in April.

The group stage runs from the inaugural game on November 21st to December 2nd. The knockout stages then begins, with the Round of 16 running from December 3rd to 6th, followed by the quarterfinals from December 9th to 10th, the semis from December 13th to 14th, and finally the Final on December 18th. The bronze medal or third place game takes place the day before on December 17th.

Match Times

Match times have already been released for every fixture on the World Cup schedule, with all group stage games kicking off at 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, or 10pm local Qatar time (that’s 5am, 8am, 11am, and 2pm EST time).

The knockout stages move the games a little bit later in the day, with all matches kicking off at either 6pm or 10pm local Qatar time (that’s 10am and 2pm EST time) in the Round of 16, quarterfinals, and semifinals. The Final has been scheduled for 6pm local Qatar time (that’s 10am EST time).

The Draw

The official draw for the World Cup 2022 group stage is a crucial event as it will determine who has to play who in the round robin stage and therefore which teams will have an easier path to the Round of 16 and which ones will have a tougher road. While the exact date of the draw has yet to be announced, it has been confirmed that it will take place at some point in the month of April 2022.

The World Cup 2022 schedule has caused more than a few headaches for executives from pretty much every single top flight soccer division in the world. Because of Qatar’s summer climate the tournament must be played in the cooler months. However, this brings it into conflict with all of the club leagues across Europe and most of the world, who usually run their seasons from roughly August to May.

Because they have to accommodate the World Cup, these leagues have all had to fall in line and come up with an adjusted schedule to work around the biggest sporting event in the world. Many leagues—including the English Premier League—are starting their seasons a little earlier than usual to get more games done before the World Cup break.

The EPL is scheduled to return to action just eight days after the conclusion of the World Cup, as the league was unwilling to give up its classic slate of Boxing Day fixtures. Many other domestic leagues are likely to rush back to action as well.

This will arguably be the most unique World Cup in the tournament’s history, and that is due in very large part to the World Cup 2022 schedule. Because of the extreme heat on the Arabian peninsula—where the tournament’s host nation, Qatar, is located—the tournament is being played outside of the warm months of May, June, and July for the first time ever.

Not only that, but because the tournament has to be played in November and December when it’s cooler in Qatar, they also have to play on a 28-day condensed schedule due to the fact that the tournament will be interrupting all of the club seasons. With the matches coming quick and fast, those larger nations with deeper squads should fare better, as fatigue is likely to play a large part in this tournament. Looking into the fatigue and stamina credentials of nations you intend to bet on would be a smart move here.

This is also the last World Cup played with 32 teams, with the number jumping to 48 for the next iteration in 2026. This means that pre-tournament outright bets are going to become much more lucrative in the future because the more possible outcomes there are, the better the odds will be for each outcome.

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When it comes to finding betting success at the World Cup, nearly as important as which markets you choose to bet on is the sportsbook with whom you decide to bet. Some bookmakers offer much better odds for different markets when compared with their competition.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of our favorite World Cup 2022 betting sites so you have a nice concise jumping off point in your search for the best sportsbook to bet on World Cup 2022 with.