The FIFA World Cup is coming to the United States. The 2026 World Cup will be hosted in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and will take place from June 11th to July 19th, 2026. The upcoming World Cup will feature an expanded 48 team format, up from the typical 32 team tournament of past World Cups.
The USA have an automatic entry into the 2026 World Cup as co-hosts of the tournament. California will play a big role in the hosting duties with SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles and Levi’s Stadium in San Francisco being two of the tournament venues. SoFi Stadium will host 5 group stage games and 2 knockout round games, while Levi’s Stadium will feature 5 games in the group stage and 1 in the knockout round.
With the United States hosting the World Cup for the first time since 1994, I expect the tournament to receive the maximum amount of attention here in the USA, with plenty of new bettors looking to get World Cup betting action online. For this reason I wanted to add this page to help California residents quickly and easily place World Cup bets.
On this page I will recommend my favorite sportsbook for California residents, look at the legality of sports betting in the state, touch on some of the popular World Cup bets you can make, and finish up with a 3 step tutorial to help California residents get World Cup bets placed online within minutes.
Top Sportsbook for California Residents
- Built for American bettors
- Wide variety of competitive betting lines
- Easy to navigate betting platform
Bovada and BetOnline are our top rated betting sites for California residents. For the remainder of this guide I will be using our top rated betting site, Bovada.lv.
Bovada is entirely focused on the US betting market, and has become the most popular and trusted betting site serving American players.
Bovada is taking bets on every World Cup match (including qualifiers) and offers new players a 50% matching bonus up to $250 on your first deposit.
World Cup Betting in California
It is not currently legal to operate a sportsbook within the state of California. Two sports betting related ballot measures related to sports betting failed during the 2022 Midterms, and the issue is not eligible to appear on the ballot again until the 2026 Midterms in November of 2026.
Although it’s not legal to run a sportsbook, there is no rule against California residents placing bets with an offshore betting site that is regulated and licensed outside of the USA. Bovada.lv falls into this category and accept players from across the United States, including California.
Check out our California sports betting section for a further breakdowns of the sports betting climate in the state.
World Cup Betting Options
Individual Match Betting
Here’s a screenshot from USA round of 16 match vs Netherlands from the last World Cup showing the three most popular bets you can make on a World Cup match: spread, 1×2, and total goals.
**USA ended up losing this match 3-1, but I will still use it for the examples below**
In this example, Netherlands is the favorite. A $110 bet on the Netherlands to win the game in regulation would win $100 (payout $210). USA is the underdog with odds of +330, indicating a $100 bet on USA to win in regulation would win $330 (payout $430). A $100 bet on Draw would win $240 (payout $340).
Bovada.lv will have a wide variety of other bets you can make on every World Cup game including Draw No Bet, other spreads, other totals, props and more. Select the team names when looking at the odds on the Bovada website to see the full list of betting lines available for the match.
Futures Betting
On top of the individual match bets there will be a huge variety of futures wagers you can make on the 2026 World Cup. Some of these futures include the group winner, teams to advance from group stage, stage of elimination for each team, winning group, winning continent, top goalscorer, and more.
The most popular futures wager is betting on which team will win the World Cup. Here were the odds for the 2026 World Cup winner less than a year before the tournament from Bovada.lv (odds below are from July 30th, 2025):
These odds will continue to change leading up to and throughout the tournament. To see the up to date odds head over to Bovada.lv and select ‘Soccer’ from the secondary sports menu. Open the ‘Soccer A-Z’ drop down menu and select ‘FIFA World Cup’ followed by ‘FIFA World Cup Futures’.
If you’re new to betting I suggest checking out our guide section for some beginner articles to help get you started.
Bet On The FIFA World Cup in California – 3 Step Guide
Follow these three simple steps to get your bets placed on the 2026 World Cup from anywhere in California.
Step 1. Open a Sports Betting Account
Bovada is our top rated betting site for California residents, so I will be using them as the sportsbook in this guide.
Click here to visit Bovada.lv and fill out the short form on the home page to open your account.
Step 2. Deposit
Once you are logged in to your account click on the Deposit link under your accounts drop down menu. Select your preferred deposit method, enter the amount of your deposit, and follow the instructions to fund your account.
Step 3. Place Your World Cup Bets
Now that you have money in your account you’re ready to place some bets!
Click on ‘Sports’ in the top navigation bar and ‘Soccer’ from the secondary sports menu to navigate to the Soccer Betting section of the sportsbook.
To bet on individual matches from the World Cup open the ‘Soccer A-Z’ drop down menu and select ‘FIFA World Cup’ -> ‘FIFA World Cup Matches’. The spread, to win, and total odds will be shown for each World Cup match (once they are available). You can select the names of the teams to see the full list of available bets for that game.
If you’d prefer to place a futures wager open the ‘Soccer A-Z’ menu and select ‘FIFA World Cup’ -> ‘FIFA World Cup Futures’.
Click the odds of the bet you want to make to add it to your Bet Slip. Enter your wager amount and click ‘Place Bet’ to make your wager.
That’s it, you now have action on the 2026 FIFA World Cup! Sit back and enjoy the sweat.
Ready to get started? Click here to visit Bovada.lv.
Tagged With : FIFA • FIFA World Cup • Sports Betting California • World Cup betting