The 2026 World Junior Championship began on Boxing Day (December 26th, 2025) and finish with the gold medal game on January 5th, 2026. The tournament is being held in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. This will be the first time the tournament is held in the United States since 2018.
Team USA are the two-time defending gold medal champions and they are second favorites, after Team Canada, heading into this years tournament. Either the US or Canada have won each of the past six World Junior tournaments.
On this page I will break down how to bet on this years World Junior tournament if you live in the United States (Canadians check out this how to bet on the World Juniors in Canada article).
World Junior Championship Winner Odds
Before I provide the 3 step guide to betting on this years World Juniors, let’s take a look at the current odds to win the tournament. These odds are taken from Bovada.lv, our top rated betting site for Americans (odds are from December 27th – after day 1 of the tournament).
- Canada -145
- USA +300
- Sweden +550
- Finland +1600
- Czechia +1800
- Slovakia +8000
- Switzerland +10000
- Germany +20000
- Latvia +50000
- Denmark +50000
As you can see the Canadians are the favorites, while the Americans and Swedes are the other top contenders. It would be a massive upset if the tournament winner isn’t one of those three nations.
How To Bet On The World Juniors in the USA
Follow this straight forward 3 step guide to get your bets placed on this years World Junior Championship if you live in the United States.
Step 1. Open a Bovada.lv Account
First you need to open an online betting account. Bovada is our top rated betting site for American bettors. They only accept players from the USA and this allows them to fully focus their sportsbook, banking options and customer support to best cater to American residents.
Bovada is currently offering a 50% matching bonus up to $250 on first deposits to new sign ups.
Click here to visit Bovada.lv and open an account.
Step 2. Deposit
Bovada accepts Visa, MasterCard and bitcoin deposits.
As I outlined above, Bovada will match 50% of your deposit as a bonus up to $250.
You are able to withdraw via check, bank wire or bitcoin whenever you with to cash out.
Step 3. Place Your World Juniors Bets
Now you’re ready to place your bets on the tournament!
Click on ‘Sports’ from the top navigation bar and select ‘Hockey’ from the sports menu bar. Select ‘IIHF World Championship U20’ from the ‘Trending Competitions’ or ‘Hockey A-Z’ drop down menus. Here’s a screenshot from this year to show you where to click:
This will bring up all of the upcoming World Junior Championship games. Here’s a screenshot of the odds for the USA vs Switzerland tournament game:
You will notice that the spread betting is a popular betting option for many games. That said, Bovada has spread, money line and over/under bet offerings for each game in the tournament, as well as several other prop bets. Click the team names or the ‘+37 Bets’ link to see the full list of betting markets for the game. Check out our hockey betting page for more information on each of the hockey betting types.
I think that’s it. Ready to bet? Click here to visit Bovada.lv.
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