What Is bet365 Tournament Challenge?
bet365 Tournament Challenge is a free-to-play World Cup prediction game where players predict the outcomes of group stage and knockout matches for a share of a £250,000 prize pool — including a £50,000 first prize on the Overall Leaderboard plus £50,000 first prizes on each of four individual Matchday Leaderboards.
It costs nothing to play, requires no betting stake, and is open to any eligible bet365 customer aged 18 or over. Developed by Incentive Games in partnership with bet365, the 2026 edition has been refreshed with a major new social feature called Your Leagues — allowing players to create private mini-leagues with friends and family to compete on World Cup predictions.
Players allocate 10 points per prediction across each Match Day and Knockout Round, with points returns based on the odds of their selected outcome. The strategic twist: each round, players can choose to double their points on one prediction — meaning the most confident pick of each round delivers the biggest reward (or biggest loss) of any single bet.
Play bet365 Tournament Challenge Free →
18+ (24+ in Netherlands). Free-to-play prediction game. Open to new and eligible bet365 customers. Entries close at kick-off of the final tournament match on 19 July 2026. T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org.
bet365 Tournament Challenge at a Glance
| Detail | Specification |
|---|---|
| Game type | Free-to-play prediction game |
| Cost to enter | Nothing — completely free |
| Total prize pool | Up to £250,000 across both leaderboards |
| Overall first prize | £50,000 |
| Matchday first prize | £50,000 each (Matchday 1, 2, 3 and Round of 32) |
| Eligibility | bet365 customers aged 18+ (24+ in Netherlands) |
| New for 2026 | Your Leagues social feature |
| Points per prediction | 10 points stake on each match outcome |
| Doubling option | Once per Match Day/Knockout Round on a single prediction |
| Match outcomes to predict | Win, lose, or draw |
| Tournament coverage | All Group Stage Match Days plus all Knockout Rounds |
| Entry deadline | Kick-off of the final tournament match on 19 July 2026 |
| Edit window | Predictions can be changed pre-match — once in-play, no changes |
| Entries per person | One per person |
How to Play bet365 Tournament Challenge
The game is accessed via the Free Games tab within the Soccer classification on the bet365 website and app, or through promotional banners on the homepage. Here’s the step-by-step:
Step 1 — Open the Tournament Challenge page. Visit bet365, log in to your verified account, and navigate to the Free Games tab in the Soccer section. The Tournament Challenge entry banner appears prominently on the bet365 promotions page during the World Cup window.
Step 2 — Make your match predictions. For each Match Day in the Group Stage and each Knockout Round, predict the outcome of every fixture — win for either team, or draw. Each prediction has a 10-point stake.
Step 3 — Choose your doubler. Once per Match Day or Knockout Round, you can elect to double the points value of one of your predictions. Pick your strongest conviction for maximum upside.
Step 4 — Compare predictions in Your Leagues. New for 2026, you can create or join private leagues using league codes shared with friends and family. Track who’s predicting most accurately across the tournament.
Step 5 — Track your points across the tournament. Points accumulate across all Match Days and Knockout Rounds. Match Days and Knockout Rounds are released individually throughout the tournament — meaning you have new predictions to make as each round is scheduled.
Step 6 — Adjust predictions pre-match if you want to. You can edit or reset your predictions right up until kick-off of each match. Once a match goes in-play, the prediction is locked.
How Are Points Calculated?
Points returns are calculated based on the bookmaker’s odds for the outcome you predicted. Predicting a heavy favourite to win returns fewer points than correctly predicting an underdog or a draw — the same risk-reward principle that operates in real sports betting, but with virtual points instead of money.
The 10-point stake on each prediction means:
- A heavy favourite winning (say Spain vs Cape Verde) might return only 2-3 bonus points above the 10-point stake
- A balanced match outcome (England vs Croatia win, for example) might return 8-12 bonus points
- A genuine upset call (South Africa beating Mexico in the opener) might return 30-50 bonus points
The doubling feature on one prediction per round amplifies the swing — your best pick can return double the points, but your worst doubled pick costs twice as much.
This points structure rewards punters who genuinely think strategically rather than just predicting all favourites. The competitive advantage in Your Leagues will go to players willing to back well-judged upsets at the right moments.
What Is the New Your Leagues Feature?
Your Leagues is the major new-for-2026 feature in bet365 Tournament Challenge. It allows players to create or join private mini-leagues with friends and family by sharing simple league codes. Within each private league, members can compare predictions across each round and track each other’s running points totals across the entire tournament.
Practical use cases:
Family World Cup league. Create a league code, share it with parents, siblings, and cousins. Every prediction becomes a comparison — who picked Brazil to beat Morocco correctly, who got the England score right, etc.
Workplace pool. Share the league code across colleagues. A free-to-play alternative to office sweepstakes that’s based on prediction skill rather than random draw.
Mates’ WhatsApp group. The classic football WhatsApp group can use the league code to compete on World Cup predictions across the entire tournament, with the leaderboard updating after every match.
Pub or social club competition. Local supporters’ clubs or pub regulars can organise tournament-long prediction competitions using one league code.
There’s no cap mentioned on league size, so leagues can scale from 2-3 mates to large groups of 50+ if needed. Each player still only allocates their 10-point stakes against bet365’s odds — Your Leagues simply layers a private leaderboard on top of the public game.
Is bet365 Tournament Challenge Free to Play?
Yes. bet365 Tournament Challenge is completely free to play. No stake, no qualifying bet, no deposit, no money commitment of any kind. The points used in the game are virtual scoring points only — they cannot be exchanged for cash, withdrawn, or used as betting credit.
The game operates entirely separately from bet365’s standard sportsbook. Predicting in Tournament Challenge has no impact on your bet365 betting account, doesn’t qualify for any sportsbook bonuses, and doesn’t interact with bet365’s free bet welcome offers.
Worth knowing: the game IS only available to verified bet365 customers, so you need an active bet365 account (with completed age verification) to enter. Existing bet365 customers can enter directly. New customers must complete bet365’s standard registration and verification process — but that registration itself is free, and you don’t need to deposit or place any sportsbook bet to be eligible for the prediction game.
Play bet365 Tournament Challenge Free →
What Are the Prizes for bet365 Tournament Challenge?
bet365 Tournament Challenge for the 2026 World Cup offers a total prize pool capped at £250,000 across two parallel leaderboard structures: the Overall Leaderboard (running across the entire tournament) and individual Matchday Leaderboards (operating for Matchdays 1, 2, 3, and the Round of 32). Players accumulate points across both simultaneously — meaning a single strong run of predictions can land prizes on multiple leaderboards.
Overall Leaderboard Prizes — Paid After the Final on 19 July 2026
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | £50,000 |
| 2nd | £15,000 |
| 3rd | £5,000 |
| 4th | £3,000 |
| 5th | £1,500 |
| 6th – 20th | £400 |
| 21st – 50th | £150 in Free Bets |
| 51st – 100th | £50 in Free Bets |
| 101st – 500th | £25 in Free Bets |
| 501st – 1,000th | £10 in Free Bets |
| 1,001st – 1,500th | £5 in Free Bets |
| 1,501st – 5,000th | £2 in Free Bets |
| 5,001st – 10,000th | £1 in Free Bets |
The Overall Leaderboard rewards sustained prediction skill across the entire World Cup. Even finishing in the top 10,000 returns a £1 Free Bet — meaning every active player who participates in most rounds is likely to earn something.
Matchday Leaderboard Prizes — Paid After Each Relevant Round Completes
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | £50,000 |
| 2nd | £10,000 |
| 3rd | £2,000 |
| 4th | £500 |
| 5th | £100 in Free Bets |
| 6th – 20th | £50 in Free Bets |
| 21st – 50th | £10 in Free Bets |
| 51st – 100th | £2 in Free Bets |
Matchday Leaderboards are offered for Matchday 1, Matchday 2, Matchday 3 and the Round of 32 — four separate leaderboards each with their own £50,000 first prize. That’s potentially £200,000 in Matchday Leaderboard first prizes alone if a single player topped all four Matchday Leaderboards (subject to the £250,000 overall cap).
The Key Strategic Point — You Can Win Big Mid-Tournament
The Matchday Leaderboard structure is genuinely important to understand. Each Matchday Leaderboard has the SAME £50,000 first prize as the Overall Leaderboard — meaning a player who joins after Matchday 1 has finished can still target £50,000 on Matchday 2 by topping that round’s leaderboard. The Matchday Leaderboards operate independently of the Overall, so missing the early rounds doesn’t lock you out of meaningful cash prizes.
The £250,000 cap applies to the total prize value won across all leaderboards combined — so a hypothetical player topping Matchday 1, Matchday 2, Matchday 3, the Round of 32, AND the Overall (theoretically £250,000) would be capped at the £250,000 maximum. In practice, sustaining first place across all leaderboards is statistically near-impossible, so the cap is unlikely to bite for most winners.
When Are Prizes Paid?
Matchday Leaderboard prizes are processed after the relevant Group Stage Matchday (Matchdays 1, 2, and 3) and after the Round of 32 is complete. The Overall Leaderboard prize is processed after the final game of the tournament on Sunday 19 July 2026.
Tie-Breaker Rules
If multiple players finish on the same number of points in prize-paying positions, the total applicable prize money is shared equally between all tied entrants. Leaderboard positions are determined by the points-scoring system for correct predictions. The shared prize pool may extend if the number of tied entrants exceeds the prize-pool places available for a specific position.
When Does the bet365 Tournament Challenge Entry Window Close?
Entries close at kick-off of the final tournament game on Sunday 19 July 2026 — meaning you can technically join the game right up until the final whistle of the third-place playoff or the World Cup Final itself, depending on which match is the literal last fixture of the tournament.
However, late entry is largely impractical. The earlier you enter, the more rounds you can play and the more points opportunities you have. Joining before Thursday 11 June (tournament kick-off) means you participate in every single Match Day and Knockout Round.
Match Days and Knockout Rounds are released individually throughout the tournament — meaning even mid-tournament entrants can still play the remaining rounds. But the leaderboard advantage of an early entrant is substantial; missing the Group Stage Match Days is missing roughly half of the tournament’s prediction opportunities.
How Does bet365 Tournament Challenge Compare to Other Free Prediction Games?
The UK’s biggest free-to-play World Cup prediction games for 2026 include the BBC Sport Predictor, the ITV World Cup Predictor, the Daily Telegraph Football Predictor, and various tabloid-led games. Most operate similar core mechanics — predict match outcomes, accumulate points, compete on a leaderboard.
What differentiates the bet365 Tournament Challenge:
1. The doubling mechanic. Most free predictor games don’t include a “double down on one prediction per round” feature. bet365’s version genuinely rewards strategic confidence allocation rather than just predicting accuracy.
2. Your Leagues private mini-leagues. Many free predictor games offer leaderboards but limited private league functionality. The Your Leagues feature for 2026 is more developed than the standard “share your prediction” links that competing games offer.
3. Continuous release cadence. Match Days and Knockout Rounds are released individually rather than all at once. That structure keeps players engaged across the full tournament window rather than just for the first week.
4. The bet365 integration. Predictions use bet365’s actual betting odds for points calculation — meaning the upset value is genuinely calibrated against the real market.
The honest trade-off: bet365 Tournament Challenge requires you to have a verified bet365 account (and to be 18+). Free predictor games from broadcasters like BBC or ITV typically have lower verification requirements — though they also have less sophisticated points mechanics.
bet365 Tournament Challenge FAQs
Is bet365 Tournament Challenge actually free?
Yes. The game is completely free to play. No qualifying bet, no deposit, no money stake required. Points used in the game are virtual scoring points only and cannot be converted to cash. The only requirement is that you have a verified bet365 customer account aged 18 or over.
Who is eligible to play bet365 Tournament Challenge?
New and eligible bet365 customers aged 18 or over (24 or over in the Netherlands). One entry per person is permitted. Entries are open across key global territories, with dedicated standalone versions for Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
How do I create a Your Leagues private group?
After registering for Tournament Challenge, you can create a private league which generates a unique league code. Share the code with friends and family — they enter the code when joining their game to be added to your private league. All members of the league can then see each other’s predictions and running points totals across the tournament.
Can I edit my predictions after I’ve submitted them?
Yes — but only pre-match. Predictions can be edited or reset right up until kick-off of each match. Once a fixture is in-play, no changes can be made for that specific match. Future matches in the same round are still editable.
What happens if a match is postponed or cancelled?
The T&Cs don’t explicitly cover postponements at the article-brief level, but standard practice across free predictor games is to void affected predictions and either re-open them for the rescheduled match or distribute median points based on the actual rescheduled result. Check the in-game T&Cs for the specific 2026 World Cup edition for confirmation.
Can I play bet365 Tournament Challenge if I’m an existing customer?
Yes. New and existing bet365 customers are both eligible. The game is open to any verified bet365 customer aged 18+ regardless of how long they’ve held their account.
Do I need to place real bets at bet365 to play?
No. Tournament Challenge is completely separate from bet365’s sportsbook. You don’t need to deposit, place any betting stakes, or interact with the main betting product in any way to play the free game. The only requirement is having a verified bet365 account.
What is the doubling feature in bet365 Tournament Challenge?
Once per Match Day or Knockout Round, players can choose to double the points value of one of their predictions. This is the strategic element of the game — pick your highest-confidence selection for the round and double it for maximum upside. The doubling applies to both upside (more points if correct) and downside (more points lost if incorrect), so the choice matters.
When does the entry window close?
Entries close at kick-off of the final scheduled tournament game on Sunday 19 July 2026. You can enter throughout the tournament, but the earlier you enter the more rounds you participate in and the more points opportunities you have.
Can I win money from bet365 Tournament Challenge?
Yes. The Overall Leaderboard pays £50,000 to first place, £15,000 to second, £5,000 to third, with cash prizes down to 20th place and Free Bet prizes down to 10,000th place. Each Matchday Leaderboard (Matchday 1, 2, 3 and the Round of 32) pays £50,000 to first place, £10,000 to second, with prizes down to 100th. Total prize pool capped at £250,000 across all leaderboards combined.
Is bet365 Tournament Challenge available on mobile?
Yes. The game is accessible via the bet365 mobile app on iOS and Android, as well as via the desktop site. The Your Leagues feature works across mobile and desktop interfaces.
Can multiple friends compete in the same private league?
Yes. Multiple players can join the same Your Leagues mini-league using a shared league code. There’s no specified cap on league size in the article brief, so leagues can range from 2-3 close friends to larger groups of dozens of players.
How to Combine bet365 Tournament Challenge With Actual Sportsbook Betting
For readers who want to play the free game AND bet on the World Cup with real money, the bet365 sportsbook welcome offer sits separately from Tournament Challenge but is worth knowing about:
bet365 New Customer Welcome Offer: Bet £10 Get £30 in Bet Credits. Open to new bet365 customers in the UK. Place a £10+ qualifying bet at minimum odds 1.5 and receive £30 in Bet Credits. Independent of the free-to-play Tournament Challenge.
Worth noting: the Tournament Challenge entry is completely separate from any sportsbook welcome bonus eligibility. Playing the free game does not count toward welcome offer qualification, and claiming the welcome offer does not affect Tournament Challenge entry.
For new customers, the natural sequence is: register for bet365 → complete identity verification → claim the £30 Bet Credits welcome offer (£10+ qualifying bet) → enter Tournament Challenge separately for the free prediction game.
More World Cup 2026 Content
- World Cup 2026 Hub — odds, tips and predictions for the tournament
- World Cup 2026 Free Bets Hub — every UK welcome offer compared
- World Cup 2026 Fixtures — full schedule and UK kick-off times
- Opta Supercomputer World Cup 2026 Predictions — Spain favourites at 16.1%
- England World Cup 2026 Odds — every England market analysed
- bet365 Sign-Up Offer — Bet £10 Get £30 in Bet Credits
- Mexico vs South Africa Preview — tournament opener
- Three Outsiders to Reach the World Cup 2026 Semi-Finals
Sign Up to Play bet365 Tournament Challenge Free
The free-to-play Tournament Challenge is open to any verified bet365 customer aged 18 or over (24+ in the Netherlands). Create your account, navigate to the Free Games tab in the Soccer section, and start your predictions for the 2026 World Cup. Then share your Your Leagues code with friends and family to compete privately throughout the tournament.
Play bet365 Tournament Challenge Free →
Tournament Challenge is a free-to-play prediction game operated by bet365 in partnership with Incentive Games. Entry is completely free and requires no betting stake or qualifying deposit. Available only to verified bet365 customers aged 18 or over (24 or over in Netherlands). One entry per person. Entries close at kick-off of the final scheduled tournament match on 19 July 2026. Predictions can be edited or reset pre-match only. Entry to Tournament Challenge is separate from standard bet placement and bet365 sportsbook offers do not apply. 18+. Please gamble responsibly. BeGambleAware.org | GamCare.org.uk
Andy is the founder, owner and editor of thatsagoal.com, with over 20 years of experience in betting on sports. He has a keen eye for stats, particularly when looking at players to be carded, and these form a large part of the bet builder tips you see on the site. As well as creating daily football tips, Andy also keeps thatsagoal updated with all the best bookmaker promotions and offers for our readers.