The official FIFA World Cup 2026 is scheduled to be hosted at 16 different venues in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It will be the 23rd edition of football’s most iconic tournament, which will take place between June and July in the summer months.
Since the world cup began back in 1930, the host nation of the world cup has often been the favourite to win, and on many occasions, the host nation has won. The question being asked here is, are the USA among the favourites to win the 2026 World Cup? Find out more right here.
Can the USA win the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup?
If you want to find out whether the USA can win the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, you might want to visit today’s most trusted online bookmakers, such as 10bet Africa, to find out roughly what kind of odds are currently being offered. You could then compare those odds.
For example, at many fully licensed online bookmakers today, you will find that the USA are NOT the odds-on favourite to win the tournament outright. Depending on which site you visit, they are around the eighth or ninth odds-on favourite team to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup, behind the Netherlands, Portugal, Argentina, Germany, Spain, England, Brazil, and France.
A Closer Look at The Odds
If you sign up to 10bet live in Zambia and want to place a bet on any upcoming football matches, all you need to do is head to 10bet Sports when logged into your account. Here, you can find the latest sports betting markets with competitive prices for more than 60 major global sports and top-flight football leagues from around the world.
Let’s now take a close look at some of the sports betting odds that are currently being offered.
- For the USA to win the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup outright, you’re looking at American/moneyline odds of +1,800. In other words, in European decimal odds, it’s 19.00, and in UK fractional odds, it’s 18/1. It also means that the USA only has a 5.30% implied probability rate of winning the tournament.
- The Netherlands and Portugal are also priced the same as the USA
- Argentina, Germany, and Spain are all currently priced at around +900 (which is 10.00, or 9/1) with a 10% chance of winning (implied probability rate)
- England is currently priced at around +700 (8.00, or 7/1) with a 12.50% chance of winning
- Brazil is currently priced at around +550 (6.50, or 5.5/1) with a 15.40% chance of winning
- Odds-on favourites France are currently priced at around +500 (6.00, or 5/1) with a 16.70% chance of winning
It’s still early days yet. The World Cup is over three years away, and a lot can happen in football in that amount of time. In other words, although these odds are accurate at the time of writing, they are likely to change somewhat between now and the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
For example, the odds you get now could be completely different to the odds offered just days before the tournament starts. The USA national football team is constantly improving, and they may become much better over the next three years, so their odds would come down slightly.
Therefore, if you fancy placing a wager on the USA to win the tournament outright, it might be worth putting a bet on them now with these long odds (+1,800, 19.00, 18/1) before they come down too much.
How Have Host Nations Fared in The Past?
Let’s take a look back at how some of the host nations have fared in previous world cups since it began in 1930. One of the most interesting facts is that Qatar, which recently hosted the 2022 world cup, is the ONLY nation ever to lose the opening game.
The very first world cup in 1930 was held in Uruguay, and the host nation won. The 1934 world cup was held in Italy, which Italy won. France hosted the 1938 world cup, but they were knocked out in the quarterfinals.
The next world cup wasn’t until 1950, in Brazil, which they lost in the final. It was hosted in Switzerland in 1954, and they were also eliminated in the quarterfinals. Now, let’s take a look at some of the other host nations that have won.
England hosted and won the 1966 world cup. West Germany hosted and won in 1974. Argentina hosted and won in 1978, and France hosted and won in 1998.