Sports Betting on FOX Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\nWill there be a First Time Winner?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes: +200 (bet $10 to win $30 total)
No: -280 (bet $10 to win $13.57 total)<\/p>\n
These odds show just how difficult it historically has been for new nations to break through at a World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The last nation to become a first-time FIFA World Cup champion was Spain in 2010. Additionally, in the last 11 World Cups dating back to 1982, there have only been two first-time winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, this summer could be different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The expanded 48-team format in 2026 could create more volatility than ever before, especially with more nations (32) advancing into the knockout stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike in years past, when a team only needed four knockout victories to win the World Cup, the expanded format demands a much tougher road of five consecutive single-elimination wins and eight total matches to lift the trophy.<\/p>\n
Several countries near the top of the oddsboard are still chasing their first-ever title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portugal, currently listed at +1000, has the shortest odds among nations that have never won a World Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Portugal has the best odds of all non-World Cup winners to win this summer (Getty Images). <\/p>\n
The Netherlands sits just behind Portugal at +2000, while Norway (+3000), Belgium (+3500), Colombia (+4000) and Morocco (+5000) round out the next tier of nations still searching for their first World Cup title.<\/p>\n
The U.S. men\u2019s national team currently has the seventh-shortest odds among non-World Cup winners to lift the trophy in 2026, at +6000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On their home soil, could the USA shock the world and become the ninth nation to win a FIFA World Cup?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only eight nations have ever won the men\u2019s FIFA World Cup since the tournament began in 1930, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[12624,5189,6359,7426,49,48,29759,103818,637,19215,10816,21130,19224,11546,561,7413,82,772,87021],"class_list":["post-698068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-argentina","tag-belgium","tag-betting","tag-brazil","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-colombia","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-france","tag-gambling","tag-germany","tag-morocco","tag-norway","tag-portugal","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-uruguay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}