A football at rest on a floodlit pitch in the blue half-hour before kick-off.

World Cup bracket

A 48 team World Cup does not fit on the bracket you used to print.

Twelve groups, the eight best third placed teams, and a round of 32 before you reach the shape anyone recognizes. Fanzava's team builds the bracket, locks every pick together at the time you set and scores it under your logo, your colors and your domain.

Free to start. No credit card.

The World Cup your bracket now has to hold.

Field size
48 teams in 12 groups of four, up from 32 teams in eight groups
Who advances
The top two in every group, plus the eight best third placed teams ranked across all twelve groups on points, then goal difference, then goals scored
First knockout round
A round of 32, which did not exist in any World Cup before 2026
Knockout rounds
Round of 32, round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals, a third place match and the final
Matches
104 in total. 72 in the group stage and 32 in the knockout phase
Bracket size
32 teams and five rounds from the round of 32 to a winner, which is 31 picks
The near term tournament
The FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil, June 24 to July 25, 2027
2027 Women's World Cup format
32 teams in eight groups of four, top two advance, a 16 team knockout bracket and 64 matches across eight host cities
Next men's tournament
2030, hosted by Morocco, Portugal and Spain, with the opening centenary matches played in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay, on the same 48 team shape
After that
The Women's World Cup expands to 48 teams in 2031, so 2027 in Brazil is the last 32 team edition

How a World Cup bracket pool runs on Fanzava.

  1. Build the hub before the draw.

    Upload your logo, set your colors, name the pool and open the invite link. Your people join by link, QR code or bulk upload. Nothing about the experience says Fanzava, because everything about it says you.

  2. Run the group stage as its own competition.

    Seventy two matches over about two weeks, three of them most days, every one with its own kickoff and its own lock. This is where the habit gets built, and it is the reason a World Cup pool holds attention for a month instead of a weekend.

  3. The bracket is built when the last group game ends.

    A World Cup bracket cannot exist before the third placed teams are ranked. Once the final group match is over, the round of 32 is known and Fanzava's team builds the bracket with every matchup already in place. Nobody on your side redraws anything by hand.

  4. The tournament scores itself.

    Fanzava records each knockout result and picks score, the leaderboard moves, and there is no formula anywhere in the process, through knockout days that carry four matches across four time zones.

  5. The pool starts talking.

    Groups let floors, departments or offices run their own standings inside the one pool and see how they rank against each other. The Banter Board gives the person who called the round of 32 upset somewhere to say so.

The arguments a 48 team bracket starts.

A World Cup bracket is not a March bracket. The field is not seeded into a printed grid, the bracket does not exist until the group stage ends, and knockout matches cannot end level. Settle these five before the invite goes out.

Whether your bracket is predicted or filled.

There are two completely different competitions here. A predicted bracket asks people to call the whole knockout phase before a ball is kicked, which means guessing which third placed teams sneak through. A filled bracket opens the moment the groups end, when all 32 knockout teams are known. The first is harder and far more fun. The second gets more entries. Pick one and say so on the invite.

The eight best third placed teams.

This is the mechanic that breaks every bracket template written before 2026. Third place in a group is not automatically out and not automatically in. All twelve third placed teams are ranked against each other on points, then goal difference, then goals scored, and the top eight go through. A team can finish third with the same record as another third placed team and go home on goals scored. If your pool runs a predicted bracket, this is where it is won.

Draws exist in the group stage and nowhere else.

A group match can finish level. A knockout match cannot. It goes to thirty minutes of extra time and then a shootout, so every bracket pick resolves to a team that advances. That is the only sane way to score a bracket. What you do have to decide is your group stage scoring: a draw is a real third outcome, and most pools pay more for calling one than for calling a winner.

How much the round of 32 is worth.

Five rounds now, not four. Scoring every match the same would make each of the sixteen round of 32 matches worth as much as the final, which lets a fast starter run away with it. Fanzava weights the rounds instead: one point times the round number, so a round of 32 match is worth 1 and the final is worth 5, with 10 more for the correct champion. The weighting is the same for every pool.

Whether the third place match counts.

It is a real match with a real result and most pools simply forget to mention it. Score it or exclude it, either is defensible. Saying nothing is what produces the message on the Saturday before the final.

Why a World Cup is the easiest competition you will ever launch.

Nobody has to be sold on it.

Every other competition starts with explaining why your audience should care. A World Cup starts with people already asking who you have in the final. The work is not persuasion, it is having somewhere for them to put the pick before the interest cools.

A month of daily contact with a hard ending.

Group stage matches land most days for two weeks, then the knockout phase runs to a single night with a trophy on it. That is a complete engagement arc with a beginning and an end, which is exactly what a sponsor, a marketing calendar or an office wants and exactly what a season long competition cannot offer.

One lock time for the whole bracket.

A tournament spread across host cities and continents kicks off at every hour of the day. A bracket locks once, at the time you ask for, so every entrant has the same deadline and nobody picks a game that has already started.

It looks like your organization.

Paid plans ship full white label: your logo, your colors and your brand across every screen, every email and every notification. Pro and Enterprise add a custom domain and a custom email sender, so the pool lives at your address and the emails come from you.

Questions World Cup pool organizers ask.

How do you build a bracket when the round of 32 is not known until the last group match?
Two ways, and they are different competitions. Open the bracket after the group stage, when all 32 knockout teams are set and the matchups are already drawn, or run a predicted bracket that locks before the first match and asks people to call the whole thing including which third placed teams survive. Plenty of organizers run both: the group stage as a pick'em, then the bracket on top.
Can we run the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil?
Yes. Fanzava's team builds the bracket from the tournament's own draw, so the shape of the tournament is not something you maintain. Results are recorded for you and the bracket advances itself. The 2027 tournament is a cleaner bracket than the men's: 32 teams in eight groups of four, top two through, a straight round of 16 and 64 matches from June 24 to July 25.
What happens to a pick when a knockout match goes to penalties?
The team that advances is the team that scored the pick. Extra time and a shootout are how the match resolves, not a separate outcome to pick, so a bracket never ends up with an unresolved matchup.
Does the expansion to 48 teams break older bracket rules?
It breaks the templates, not the format. The round of 32 is a new round, third place qualification is ranked across all twelve groups, and there are 104 matches instead of 64. Fanzava's team builds the bracket structure from the tournament's own draw, so the shape of the field is not something you maintain. Your rules are the only thing that needs updating.
Can people see each other's brackets?
Not before lock, so nobody copies the person who has actually watched qualifying. After lock, brackets become visible to the whole pool and pick distribution shows how the field split on every matchup.
Is this a betting product?
No. Fanzava is a fan and workplace engagement platform. There are no odds, no spreads, no wagering, no entry fees and no prize money anywhere in it. People make picks, the leaderboard sorts them, and the argument sorts itself out.
What does it cost?
Brackets are not on the Free plan. Run one on Starter or above, or buy a one-time Bracket Pass for the tournament. The pricing page lists what each plan includes, and plans are billed in US dollars.

Ready to run your World Cup bracket under your own brand?

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