How to Play World Cup DFS: Beginner's Guide to Daily Fantasy Soccer
The 2026 World Cup is kicking off soon, with the first 2 games lined up for Thursday, June 11, 2026. Mexico City hosts the first game of the tournament, as Mexico takes on South Africa at 3:00 PM ET. South Korea will then play Czechia at 10:00 PM ET, with that game taking place in Mexico at Guadalajara Stadium.
If you’re ready to binge some soccer over the next several weeks, RotoGrinders will have you covered with soccer projections in our soccer DFS optimizer, LineupHQ, to help you assemble your DFS lineups. Sites like DraftKings will likely have some of their biggest soccer prize pools in several years for the World Cup, so you’ll want to get a leg up on the competition if you are aiming to take down the big 1st-place prizes. While you can get access to our Soccer Premium subscription for just $24.99 per month, for only $50 more, you can get access to tools and content for all of MLB, NBA, PGA, NHL, MMA, WNBA, and more by signing up for Combo Pro. Don’t miss out!
The World Cup is intentionally scheduled with no overlapping games, aside from the final day before the knockout stage, when who advances is dependent on multiple outcomes.
This year’s tournament will include a total of 104 matches, which is up 40 from the previous World Cup in 2022 in Qatar. While 32 teams played in that 2022 event, this year’s World Cup has been expanded to include 48 teams! The teams have been drawn into 12 pools, and each team will play 3 games in the group stage, which concludes on Saturday, June 27th.
The knockout stage has also been expanded, with 32 of the 48 teams advancing to that stage of the tournament, creating an extra elimination round. The 1st-place and 2nd-place teams in each of the 12 four-team groups will advance, and they will be joined by the 8-best 3rd-place teams to round out the 32-team bracket.
The first round of the knockout stage begins Sunday, June 28th, building up to the World Cup Final, which is scheduled for July 19th at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside of New York City.
DraftKings will have DFS soccer contests available throughout the World Cup, providing soccer newbies and football aficionados with plenty of chances to build lineups and grow a nice bankroll as the tournament progresses. With our soccer projections in LineupHQ, the RotoGrinders team will be locked in throughout the tournament, helping you get just the right team on the field.
How Does Soccer DFS Scoring Work?
For those of you who are new to DFS soccer, let’s take a look at some the basics.
Classic Contest Basics
The salary cap is $50,000 for Classic contests, and lineups consist of 2 forwards, 2 midfielders, 2 defensemen, 1 goalkeeper, and 1 utility spot (that can be filled with any non-goalkeeper). The 8-player squad averages $6,250 per roster slot, with megastars usually being around $10,000 and cheaper players available to balance out your spending.
Player Scoring Breakdown
Forwards
Players earn 10 points for a goal and 6 points for an assist, but it isn’t just those big events that can help push your team to victory. Every shot is worth 1 point, and a shot on goal is also worth 1 point. Targeting forwards who get plenty of opportunities can pay off even if they don’t find the back of the net, although obviously, the 10-point boost is critical to moving your lineup to the top of the leaderboard. Players with high shot volume and players who take penalties are key options to target when you are looking at which forwards to select.
Midfielders
To reward players who create chances as well as those who finish them, crosses are worth 0.7 points, whether that cross comes from open play, a corner kick, or another set piece. Each assisted shot is worth 1 point, and every accurate pass is worth .02 points. Each foul drawn is also worth 1 point, but each foul conceded is -0.5 points. Yellow cards are -1.5 points, with red cards costing -3 points. With so many points available for non-scoring stats, midfielders who create for their squad can bring a very high floor along with a high ceiling. Players who engineer opportunities from set pieces can be extremely productive, so pay attention to who is over the ball for direct and indirect set pieces.
Defensemen
On defense, every intercepted pass by a field player is worth 0.5 points, and defensemen can earn an extra 3 points for a clean sheet (no goals allowed). Stacking defenders from a single team is a high-risk strategy that can pay off if the team keeps a clean sheet and earns the bonus for multiple players in your lineup. Some teams also deploy their fullbacks as wingbacks up the side to create more crosses, while others send tall defenders forward into the box to create goal-scoring opportunities off headers. Be sure to try to understand the team’s offensive and defensive players who could get involved in the attack, as well as their potential for keeping a clean sheet.
Goalkeepers
Goalkeepers earn a 5-point bonus for a clean sheet and also earn 2 points for each save, but they lose 2 points for each goal allowed. Goalkeepers also earn a 5-point bonus for a team win if they play at least 60 minutes. If a keeper starts the game, the team must be winning at the time of substitution, but if the keeper enters the game as a sub and plays 60+ minutes, he can also earn the win bonus if his team emerges victorious.
Penalty Kicks and Own Goals
When a penalty-kick shootout is needed, each shootout goal is worth 1.5 points, while a shootout miss is worth -1 point. Goalkeepers also earn 1.5 points for a shootout save and 3 points for a save on a penalty kick that isn’t part of a shootout. Since penalty-kick saves also count as a regular save, that one stop is worth a total of 5 points.
The one other interesting scoring situation is own goals. Own goals do not count as a goal for the player who scores, but they do count as goals allowed for goalkeepers and do ruin a team’s clean-sheet bonuses.
Overall Soccer DFS Strategy
Based on the scoring, players who are in key spots in their team’s offense as both creators and scorers will be extremely valuable. Having defenders who get involved in the attack but also turn in a clean sheet can make them some of the best plays on the board, and goalkeepers can also be excellent options if they rack up saves and help their team secure wins. Goals and assists are important, but players who are heavily involved in the offense as a whole will have good chances to rack up plenty of production, whether they convert their chances or not.
Avoiding Rookie Mistakes in Soccer DFS
One key rookie mistake to avoid is using players based on name recognition rather than current role. Sometimes famous players or players who are very involved with their club team have smaller roles in their current national team structure. Especially as the tournament goes on, be aware of what each player is doing in the current squad setup.
Another beginner slip-up is ignoring confirmed lineups. The actual lineups are released approximately 1 hour before kickoff, so it’s important to not get too married to your DFS lineups until you know for certain that a player will be playing.
Rostering players who need to score goals but have little role in the offense as a whole can also backfire, so be sure to consider players with good floors and involvement, especially those who take set pieces, since those players are more reliable and predictable.
And of course, our team at RotoGrinders will be incorporating all of this into the projections they put out. Yet another reason to sign up!
Single-Game Showdown Format
DraftKings also has their Showdown format in case you are just focused on a single match or for late in the tournament when just 1 game is being held that day. In the single-game Showdown format, as with other DFS sports, the Captain selection earns 1.5x the standard fantasy-point value, but the player’s salary is also 1.5x higher in that position.
Note that our optimizer also supports Showdown contests!
Utilize the Tools at RotoGrinders
LineupHQ allows you to see our projections and projected ownership on each player, but there is much more to it than just that.
Fine-Tune with Advanced Build Rules
Don’t want the optimizer to just spit out a bunch of lineups that are all based on projected fantasy points? Use the advanced Build Rules inside LineupHQ to customize your builds.
Build Rules has features such as:
- Player Exposure: Limit your maximum exposure to any single player (e.g. capping a volatile forward at 30% across your lineups) so one bad game doesn’t ruin your entire day.
- Unique Players: Adjust the settings to dictate how many unique players must differ between each of your generated lineups, ensuring your roster portfolio is properly diversified.
- Range of Outcomes Percentage: Apply percentage-based variance to individual player projections (e.g. a 10% range shifts a 10-point projection anywhere from 9 to 11) to account for natural game-to-game volatility across your builds.
… and much more!
Image Credit: Imagn