
England's first game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup takes place on Wednesday with a 21:00 BST kick off time when they take on Croatia.
Every tournament fans scream about 'It's Coming Home', but is there a chance of the Three Lions finally lifting the trophy again a mere 60 years after their only triumph?
It is probably a little bit early to be taking about England winning the World Cup when they have not even played a group game yet, but it is nice to have a dream.
Thomas Tuchel's men have a chance to set their stall out as one of the tournament favourites after a couple of surprise results at the start of the World Cup. Spain's surprise 0-0 draw with Cape Verde has rightly dominated the headlines, while Brazil and Uruguay have also picked up a single point when they were expecting to get all three.
A decent performance from England and a victory will ease the nerves of the players and the supporters, but it is not going to be easy. Croatia defeated England at the semi-final stage of the 2018 World Cup, but since then they have failed to get the better of the Three Lions.
They have played three times since that heart breaking semi-final defeat. They played out a goalless draw in the UEFA United Nations League A before England won the second game 2-1. They also clashed in Euro 2020 with England claiming a 1-0 Group D victory thanks to a goal from Raheem Sterling.
I think England have a good chance to go deep into the tournament. Harry Kane is key to that, get him the ball and he will score. If England play attacking football with the likes of Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke, then they can scare a lot of teams. If they get star struck and play boring football then they will be going home early.
There is a lot of pressure on managers going into their first group games. A win will see everyone falling in love with Tuchel, but a defeat could see him sacked just like Tunisia have done with Sabri Lamouchi, after he was sacked just hours after their 5-1 loss against Sweden.
Turning it back to betting on England versus Croatia, customers have a number of different bonus they can choose from to claim free bets to get your World Cup betting journey off to a great start.
After watching Iran versus New Zealand in the early hours of Tuesday morning, I am hoping more teams will take their approach of attacking football and shooting when you have the chance. I am not a fan of teams trying to walk the ball into the back of net, just shoot.
I believe that is a good mentality to have when you are signing up as new customers to claim free bets. You have free reign to bet on what you want because you have the safety net of free bets coming your way.
So, take a punt and bet outside your comfort zone. Use your qualifying bets to go big with shots on target, goal scorers and even correct scorelines. It doesn't matter if that bet fails, you can use your free bets to be more conservative. You could even switch that up and go aggressive with your qualifying bet and then go more tactical with your free bets. The choice is yours, and it is good to have a choice.
Below you will find the best 2026 FIFA World Cup betting bonus offers that you can sign up and claim and use them on England's Group L clash with Croatia on Wednesday evening.
BetMGM is leading the way with their amazing World Cup sign up offer. New customers need to create an account and place a £10 qualifying bet in order to claim the welcome offer. Once the bet with odds of evens or more is placed and settled, £40 in free bets will be sent to your betting account. For example, place your £10 qualifying bet on Harry Kane opening the scoring against Croatia. Whether he scores or not does not really matter, once that bet has been settled, you will get your free bets to use on the rest of the tournament.
HighBet is another sports betting website that is setting the pace when it comes to World Cup welcome offers. It might not be as lucrative as BetMGM's, but betting £10 to receive £30 in free bets is a pretty good offer. Customers will need to register a new account and opt-in to the promotion. A qualifying bet of £10 needs to be placed within seven days of registering. Once your qualifying bet has been settled, you will receive £30 in free bets. You will get 2x£10 football ACCA bets and 1x£10 World Cup outright free bet.
This might not be seen as a ground breaking welcome offer at Star Sports, but it is still a free bet, so it should not be ignored. New Star Sports customers will need to register an account and deposit and wager £40 by using promo code BET40GET20. The qualifying bet needs to be with odds greater than evens and once that bet has been settled, customers will receive 1x£10 free bet immediately and 1x£10 free bet 24 hours after the initial qualifying bet has been placed. Free bets will expire 24 hours after they have been issued.
Football bettors can claim a £10 free bet by placing a £10 qualifying bet on any World Cup match. For example, if you sign up as a new customer at Lucky Mate, you can place a qualifying bet of an ACCA or Bet Builder on England versus Croatia. Once that bet has been settled, you will receive a free £10 bet to be used on any other World Cup betting market.
PricedUP has decided to get in on the action with a good welcome offer for the FIFA World Cup. New PricedUP customers can deposit and wager £20 using promo code WC20. Once the qualifying bet has been placed, the first free £5 bet will be placed in your account. The remaining three £5 bets will follow with one each day for three days.

+18 | Please gamble responsibly | Commercial content | T&Cs apply GambleAware.com