Esports World Cup

Seven weeks. Twenty-four games, 25 tournaments, more than 2,000 players from 200-odd clubs, and $75 million on the table. Nothing else in competitive gaming is close. It runs 6 July to 23 August, and this year it is not in Riyadh. In May the Esports Foundation moved the whole thing to Paris, citing the regional situation, with the event based at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. The organisers have been clear it is a one year rotation rather than a permanent exit: Riyadh is expected to host again in 2027.

What makes the EWC different from a normal tournament is the Club Championship. Clubs earn points across every title they enter, and $30 million of the prize money is set aside purely for the top 24 clubs on that cross-game leaderboard, with $7 million going to the winner. The remaining $39 million is split across the individual game tournaments. Two competitions, then. The one you are watching, and the one nobody watches directly: a points table quietly filling up in the background.

Team Falcons have won it both times. Last year: 5,200 points from 22 tournaments, $7 million, with Team Liquid on 4,200 and Vitality on 4,050 trailing home behind them. They land in Paris chasing a third.

The schedule and the full game list

Champions are crowned on Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week, so there is a trophy going up somewhere almost every weekend of the summer. A few titles are staged across two separate blocks rather than one continuous run, which is why Dota 2 appears twice below.

Week	Title	Dates
1	Dota 2 (stage one)	6 to 11 July
1	Apex Legends (ALGS Year 6 Split 1 Playoffs)	7 to 11 July
1	Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves	7 to 10 July
1	VALORANT	9 to 12 July
2	Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Women’s International)	13 to 17 July
2	Dota 2 (stage two)	13 to 18 July
2	League of Legends	15 to 19 July
2	Free Fire	15 to 18 July
3	Teamfight Tactics	21 to 25 July
3	PUBG: Battlegrounds	21 to 26 July
3	EA Sports FC 26 (FC Pro World Championship)	22 to 26 July
4	Street Fighter 6	28 to 31 July
4	Call of Duty: Warzone	29 July to 1 August
4	Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Mid Season Cup)	29 July to 1 August
4	Overwatch 2 (Midseason Championship)	29 July to 2 August
5	Tekken 8	4 to 7 August
5	Honor of Kings World Cup	5 to 8 August
5	Call of Duty: Black Ops 7	5 to 9 August
5	PUBG Mobile World Cup (stage one)	6 to 9 August
6	Chess	11 to 15 August
6	Rainbow Six Siege X	11 to 14 August
6	PUBG Mobile World Cup (stage two)	11 to 16 August
6	Rocket League	To be confirmed
7	Trackmania	17 to 21 August
7	CROSSFIRE	18 to 22 August
7	Fortnite (Reload Elite Series Championship)	19 to 22 August
7	Counter-Strike 2 (finals)	20 to 23 August

Two changes worth flagging. Trackmania is new, making its EWC debut, and Fortnite returns for the first time since 2024, this time played in the Reload mode rather than standard Battle Royale. Going the other way, StarCraft II has been dropped, which means this year’s edition contains no real-time strategy title at all for the first time. The RTS community was not quiet about it.

What you can actually bet on, and what you cannot

Here is the bit nobody else will tell you. A large chunk of this event has no markets at all at a licensed book. That is normal, and it is fine.

The titles you can generally expect to see priced are the tier-one team games. Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, VALORANT, Rainbow Six Siege, Call of Duty, Overwatch 2 and PUBG have established professional circuits, reliable data and enough liquidity to make a market worth opening. All four books above cover esports and typically build markets around events of this size. Even so, coverage of one specific EWC tournament is never guaranteed in advance, so check the live market list before you plan anything around it. If you want the full side-by-side, our comparison of esports betting sites goes into the detail.

Where markets tend to thin out or disappear entirely: the fighting games (Fatal Fury, Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8), Chess, Trackmania, Crossfire, and most of the mobile titles including Free Fire, Honor of Kings and Mobile Legends. Sometimes a big mobile final gets a market. Usually it does not. If you cannot find odds on Honor of Kings, that is a bookmaker being sensible about something it cannot price, not an oversight.

When markets are up, expect the standard esports shape. Match winner, outright winner of the tournament, map or game handicap, and totals on maps or rounds. Battle royale titles like Apex, PUBG and Fortnite are the awkward ones, because the scoring is placement-based across many lobbies rather than head to head, so they are priced very differently when they are priced at all.

18+ only. If you are having a punt across the summer, it is entertainment money, not an income plan. Set your limit now, in week one, and not halfway through week four when Falcons are running away with it. Please gamble responsibly.

The Club Championship changes how the outrights work

The cross-game points race pulls the big clubs into games they would otherwise ignore. A club chasing the $7 million has an incentive to field a roster in as many titles as it can, because points from a mid-table finish in a smaller title still count. That is why you see the same handful of names, Falcons, Liquid, Vitality, Twisted Minds, Virtus.pro, turning up across half the calendar.

For betting purposes this cuts two ways. It means a club’s strongest roster is not always fully focused on the title in front of it, especially if that club has three other events running the same fortnight. It also means the Club Championship outright, where it is offered, is a genuinely different bet from any single game market: you are backing organisational depth across twenty-odd tournaments, not five players on a server. Falcons have won that leaderboard twice by being broad rather than dominant in any one game. Look at last year’s numbers again: they took Overwatch 2 outright, but most of their 5,200 points came from finishing near the top in Dota 2, Chess, PUBG, Rocket League and CS2 without necessarily winning them.

Where things stand

Week one is still being decided as of 11 July. VALORANT has already produced the shock of the event so far, with BBL Esports knocking out defending EWC champions Team Heretics 2-1 on 9 July to reach the semi-finals. The VALORANT grand final lands on Sunday 12 July. In Apex, Elite Esports EU set the pace through the group stage with 138 points and an 18-point cushion, though the ALGS format resets everything for the match-point finals, so that lead banks seeding and little else. Fatal Fury has been the GO1 show, the reigning EWC winner going undefeated early, with EVO champion Xiaohai the obvious threat.

Dota 2 does not crown its champion until week two. Reigning EWC winners Team Spirit made hard work of the group stage, drawing with MOUZ before recovering against Team Nemesis.

Watch the Dota 2 one. If you only pick a single tournament out of the whole seven weeks, that is the one, because it is the last major stop before The International and every series doubles as a form guide for Valve’s own finale. The teams know it. Nobody is coasting through that bracket.

Last year’s reference points, the ones that still matter: Falcons took the Club Championship, Team Spirit won Dota 2, Heretics won VALORANT, GO1 took Fatal Fury. All four turned up in Paris as defending champions. One is already out.

The case for each book, card by card

Each card carries the licence detail, the scoring breakdown, the market list, payments and the specific reason we ranked the operator where we did.

Common questions

Is betting on the Esports World Cup legal?

In the UK, yes, at operators licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. In Canada it depends on your province, as each one runs its own regime and Ontario in particular has its own licensed market. In the Philippines, esports betting sits under PAGCOR regulation. Wherever you are, use a licensed operator and check your local rules first.

Why is it in Paris and not Riyadh?

The Esports Foundation announced the move on 20 May 2026 in light of the regional situation, choosing Paris for its accessibility and infrastructure. It is framed as a one-year rotation. Riyadh is still described as the home of the event, with a return intended for 2027.

How does a club win the $7 million?

By topping the Club Championship points table across the whole seven weeks. Points are earned from finishes in the individual game tournaments and pooled, so breadth of entry matters as much as winning any single title.

Which games have the biggest individual prize pools?

CS2, VALORANT, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Dota 2, League of Legends and PUBG: Battlegrounds each carry $2 million.

Can I bet on every game at the event?

No, and you should be suspicious of anyone who tells you otherwise. Licensed sportsbooks price the titles they can price well. Expect solid coverage of the tier-one team games and patchy to non-existent coverage of the fighting games, Chess, Trackmania and several mobile titles. Check the live market list at your bookmaker rather than assuming.

Where this page points next

The paper trail, all checked 11 July 2026

• Esports World Cup relocation announcement, 20 May 2026: esportsworldcup.com
• Prize pool and full schedule: esportsworldcup.com
• Team Falcons crowned 2025 Club Champions: esportsworldcup.com press room
• Week one report, 10 July 2026: Arab News
• 2026 lineup and StarCraft II removal: Wikipedia
• UK Gambling Commission Betway licence (39225): UKGC public register
• Esports Integrity Commission member list: esic.gg