Women’s World Cup 2023 Preview: Betting Odds & Projected USWNT Starting Lineup

By Alec Cunningham | Jul 21, 2023, 11:08am

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The year’s biggest soccer competition is officially underway, marking the start of an entire month of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 action. A total of 32 teams will compete for a spot at the final matchup on Sunday, August 20, but only one team will ultimately claim the title.

Sportsbooks favor the USWNT to celebrate a third consecutive WWC victory this year, giving the team odds of doing so. Keep reading for a Women’s World Cup 2023 preview in addition to starting lineup information and all the latest odds.

USWNT favored for Women’s World Cup 2023 win

This year’s WWC see’s the playing field expand from 24 teams to 32, with a total of 64 matchups across the four weeks. To kick off the competition, teams are first divided into eight groups of four (Group A-H). After three round-robin matchups, the top two teams of each group will advance to the initial knockout stage.

The knockout Round of 16 will see eight winning teams move on to the quarter-finals. These remaining countries will then go head-to-head to determine four semi-final victors before the two surviving teams battle it out during a final World Cup matchup.

The USWNT enters World Cup competition in Group E alongside the Netherlands, Portugal, and Vietnam. Each are worthy opponents in their own right, though they shouldn’t pose any severe issues for Team USA. The Netherlands may be the biggest threat, having danced with the USWNT in the previous 2019 WWC final.

Judging by the team’s past, a successful run should be more than manageable once again this year. The USWNT has finished third or better in every Women’s World Cup appearance since 1991.

Women’s World Cup 2023 odds

Team USA may be favored to win, but they won’t get there without putting up a hard-earned fight. Plenty of other teams will be vying for a spot in the final round, looking to claim the coveted Women’s World Cup 2023 crown.

Spain and England are two strong contenders, with and odds respectively. Spain took down the USWNT back in October and will be looking to do so again in 2023. And England turned heads last year with an impressive Euro 2022 showing, though a handful of injuries have left England with a new starting lineup going into the WWC.

Germany will be looking to reclaim the throne for the first time since 2007, and sportsbooks give them odds of doing so.

Forever known for its numerous runner-up appearances, Sweden has a lengthy odds of securing the overall win and a more reasonable odds of reaching the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Brazil has extra motivation for winning this year’s tournament, as it will be their last World Cup appearance featuring legendary player Marta. Although their chance of winning is especially lengthy, odds of Brazil reaching the Semi-Finals sit at .

2023 USWNT Starting Lineup vs Vietnam (Projected)

Alyssa Naeher (GK)
Emily Fox (D)
Alana Cook (D)
Naomi Girma (D)
Crystal Dunn (D)
Andi Sullivan (MF)
Ashley Sanchez (MF)
Lindsey Horan (MF)
Sophia Smith (F)
Alex Morgan (F)
Alyssa Thompson (F)

Women’s World Cup 2023 betting options

This year’s tournament will be the most attended in WWC in history, with over one million tickets already sold. It also promises to draw more attention than ever from sports bettors. Now that legal sports betting is alive in more than half of the U.S. and women’s sports have become more popular, wagering options for women’s sports have begun to expand. As a result, sportsbooks offer more options for betting on this year’s Women’s World Cup than ever before.

Along with wagering on the outright tournament winner, most major sportsbooks offer a surprising variety of other WWC betting options as well. For instance, you’ll find odds for each team:

To reach the quarter-finals
To reach the semi-finals
To reach the final
To win

Additionally, sportsbooks offer the option of wagering on which teams will advance out of each group and betting on each group’s overall winner.

One of the more interesting wagers featured on most sportsbooks is the player to score the most goals throughout the course of the tournament. Team USA’s Alex Morgan sits at the top of that list as the favorite at +400 odds. Meanwhile, Marta carries +3500 odds of scoring at least one goal during the tournament and lengthier odds of scoring the tournament’s most goals.

Check out the full FIFA Women’s World Cup schedule, and tune in for daily matches from now until the big finale on Aug. 20.

Alec Cunningham

Alec Cunningham is a lead writer and analyst for Lineups.com. She has covered countless online sports betting and casino legislation topics and now specializes in responsible gambling and gambling addiction recovery. In 2022, she served as a panelist at the All-American Sports Betting Summit, discussing the ever-evolving role of women in the gambling industry. As a college athlete, Alec Cunningham played Division II golf at Tusculum University. She graduated in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Professional Writing. After working in the music industry as a concert promoter, tour manager and artist developer, she returned to her love of written word in 2020. Since then, Cunningham's love of sports has led her to become a responsible gambling advocate.