The World Cup has always created a second competition running alongside the football itself.

Every four years, millions of people suddenly become amateur analysts, statisticians, tactical experts and self-proclaimed football geniuses. Friends challenge friends, offices run sweepstakes, supporters argue endlessly over scorelines, and guessing leagues appear everywhere from local pubs to major sports websites.

For many supporters, correctly guessing results becomes almost as enjoyable as watching the matches themselves.

That might sound strange given that the football is supposed to be the main attraction, but World Cups create a very different atmosphere from a normal domestic season. The tournament is short, intense and packed with drama. Every match feels important. Every result seems capable of changing the entire story of the competition.

That naturally encourages people to start making guesses about what might happen next.

Part of the appeal is that World Cups are uniquely unpredictable. Domestic leagues give us months of form, statistics and trends to analyse. By the middle of a league campaign, most supporters have a reasonable idea of which teams are genuine contenders and which ones are likely to struggle.

International tournaments work differently.

National teams spend far less time together than club sides. Players arrive from different leagues, systems and playing styles. A team can look unbeatable one week and completely ordinary the next. Momentum shifts rapidly, confidence becomes a huge factor and a single unexpected result can transform an entire tournament.

That unpredictability is exactly what makes World Cup guessing games so popular.

Supporters enjoy the challenge because there is just enough information available to make an educated guess, while still leaving plenty of room for surprises. If every result were obvious, there would be no challenge. If every result were completely random, there would be no point trying.

The World Cup sits perfectly between those two extremes.

One promotion that recently caught our attention comes from nicotine pouch retailer Snus Vikings, which has launched a World Cup guessing game designed around following selected matches throughout the tournament.

Rather than operating as a betting competition, participants simply submit guesses on featured fixtures and collect rewards based on their performance. Those rewards can then be accumulated and stacked throughout the tournament, creating an ongoing incentive to stay involved from the opening group-stage matches right through to the latter rounds of the competition.

The format works particularly well because World Cups naturally encourage long-term engagement.

Most supporters start the tournament with strong opinions about who will win. Some are convinced a traditional heavyweight will dominate. Others are certain that an outsider is about to surprise everyone. Social media becomes full of bold claims, tournament brackets and confident declarations that rarely survive contact with reality.

By the quarter-finals, many of those early guesses have already been destroyed.

The challenge then becomes adapting, reassessing the competition and trying to stay ahead of the next surprise.

That is one of the reasons why these competitions remain popular. They evolve alongside the tournament itself. Every unexpected result creates new possibilities, new discussions and new opportunities for supporters to test their football knowledge.

Alongside the guessing game, Snus Vikings is also running a series of World Cup promotions featuring 11 discounted products as part of a tournament-inspired Top 11 selection. There are also six themed mystery box bundles available throughout the competition, although the company has deliberately kept some of the details behind those bundles undisclosed as part of the surprise.

The mystery boxes are themed around football-inspired concepts and are intended to add an additional element of unpredictability to the wider promotion.

That approach mirrors football itself.

Nobody really wants to know every outcome in advance.

The attraction lies in discovering what happens next.

Major tournaments have always been fertile ground for promotional campaigns because they bring together audiences who are already paying close attention every day. Supporters follow team news, monitor injuries, debate selections, analyse tactics and spend hours discussing potential outcomes.

The World Cup becomes part of the daily routine for millions of people throughout the competition.

Adding a guessing game on top of that existing interest feels like a natural extension of the tournament experience. It gives supporters another reason to follow fixtures beyond simply supporting their own team, while creating additional interest in matches that might otherwise pass by unnoticed.

A neutral fixture between two teams you have no connection to suddenly becomes more engaging when you have made a guess on the result.

Every goal matters a little more.

Every upset feels a little bigger.

Every last-minute winner carries slightly more significance.

For supporters who enjoy discussing football, calling results and competing against friends, these types of competitions add another layer to an already compelling tournament.

The reality, of course, is that most guesses will eventually prove wrong.

Every World Cup delivers at least one result that nobody saw coming. That is part of what makes international football so entertaining. The favourites stumble. Underdogs emerge from nowhere. Teams written off before the tournament suddenly find themselves deep into the knockout rounds.

No amount of analysis completely eliminates uncertainty.

But that is also the fun.

The people who do manage to call those surprises correctly earn bragging rights that often last longer than the tournament itself.

And sometimes that is worth almost as much as the reward itself.

For football supporters looking for another way to engage with the World Cup this summer, the Snus Vikings guessing game offers exactly that: a chance to follow the tournament, test your football instincts and collect rewards along the way.

Full details of the guessing game, mystery boxes and World Cup offers can be found through the Snus Vikings World Cup competition page and the company’s accompanying tournament blog coverage.