The final tournament usually lasted for about a week with four meetings held in six or seven days. It started with two first round "events", each consisting of four national teams. The winners of these events qualified automatically for the final, while those who finished second and third competed in the race-off. Last place finishers were eliminated. The top two in the race-off joined the event winners in the final. The winners of the final carried home the Ove Fundin Trophy, named after one of the all-time greats of speedway who won the world championship five times. The two events were held in different countries, normally in one of the countries that competed in that event. The race-off and the final was held in another country that did not host an event. For example, in the 2014 competition, Great Britain and Sweden hosted the two events, while Poland hosted both the race-off and final. From 2012 onwards the host nation were seeded direct to the final.
Rules
Each of the four meetings were competed between four national teams, and each national team were represented by four riders; there were no substitute rider: The meetings lasted for 20 heats with one rider for each competingteam racing in each heat. Each rider was scheduled to race in five heats and face each of the opposing nations' riders once during the meeting. Teams scored 3 points if their rider won a heat, 2 points if their rider finished second, 1 for a third-place finish, and none if their rider finished last or was excluded from a heat. If a team fell six points behind the leader then they were allowed to make tactical substitutions, replacing a rider who is possibly out of form for one who is playing better in the hope of closing the gap on the leader. Each team was also allowed to play one "joker" if they fell six points behind the leader. With the joker, a team scored double the points their finishing position was usually worth, so if their rider finished first, they picked up six points instead of the normal three. This was a controversial rule but was implemented with the intention of keeping interest in meetings that may have been a foregone conclusion. No jokers were allowed to be used during heats 17-20 though a tactical substitute could still be used. The final four heats were nominated by their team managers. The lowest scoring team had first pick followed the team in third place, then the second place team, and finally the leading team.
This is a complete list of speedway riders who won the Speedway World Cup. In total, 34 different riders from 4 national teams have a World Cup title. Bold indicates the most recent champions.
Participating nations
;Legend
– Champions.
– Runners-up.
– Third place.
4–12 – 4th to 12th places.
– Qualified, but withdrew.
– Did not qualify.
– Did not enter or withdrew.
– Country did not exist or national team was inactive.
Wrocław
Peterborough
Vojens
Målilla
Prague