World Cup Betting Guide
May 14, 2010
The Fifa World Cup comes around once every four years and is the most watched sporting event on earth. A total of 32 international teams from around the World will descend on South Africa for the 2010 World Cup which kicks off on 11th June. There will be a total of 64 matches played over the course of four weeks with the tournament culminating in the final which takes place in Johannesburg on Sunday 11th July.
Only an elite group of seven countries can boast winning one of the 18 World Cups that have taken place since the tournament started in 1930. These winning World Cup teams are Brazil (five times), Italy (four times), Germany (three times), Argentina (twice), Uruguay (twice) and England and France have each won it once. Many teams will be be bidding to join that list in 2010 but only Spain are judged to have a realistic chances, being tournament favourite in the World Cup odds, along with Holland and Portugal who are considered to hold an outside chance. However, the winner according to the bookmakers is most likely to come from one of the heavyweights that have won a World Cup previously, namely, Brazil, England, Italy or Germany.
The tournament starts at the Group stages where the 32 teams have been divided up into eight groupd of four. Each team will play three games in the group stage, against each of the three group opponents. The top two teams in each Group progress through to the last 16 knock out stages of the tournament and the other 16 head home. Of those teams in the last 16, the winner of each of the eight matches progresses to the Quarter Finals before the winner of which will play in the Semi Final and ultimately the final.
Betting on the World Cup has been big business for the last few tournaments but the 2010 World Cup is expected to be the biggest betting event of all time with an estimated £1 billion set to be wagered in the build up and during the tournament. The most popular betting opportunities at the World Cup include, outright winners, Golden Boot, world Cup Group Betting and match by match betting, inparticular the England matches with UK bookmakers and England v USA betting for the opening game of Group C on Saturday 12th June is anticipated to be the most popular match for football betting this year.
Betting Directory have put together an excellent World Cup Betting Guide for this year’s tournament and covers just about every angle imaginable for punters look to enjoy a flutter on the matches and tournament in South Africa from odds to fixtures to Group standings and a visit is highly recommended!
Bookmaker of the Month: Paddy Power
