World Cup Betting
WORLD CUP BETTING
HISTORY OF THE FIFA WORLD CUP
Since the first competition in Uruguay in 1930, FIFA’s flagship event has grown in popularity. In the 1920s, Jules Rimet led a group in bringing together the world’s top national teams to contest a World Championship.
Upon its resumption, following WWII, the World Cup rapidly advanced to its status as the world’s greatest sporting event. From 1958, the finals were held alternately in Europe and the Americas. The Executive Committee’s resolution to award the 2002 renewal to co-hosts South Korea and Japan was a ground-breaking decision. 18 tournaments have seen only seven different winners. However, the World Cup has also been interspersed with dramatic upsets that have helped create footballing history. These include the USA defeat of England in 1950 and Cameroon’s opening match defeat of cup-holders Argentina in 1990. Today, the World Cup has tens of billions of viewers worldwide, and several million fans attending the matches. South Africa 2010 sees the 80th anniversary of the FIFA World Cup, but the focus remains the same, the glistening trophy; the embodiment of every footballer’s ambition.
The 19th World Cup starts on 11th June. It will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by the Confederation of African Football, leaving only Oceania never to have hosted the event. As hosts, South Africa qualifies automatically, but they will participate in World Cup qualifiers, as these serve as the qualifying tournament for the 2010 African Cup of Nations.
NOTABLE PREVIOUS WINNERS
HUNGARY – 1953
England faced a Hungarian side at Wembley in November 1953 and was expected to win. However, they were destroyed 6-3 by Ferenc Puskás and company. The Hungarian side was unbeaten in 33 games between May 1950 and July 1954.
BRAZIL -1958
Brazil struggled to beat Wales 1-0, Pelé describing his goal as the most important he ever scored. He added a hat-trick against France and a further brace in the final against Sweden, giving the young side a title they thoroughly deserved.
ENGLAND, 1966
On 30th July 1966, Sir Alf Ramsey’s “gladiators” faced Germany at Wembley Stadium in front of 100,000 fans. A goal down after 12 minutes, Geoff Hurst equalised seven minutes later. After 77 minutes, Martin Peters scored. In the final minute, Wolfgang Weber levelled at 2-2, forcing extra time. After
11 minutes, a Hurst shot hit the crossbar, bounced apparently on the line and was cleared. Referee Gottfried Dienst consulted linesman Tofik Bakhramov and awarded the goal. In the last minute, Kenneth Wolstenholme called the most famous goal ever, “and here comes Hurst, he’s got Ball to his right…Some people are on the pitch, they think it’s all over – it is now!
It’s four!” Hurst confessed to trying to hoof the ball as far as possible into the stand, but ended up with a hat-trick.
MEMORABLE EVENTS
Gordon Banks’ “Save of the Century” – 1970
In the 1970 World Cup, Pelé’s downward header seemed a certain goal, until Banks, diving to his right, produced a save of miraculous proportions, regularly referred to as the “save of the century”. England lost the group match 1-0.
Maradona’s “Hand of God” – 1986
A poor interception in the ¼-final played the ball between England ‘keeper Peter Shilton and Argentinean Diego Maradona. Maradona got to the ball first, and punched the ball into the net. He claimed the goal was scored, “A bit with the head of Maradona and another bit with the hand of God.”
2010 BETTING
Outright Winners
4 teams from 10 qualify in South America, and despite a slow start to the qualifying campaign, Brazil are favourites at 5/1 with William Hill.
Argentina, with 11 points from their opening games, are next best at
11/2 with vcbet.
The European challenge is headed by Euro 2008 champions, Spain, 9/1 with sportingbet. Holders Italy, 11/1 with skybet, should qualify, with only Bulgaria and Ireland as serious competition. Germany, 12/1 with Paddy Power, invariably do well in the “big time”, only have Russia to worry about and look worth a small interest. England, 12/1 with sportingbet is drawn in Group 6 with Euro 2008 nemesis Croatia.
France (16/1 with William Hill) beat Romania to top spot in Group 7.
Holland (16/1 with Ladbrokes) look a good bet at this early stage, with only Scotland as viable opposition in Group 9. Of all the fancied European sides, Portugal (25/1 with Stan James) have the trickiest draw, with Sweden, Denmark and Hungary in opposition.
The lowest-priced teams from elsewhere are African teams, Cote d’Ivoire
(50/1 with skybet) and Cameroon (66/1 with the same firm), while Mexico are
66/1 with William Hill.
“Golden Boot” Winner
The “Golden Boot” trophy is awarded to the top goalscorer in the World Cup finals, with some online layers offering each-way ¼ the odds a place the first 4. In seeking a potential “Golden Boot” winner it is essential to select from a team which is fairly certain to reach the quarter-finals. The next step is to narrow down the players to the potential high scorers. In 7 of the last 10 World Cups, 6 goals have been enough to secure the trophy.
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One Response to “World Cup Betting”
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I guess that if you’re well documented and if you know how things ran during the previous European and World Cup matches, then you could have a pretty good, let’s say 70-80 % chance to win a bet.
After all, the small, weaker and newcomer teams will get overrun and finally Brazil, Germany, Italy, England, Argentina, Ghana, Cameroon and some others will fight for the cup…
If is easiest to eb at the beinning, but the big gains, thought biggers risks for the better are towards the end matches…