World Cup 2018 in Russia: how far will Germany go?” (CC BY 2.0) by marcoverch
Thinking of betting on the 2018 World cup, but don’t know which markets to choose? With 32 teams split into eight groups and hundreds of markets available, it can be hard to know where to start.
At the beginning of the tournament, you might be tempted to try and predict the outright winner and this can be a good time to get decent odds, even on the favourites. However, a lot can happen over the course of a month-long event. Players can get injured, teams can suffer shock results and coaches can even be removed (take Spain for example). So, it is sometimes better to look for value in the shorter term.
Predicting which teams will win or progress from the groups can be a good place to start. By using your knowledge of the game and looking at the statistics, clued up punters can be quite accurate at predicting which teams will finish where in each group.
You bet on who will win the group, who will finish second, third or bottom or that a particular team will or won’t qualify for the next round without specifying position. You can also bet that a team will win all of their group matches.
Beyond the group stages, World Cup betting is all about the individual match-ups. And at this point, you can use the same kind of methodology that you might apply to a domestic cup match. You can look at the statistics and form of each team, historic results and consider factors such as injuries and suspension that have been picked up during the earlier rounds.
Another popular market is the Top Scorer (or Golden Boot) market. Football is all about goals, so it is no surprise that this market attracts a lot of attention. There is even a special award for the players that top the scoring charts. However, the top scorer is not always the player that starts as favourite and much can depend on the overall performance of the team that the player is in. Some of the best goalscorers do not always play for the top teams, so you have to consider how far that player’s team might go in a tournament.
The official Golden Boot, Golden Glove, and Golden Ball have been unveiled ahead of the 2018 #WorldCup…
1️⃣ Top scorer: ______.
2️⃣ Most clean sheets: ______.
3️⃣ Best player: ______.Who are you backing to win the three individual awards? ? pic.twitter.com/JtXMpeYBhg
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) June 10, 2018
In Brazil four years ago, the surprise Golden Boot winner was James Rodriguez of Colombia. In a tournament featuring, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar, Thomas Muller, Alexis Sánchez, Robin van Persie and David Villa, few expected the 22-year-old midfielder to bag the prize.
If you don’t fancy picking the overall top scorer, you can bet on who will score the most goals for a particular team. So if you think Diego Costa will top the Spanish scoring charts, there is a market available for that wager.
The World Cup only comes around every four years. Betting on the tournament can add some extra excitement to individual games and enhance your overall enjoyment of the tournament – especially if you land a winner.
