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The Qatar World cup will be the most expensive event ever staged on planet earth, sporting or otherwise. The oil-rich nation has spent upwards of US$220 billion to host the best players in the world for four weeks of frenetic and red-hot – in more ways than one – tournament football. You won’t be surprised to know that the 2022 finals to Qatar betting market will be the biggest of the year. Generally, the bigger the market, the more resources bookmakers devote to it and therefore, the more options there are for the user to take advantage of it, thanks to the different markets open on such a special event.
The sheer size of the market does skew the odds somewhat. There will be many people placing bets who don’t normally bet on football, or even follow it that closely. As a result this will always tend to make the odds for teams such as Brazil artificially low. That means that the odds of anyone beating them or finishing higher than them in the group are, in turn, artificially high.
Let’s stick with Brazil. They are the tournament favourites. They have household names such as Neymar. Talk to the bloke down the pub who to your knowledge has rarely shown an interest in the beautiful game before, and he will confidently tell you they are the best team in the world. Push him for reasons to back up his statement and it will largely be their history and the fact they have Neymar.
Let’s take a look at that history. Brazil last won the World Cup in 2002. Since then they have been knocked out in the quarter-finals three times, and the semi-finals once. The time they reached the semis was in their own tournament and were beaten 7-1 by Germany. I am not saying Brazil are not a good side, and don’t stand a chance of going all the way, but the possibility of Switzerland – the team who topped the table holding Euro champions Italy in qualification – beating them, or winning Group G should be considered.
Similarly second favourites France. The holders come into the tournament in a terrible run of form. Since the beginning of June, Les Bleus have played six times. In those matches they managed to win just once, defeating Austria, who failed to qualify for Qatar, 2-0 in Paris. They managed to draw in Austria and away to Croatia. The other three games all ended in defeat,once at home to Croatia, and home and away to Denmark.In those three games, France shipped five goals scoring just the one.
France have been drawn in Group D along with Tunisia, Australia and Denmark. The Danes must be licking their lips. France however are favourites to win their group, and indeed to beat Denmark when they face off. If you are looking for a dark horse in the tournament, at least to get into the final four, then you could do far worse than the two teams already mentioned, Denmark and Switzerland.
There are 64 games in the tournament and there are bound to be upsets, surprises and shocks. The key to it of course is predicting the most likely place they will occur. There are however another couple of places you can place up your sleeve. First of all, bookmakers will be giving many offers and free bets. Use them wisely, and they are like free money. Another, more subtle advantage is that the odds will change depending on where you are. The odds onEngland for example will be artificially low in England down purely to the number of locals blindly backing them. Walk into a bookmakers in Nice, Berlin or Madrid, and the story will be different.
It will be four weeks when the world stops for football. Every business and company will climb aboard the bandwagon and want to become involved, providing opportunities in the unlikeliest of places. Be smart, keep your eyes open, and there very well could be more than one winner on December 18th.
