The biggest news in sports and concomitantly in sports betting is the World Cup of football. Sports betting has become the big news in the United States because the Supreme Court only one month ago declared PASPA, the law that had made sports betting illegal in all but four states, unconstitutional.
The change in the law was too close to the start of the World Cup tournament to allow many Americans to bet on it legally. Americans are used to betting on sports illegally. The size of the US black market in sports betting is tens of billions of dollars annually. So, we might have expected Americans to be heavy bettors on the World Cup.
Alas, Americans don’t like football very much. In fact, they have the gall to call it soccer, reserving the name football for a sport that rarely uses one’s feet to kick the ball! If the Americans don’t bet in large numbers on the World Cup, at least people in all other countries where sports betting is legal will do so.
News and Advice
As much as each game, each tactic, and each team’s play is being analyzed in the minutest detail, the news is also filled with a lot of advice as to how to bet on the games. The World Cup is similar to what is called March Madness in the US during March and April when 64 college basketball teams begin a long tournament that results in a single winner.
The big difference is that in March Madness each game is a knockout game while in the World Cup the tournament begins with “houses”. Teams must qualify through their house in order to reach the knock out rounds.
Access Several Sportsbooks
Especially if you think you know a lot about football, we advise betting at a number of sportsbooks. Each sportsbook is offering special casino bonuses to new bettors or to established bettors as well. They surely feel that this tournament, featuring the best national teams in the world’s favorite sports, will generate great competition for bettors at all of the sportsbooks. So, take advantage of their desperate attempts to attract bettors.
By getting some of the sportsbooks’ money, you can make speculative bets that you wouldn’t make with your own hard earned money. But with a sportsbook’s money, you can make a wild bet that a huge underdog might win a game.
This is especially likely to happen in the games within each house. The really top teams often overlook the lesser teams. As football is very difficult by its nature to win, a single unexpected goal from an unknown player may be enough to win a game!
This same phenomenon almost never happens in the knock out rounds because no team can afford to look beyond the present game lest it be eliminated from the tournament by a lesser opponent.
So, use the sportsbook’s money to speculate in the round within the houses.
Betting on Stars
Even as great a star as Ronaldo may not be able to help Portugal win because the other players on the Portuguese national team are considered second rate by World Cup standards. Ronaldo might pull off a miracle but even the best players in football need a powerful supporting cast to show their own dynamic abilities.
Pele became world famous because he played on legendary Brazilian teams with great players at every position.
So, make the presence of a superstar on your team the reason to bet on that team only if he has role players alongside him who are better than average for the tournament.
Proposition Bets
These are a very popular form of sports bet. Many advisors have come out against making any proposition bets. A proposition bet might be: Will team A score in the game? Will the team score in the first half or the second half or in both halves?
There are an infinite number of proposition bets that you could make in any sport. They are all far too ephemeral for the taste of most sports betting advisors. There are a few proposition bets that many observers are saying are at least reasonable bets to consider. These are: the winners of the individual houses; the teams that will reach the quarter finals; the top goal scorer; and the top two finishers in each house.
In many cases, the favorite to win a house is the overwhelming favorite. If it isn’t an overwhelming favorite, the advisors say to avoid making such a bet.
The teams to reach the quarter finals are simply the eight best teams in the tournament. You don’t have to name all of them so this is also a reasonable proposition bet.
The top two finishers in any given house may also be a reasonable bet to make especially if you are betting with the sportsbook’s money,
Finally, the top goal scorer will either come from a great scorer who plays a lot of games against inferior teams until his team loses late in the tournament or it will be a great scorer from a team that gets to the semi-finals or the finals. Great individual players on lesser teams are highly unlikely to become the top goal scorer for the entire tournament.
As in football generally, most advisors say that bettors should emphasize betting on the winner of individual games. That would be the straight or money line bet. However, if you have some sportsbook money to speculate with, you might make any bet you like, just for the experience.
Enjoy the Tournament
Another point the most impartial advisors make is that spectators should enjoy the games for what they are: a pageant of national teams competing on the largest football stage. Making bets adds a lot of fun to the tournament but they should never cloud any gambler’s ability to simply enjoy the “beautiful game” at its most beautiful.
