Kicking off June 11 in South Africa, the World Cup is the world’s largest sporting event – not just for fans, but for sports bettors as well. Whether you’re new to the soccer betting game or just a casual player, the 2010 FIFA World Cup is a fantastic event to get us back into the thick of things.
As the World Cup Kickoff approaches we've been researching the best world cup sportsbooks with our partners at Sportsbookreview.com, it's been a tough analysis but the results are in and ready. We've created an in depth betting guide: "Where to Bet on the 2010 World Cup" to explain in detail every aspect related to World Cup betting. We expect that our complete analysis gives you a complete perspective of your best choices for 2010 World Cup Betting.
The following is everything you need to get started or refreshed at wagering on this years World Cup Tournament. From the latest World Cup futures odds to the top bets to place, look no further for the most comprehensive World Cup on-line betting guide available.
Types Of World Cup Soccer Bets
Spread Betting | Totals | Futures Betting | Prop Betting | Parlay Betting | Public Lines
Money Line - This is generally the standard way to wager on a soccer match. It is the equation that determines the amount of money you will win when you bet on a certain team. Favorite teams are less profitable, and underdog teams win you the most money.
A money line will generally appear as a plus (+) or minus (-) number next to a certain team. A plus (+) generally indicates a team is an underdog, and a minus (-) generally indicates that a team is a favorite. Sometimes you will find that both teams playing each other will be a minus (-) and a plus (+), with the number following indicating which team is favored.
To determine the value of a bet based on the money line, first look at if the line is a plus or minus. If the number follows a minus, then the number is the amount of money you would have to wager in order to win $100.
The number that appears after a plus symbol is the amount of money you would win if your initial wager was $100.
For example, a bet on the team that has a line of -160 means that you would need to spend $160 in order to see a return of $100. A bet on a team with a line of +220 would indicate the amount of money you would win with a $100 dollar initial bet.
Spread Betting - Like a point spread in NFL Football, the goal line in soccer betting is a point spread that has been minimized to accommodate the lower scores of international soccer. The favored team will give the bettor an option of betting for or against the favored team minus a certain amount of goals.
The goal line can range from a PK (which means no goals, or pick 'em) to as high as three or four goals. If a favored team is has a goal line of -1.5 goals, this means that the favorite team must win the game by two goals or more for you to win your bet.
The advantage that this type of bet gives you is that since is more difficult to win a game by two goals, you can increase your profit on this type of bet.
Conversely, a goal line bet on an underdog team would be a bet on the underdog plus the goal line. If the goal line for the underdog was +1.5 goals, you would win your bet even if the underdog team lost, as long as they kept the score within two goals. This would allow for a bettor to wager on an underdog even if they believe that the team will still lose out-right, albeit with a smaller payout.
In extreme cases, a goal line can exceed three or four goals; this will happen if two terribly outmatched teams are playing each other. The same rules apply to the wagering, but the goal line simply increases or decreases.
An example of a line wager for the 2010 World Cup would be the round one match up between Brazil and North Korea, currently the Brazilians side goal line is -2.5 goals, and the North Koreans are +2.5.
Totals – Otherwise referred to as a Goal Line, this is a simple bet on goals scored in a game. You can either bet on the total amount of combined goals being scored in an entire game, goals in a half and even the goals scored by each team individually.
This bet is generally an Over or Under wager, but you can often times find odds on predicting the exact total of many of these variants. There is often a moneyline attached to a totals wager that will generally be equal for both sides of a totals wager, and be adjusted as money is wagered on either side of a total, decreasing or increasing the profitability of each bet.
An example of a totals bet for the 2010 World Cup would be a first round match-up between Chile and Honduras. The total for the match is 2.5 goals, with the moneyline on the over wager at +110, and the under is at -130.
Futures Betting – Futures bets are wagers placed on the future outcome of an event or game. It can apply to the overall outcome of a single game, but also extend to an entire tournament or season.
Odds on futures bets are often some of the more lucrative odds available to wager on as they are generally quite difficult to predict and in most cases there are multiple favorites, and many, many options to wager on.
A very common 2010 World Cup futures bet would be who will be the overall winner of the tournament, or who will win a certain Group outright.
Prop Betting – Prop, or proposition bets are generally wagers that are on everything other than the outcome of a game or tournament. It can range from how many goals a player will score, how many red cards will be handed out in a game, group or tournament, even if there will be on-field altercations during matches.
The prop bet is only limited to the imagination of the oddsmaker.
Parlay Betting – A great way to take home some significant winnings during the 2010 FIFA World Cup is try your expertise at parlay betting. A parlay bet is when you combine two or more wagers together to increase your risk, and therefore significantly multiply your winnings.
By wagering the outcome of two or more specific games, sportsbooks will reward you for your accuracy with increased moneylines and monster payouts.
An example of a 2010 World Cup parlay bet would be if you wagered $100 on Cameroon to win their first round game versus Japan on the moneyline, you would win $120 profit. If you also wagered $100 on England beating the USA on the moneyline you would make $44 profit. A decent total of $164, on a $200 bet.
If you decided to parlay these two bets into a single $200 wager, and both teams won their respective games, you would increase your profits from $164, to $435.56!
Public Lines – Once a line, spread, total or prop is released, you will generally notice the line begin to move. This is not because the oddsmakers necessarily got their initial assessment wrong, but it is in fact a reaction to the amount of money being wagered on either side of the bet.
To understand this process, one must realize that the “perfect” bet for any sportsbook is when the wagering is spread evenly on either side of bet. If people are betting on a certain team in a game, the moneyline will become less profitable for that team in order to encourage wagering on the other end of the bet, in hopes that the money will even out on each side of the bet.
You can use this movement in lines to your advantage. If you pay close attention to where a moneyline moves, you can get a very accurate indication of what the public believes the outcome will be, and use that information to maximize the profit of your own wagers.
Now that you know how to bet, its time to actually place one. The following list is the latest 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament Futures Odds for every team entered into the tournament.
Use our advice wisely and this year's tournament could be a winner for your favorite country and your bank account!
Spain - 4/1
Brazil - 4/1
England - 8/1
Argentina - 6/1
Italy - 14/1
Germany - 16/1
Netherlands - 9/1
France - 20/1
Ivory Coast - 50/1
Portugal - 28/1
USA - 50/1
Chile - 40/1
Serbia - 66/1
Ghana - 66/1
Paraguay - 80/1
Mexico - 66/1
Cameroon - 100/1
South Africa - 150/1
Nigeria - 100/1
Uruguay - 125/1
Denmark - 150/1
Australia - 150/1
Greece - 150/1
Switzerland - 200/1
Slovenia - 200/1
Slovakia - 250/1
Japan - 300/1
Algeria - 500/1
South Korea - 300/1
Honduras -1000/1
New Zealand - 1000/1
North Korea - 2000/1