What has the World Cup taught us about betting on football in major tournaments?
We’re all going to need a liedown after the end of the World Cup in Qatar. The gap of only a week before the resumption of the Premier League at the Brentford Community Stadium left little time to catch one’s breath.
Excited to get back to the action
Admittedly, that will be music to the ears of passionate fans who have missed the goings-on in the English top flight. For those chomping at the bit to get going again, the betting services and bonuses they turned to through the international action remain at their service.
A new customer betting offer provides £30 in free bets for a £10 bet, for example. That’s a bonus that can be spent on the Premier League when it gets going again and one bettors may see as a chance to test out their usual tactics on untrod ground.
Indeed, a break for international matches means this has been a season like no other and it will be interesting to see the impact of this on the top footballers and teams’ performance when they return home. The overall conclusion is that the showpiece in Qatar has more than delivered. But what lessons can be taken away from the duel in the desert when it comes to betting on major tournaments?
Expect the unexpected
There were shocks aplenty at the 2022 World Cup which was another reminder of how unpredictable international football can be. We did, after all, see Saudi Arabia beat Argentina whilst Japan put the Germans to the sword.
Then there were the courageous Moroccans who made history by becoming the first African nation to reach the last four of the tournament having beaten Portugal and Spain along the way. Undoubtedly, it has been enthralling and breathtaking in equal measure.
https://twitter.com/goal/status/1595026084919132163?
From a betting perspective, these results reinforce the idea that it’s always best to expect the unexpected in the World Cup even when the outcome looks like a foregone conclusion before kick-off. With this being the case, it’s never a bad idea to instead back the over/under goals market or whether both teams will score over the course of 90 minutes. This way, you take the shock out of the equation and can instead sit back and roar on the underdog like the rest of the world.
Take advantage of the tension during the latter stages
One of the biggest lessons from this World Cup in Qatar has been, as mentioned, that results have been hard to accurately predict.
https://twitter.com/HKane/status/1599042547883470848?
Conversely, what has become a regular fixture is a significant amount of bookings during the knockout games owing to how much is on the line and how often tempers become frayed as a result.
For instance, there were four yellow cards during England’s quarter-final clash with the French while there were five in Croatia’s last-eight showdown against Brazil. Granted, those numbers look fairly meager when you take into consideration that there were 18 yellow cards issued in Argentina’s win over the Netherlands during their quarter-final match.
Again, the lesson to take on board here is to give the outright match result market a wide berth and rather focus on the over/under bookings option given that time after time, these matches spill over into ill-tempered affairs that usually sees the referee go to his pocket regularly.
The final word
In conclusion, the reality is that all of the competing nations at the World Cup put everything on the line during their matches which as we’ve witnessed, leads to upsets and then players losing the battle to keep their emotions in check because of how high the stakes are.
From a purely footballing point of view, this theme has been box office entertainment but when the 2026 World Cup in America, Mexico, and Canada comes around, we’ll all be a bit wiser to the trends that these jaw-dropping fixtures typically follow.
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