World Cup Betting Markets You Can Use to Make a Profit This Summer

As the World Cup 2018 draws closer many people are getting excited about the feast of football we have on offer. However, there is something else that we have a lot of and many people are looking forward to that too, that is betting markets. When you are betting week in week out on your favoured football league you will have hundreds of different betting markets at your disposal every single week, however, when betting on the World Cup you will have even more.

The choice on offer at a World Cup is fantastic, and something you should be looking to take advantage of. There are markets that appear for the World Cup that are not available in any other leagues or tournaments and these are often the best places to start. Before you look at the betting markets that are available to you, make sure you stick to just a few and don’t get overwhelmed by the coverage, which could lead you into placing too many bets this summer. Work out the bets you want to place, the teams you want to back or those you want to be against and from there you can choose which betting markets give you the best chance of making a profit this summer.

Group Betting

If you pick out a team that you are going to back over the next few weeks because you think they will do well then backing them to win their group is the best way to get an early wager on them. If you backed the team in each game like you would during a league season and they win one game and draw two, then you are likely to have made a loss. However, with those points on the board, there is a good chance that your team will win their group, meaning if you put your money on them to win the group you would have backed a winner.

With group betting, you get three games and more than one chance to make a profit. If your team starts the tournament poorly and doesn’t win their first game then they can still win their group, your bet is not over. This is not the case when betting singles on individual games if your team loses then so does your bet.

I personally think the best way to use group betting is when you are looking to be against a team because you think they will do poorly. Instead of backing them to lose in each game of the tournament, you can back them to finish bottom of their group. In a similar way to the above example, if you are backing a team to win against those you want to be against and the teams end with one loss and two draws then you will only have one winning bet out of three and likely make a loss. However, they could finish bottom of the group with two points, meaning that bet would be a winner.

With just four teams, each playing three games you can sit down and predict the results of the group stages before you place your bets. Work out what you think will happen and then use that to place bets on the groups at the upcoming World Cup. From backing a team to win the group to being against a team and backing them to finish bottom of the group there are many different ways to get involved. Group betting can be very profitable, and if your team doesn’t get off to the best start then you know they have two further games to put things right and your bet still has a chance of winning.

Team Top Goal Scorer

I think this is a very underrated market and one that you can use to your advantage this summer. Many people will have a bet in the top goalscorer market, where you have to predict who will score the most goals in the tournament. However, when you are doing this you are betting on every single player at the tournament and to stand a chance you have to back someone who plays for a team that is going to go far. Tournament top goal scorers will need to play a lot of games, so choose someone who will start every game too, and preferably one that will reach the final.

However, in this market things work in a different way. Here you are betting who will score the most goals for an individual team, not who will score the most in the tournament. There are two different ways in which you can approach this bet, and two methods I have used with success in the past.

The first method is to back favourites and strikers together in multiples. For example, Harry Kane is the only striker in the England team. They play him in attack on his own. Assuming England do as expected and reach the knockout round then Kane is going to have to score the majority of their goals. There are many nations like this, who have one main striker and he is the lone man they play in attack.

The second way to approach this market is to look at teams you think will disappoint and drop out at the group stages. These teams are only going to play three games if your prediction is right, and because of that, they are likely to only score a small number of goals. This is where you can look for value and aim to back someone at a big price. Look for a set piece taker who may get a chance from a free kick or a penalty, or if you want someone at a big price then look for a defender who will be in the box for a set piece. This is where you will find your value, and the favourites often offer poor value because they don’t have enough games to get going in the tournament.