World Cup Group Stage Betting Review: Heat, Fast Markets And A Decent Profit

With the group stage now almost complete, I thought it would be a good time to look back at what has worked.

The football has generally been entertaining, which helps.

A tournament full of unknowns, nations we don’t watch every week and plenty of attacking intent has created some decent betting opportunities.

The atmosphere has looked fantastic too. Fans from all over the world mixing together, plenty of colour in the stands and a generally friendly feel around the tournament. That’s enough scene setting though — you’re here for the betting.

The headline figure is that I’ve finished the group stages £623.54 in profit, which works out at an ROI of 18.7%.

Not enough to retire.

Not enough to buy a FIFA ticket.

But certainly enough to make the knockout stages more enjoyable.

One thing that became obvious very quickly was just how important team news was.

Odds have been moving at lightning speed once line-ups are announced. If you were waiting until five minutes before kick-off to place a bet, quite often the value had already disappeared.

The bookmakers have been far quicker than previous years — they all seem to employ folks like me now — but there have still been opportunities for those willing to get involved early.

Enhanced prices and boosts have also been surprisingly decent.

Usually these are little more than marketing gimmicks designed to separate punters from their money.

This tournament has been slightly different.

Not every boost has been worth taking, obviously, but there have been enough genuine enhancements to make them worth monitoring.

Where things have become difficult is the cards and tackles markets.

Going into the tournament I expected them to be among the stronger angles.

The reality has been very different.

The heat has clearly affected the tempo of games.

Refereeing standards and interpretations have varied massively.

And several Round 2 fixtures were played with one eye on qualification scenarios rather than winning football matches.

Trying to predict intensity levels became incredibly difficult.

Cards have been equally frustrating.

Some referees have treated the yellow card like a family heirloom they don’t want to part with. Consistency has been almost impossible to find.

Goals, outright results and team-based angles have generally been far more reliable than player discipline markets.

Overall, though, I’ve enjoyed betting this World Cup far more than many recent major tournaments.

The betting bank has survived the experience.

Daft-a-peth.