World Cup Betting Groups A to D

If I can be honest for a moment I will admit that I rarely get excited about Football. If I see there is a match on that I would like to watch I enjoy the full game, but to say I am excited before the match would be overstating things. However, as I devour the varied information available for the World Cup I admit that I am getting excited. Excited to see if England can win it, and excited to get involved in the betting action bwin.com and their array of Live betting on World Cup 2010, which will make the World Cup even more fun.

This two part article is some World Cup info for you to analyse the Group Betting at bwin.com. There are lots of group betting options available including points scored by each team, final league standings, and goal permutation bets for each team along with many other betting choices. With live betting scheduled at bwin.com for when kick-off finally arrives they really do cover everything.

Group A

France 9/10, Uruguay 17/10, Mexico 17/10, South Africa 13/2

Most groups have two obvious favourites for qualification to the knock-out stage and in this group I think that France and Mexico are the favourites. South Africa are the host nation and whilst they will get lots of support it will be tough for them in what is a strong group. My bet would be for France to earn two wins and one draw for seven points which is 3/1 with bwin.com. I also expect Mexico to do well, they always seem to be a bit underrated in my opinion. My bet on the final league standing will be France/Mexico/Uruguay/South Africa in that order which has odds of 21/4. I really like this betting market for the final group standings, it is a great idea.

Group B

Argentina 2/5, Nigeria 9/2, Greece 13/2, Korea Republic 11/1

I think Argentina could win the World Cup and are rightly heavy favourites to be group winners. Korea should finish bottom so the real fight appears to be between Nigeria and Greece for second place. Greece face South Korea first so should force Nigeria to chase them for second. As Nigeria won CAF qualifying group B I will tip them to win the race for second place as Greece only qualified via a UEFA playoff and struggled throughout qualification. My bets for this group is Argentina to get 9 points at 5/2 (very nice odds) and the final group standings to be Argentina/Nigeria/Greece/Korea at 13/4.

Group C

England 3/10, USA 4/1, Slovenia 11/1, Algeria 16/1

The biggest test for England is their first match against the USA. Providing they come through that match they should find winning the group reasonably straightforward. I expect many goals in this group as Algeria in particular are vulnerable defensively. I do give USA some credit as a reasonable team so given I expect them to qualify and I like the 4/5 odds on USA scoring over 3.5 goals. I also like USA to lose to England and beat the other two teams so 17/4 for USA to obtain six points in the group seems reasonable. I expect no surprises in terms of final placings in the group so would back England/USA/Slovenia/Algeria to be the final league standings at 9/4.

Group D

Germany 4/5, Serbia 57/20, Ghana 9/2, Australia 15/2

This group might be a little more open. I would expect Germany to win this group clearly with nine points at 7/2. The rest of the group is tight. Serbia finished top of a tough qualifying group that included France so you have to give them a chance at coming second. For Serbia to get six points seems a good bet at 17/4. Ghana’s team will feature many of the Under 21 team that won the Under 21 World Cup last year beating Brazil in the final. This looks like curtailing any chance the Australians have at qualifying from the group. You could make an argument for Ghana qualifying, but for my final standings tip I will go for Germany/Serbia/Ghana/Australia at 4/1. The higher price seems to reflect the competitive nature of the group.

Visit the second part of this article for World Cup betting opportunities highlighted for Groups E to H.

By Malcolm Clarke