Following the success of Euro 2020 this summer, football fans now turn their attention to the next major international competition, World Cup 2022. This tournament is still at the qualifying stages, with teams from Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, North/Central America and Oceania battling with opponents from their own region for a place at the competition proper.
The final lineup for World Cup 2022 may not yet be decided, but that hasn’t stopped the leading betting apps from offering odds on the most popular markets and bettors from making their predictions. There are many ways to gamble on the World Cup 2022, including calling the outright winner of the competition or the top goalscorer. Check out the best odds and offers using Mybookie to ensure you get the top odds.
Bettors know the earlier they make those calls, the higher the odds bookmakers will offer. That’s because there is more of a risk involved as you could bet on a team to win the World Cup only for them to fail to qualify. In that instance, you would lose your stake without ever getting a run for your money.
Before making your predictions on the winner of World Cup 2022, it’s important to know who the traders are supporting. This article gives you all the information you require on next year’s tournament, from the start date to the nation bookies expect to be champions.
Later and shorter
The 22nd running of the FIFA World Cup will be played in Qatar, but the tournament will be held slightly later in the year than normal. Most World Cup finals are played in the summer months, from June to July, ensuring there’s plenty of time for players to return to their clubs. That won’t be the case in 2022, with the games scheduled between November and December due to the searing heat of Qatar in summer.
There are some interesting facts attached to Qatar 2022. The tournament will be much shorter than usual, with the play crammed into just 28 days. It’s the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world and the second to be staged in Asia. The final field will be made up of 32 teams from six federations and will begin with group stages before progressing to the knockout rounds.
As the host nation, Qatar wasn’t required to go through the usual qualifying route, automatically given a place in the group stages of the tournament. This will aid their preparation, and we have seen a few host nations spring a surprise at international competitions of the past, including Greece winning the European Championships in their home tournament. Will Qatar do something similar here?
France are champions
France is the current World Cup champion, having won the title in 2018 with a stunning 4-2 victory over Croatia in Moscow. That result means a different team has won the World Cup in each of the last five renewals, France following Germany, Spain, Italy and Brazil. That success for the French was their second World Cup win, with the other coming in 1998 when Les Bleus were the hosts.
The most successful team in World Cup history is Brazil who has five titles and has been runners up twice. They last lifted the trophy in 2002, which is a bit of a drought by their lofty standards. The second most successful team is Germany with four wins and four runners up, last winning in 2014. Italy completes the top three World Cup teams with their tally currently sitting at four wins and two silver medals.
How do the stats impact the World Cup outright betting? It’s obvious the traders at major gambling apps have done their homework. Brazil is the early favourites to win, with France marked up as second-favourites to make it two in a row. England were runners up in London at Euro 2020 and third in the betting to win the World Cup. They were defeated in the Euros final by Italy, who is fifth in line behind Spain and will be popular with backers. The Italians required penalties to see off the Three Lions back in July, but they did that as underdogs and will feel ready to conquer the world for the first time since 2006.
