I’ll Take Those Odds

March 5th, 2006 | by: Jay |

I am not much of a bettor, and certainly don’t condone it as a leisure-time activity, but the bookmakers usually know a thing or two about where to place the odds on a team winning. With that in mind I about fell out of my chair earlier today when I saw Italy installed at 11-1 favorites to hoist the Rimet trophy in Berlin on July 9th.

Brazil, England, Argentina and Germany, yes, Germany are currently staked to better odds. Now, let’s not forget, the ultimate aim of all this is to create more betting activity by making it enticing, but 11-1 seems like a suspiciously high number. And in case you’re still reeling over the Germany odds (9.5 – 1), apparently the ‘home field advantage’ is a little more important than we thought. At least according to the Cologne based think-tank IW Institute.

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Sepio

That seems like decent odds given Italy’s form and path to the finals. I might just throw down a few lira on them.
http://www.worldcupdates.com/red-and-yellow-cards-of-the-week/ Red and Yellow Cards of the Week » FIFA World Cup Updates

[...] Yellow card to those who are rushing out to put their hard earned money on Italy to win the World Cup. The final wasn’t played when you beat a weak German team in Florence last week. The Azzurri looked impressive, but even our men’s league team would have put in a few against that German side. [...]