Soccer Betting – World Cup picture getting clearer by the game

It’s always interesting to see how the World Cup sports betting favorites are doing in their qualifying groups, even though it doesn’t take place for another year. South Africa (as the hosts), Australia, Japan, the Korea Republic and the Netherlands are the only countries to qualify so far, while there are a group of others on the cusp of booking their ticket to South Africa.

World Cup odds – First game is June 11, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa

• Argentina in trouble in South America; Portugal in tough in Europe
• England is one win away after missing Euro 2008
• United States still in the running for 2010

There are no real surprises in Africa yet, although they are still early in their qualification phase. Ghana and the Ivory Coast look to be Africa’s best bets to raise the World Cup. But history is against them: no African side has ever won the World Cup.

Three of the five qualified teams come from Asia, as Australia, Japan and the Korea Republic are already in. Korea DPR, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are all battling for the final spot. However, when it comes to offshore sportbook odds, don’t expect any of these teams to be favored.

Europe has the most spots available as 13 teams can qualify for the World Cup, but now it’s down to 12 since the Netherlands have qualified. Defending champion Italy is cruising, while England has scored the most goals in all of Europe, and they are in with a victory over Croatia or Ukraine. Portugal struggled to score goals, which could be the biggest World Cup odds favorite to miss the tournament.

Costa Rica and the United States lead the North American qualifying contingent, but Mexico is feeling the heat a bit after a surprising loss in El Salvador. This is a very exciting group, as most of the teams focus on going forward, rather than defending. This could be a problem for the qualifying teams’ World Cup odds if you’re going to bet on sports.

In the Oceania group, New Zealand won the four-team tournament, but they’re not assured of heading to South Africa just yet. They will wait to find out who the fifth-place team in the Asian group is, and those two will have a one-game playoff with a World Cup ticket on the line.

Finally, in South America, Brazil is rolling through the group as they only blemish on their record is a 2-0 loss in Paraguay. Argentina has been up and down through the entire qualification process, and they are holding onto the final assured spot over Ecuador. Still, I like Argentina to qualify and maintain their status as one of the favorites according to projected 2010 soccer betting.

For more soccer betting action on the way to South Africa 2010, visit the sportsbook at betonline.com.

Are you a fan of “The Beautiful Game”? Then you should try Todd Shale's “Beautiful picks”. Though he enjoys a good rugby match, Todd is happiest when he can handicap a great soccer match - or football match, as he prefers to call it. Thoughts or questions?