Spain vs. Cape Verde & Belgium vs. Egypt: World Cup Best Bets
Spain faces Cape Verde in a crucial World Cup game today, expected to win. Next up, Belgium vs. Egypt in the US. Craig and Joe Raineri give their picks.
Video Transcript
So today we've got several World Cup matches premiered by Monday today, 12:00 PM Eastern, Spain taking on Cape Verde, and Spain is one of the biggest favorites in all of the initial World Cup matches that are about to go off this week.
They're minus 1500, Joe, so if you're really feeling frisky, maybe you can bank a tie on this with your $100 bet to take back 1300.
Ooh.
I'm sorry to say, I think Spain is probably the play today, but you may have to parlay it with not one, not two, not three, but like several other things.
I mean, what, what could you possibly do with this match today?
Well, it's so funny, Greg, because yes, there there's a lot of different ways that you can go about betting these kinds of early matches, and we all know Spain is expected to establish dominance, shall we say, here, and they have been pretty dominant leading into this.
three-nothing victory over Bulgaria leading into this, a six-nothing win over Turkey.
there is a reason why they are one of the biggest favorites here to actually win the whole thing.
But, eh, are they gonna Look, the odds tell you everything you need to know about this.
What I would do, Greg, is, and what we've noticed about Spain, is I would look to lay maybe the goal or goal and a half early, because I think Spain is going to, make a statement like they do in most matches.
It's usually early, so the idea of this thing being two-nothing, heading into the, second half by the time the first half is over, that's, you know, you can get that at close to, plus money there.
That's the kind of way that I would look.
I'd go into the alternate markets.
I would not expect there to be any scoring on game Verde.
I would expect Spain to do all the scoring, and I would expect Spain early to have a multiple goal lead, by the end of the first half.
Meanwhile, that will be followed by the Belgium versus Egypt matchup.
And by the way, a lot of these matches being played inside the United States today in different locations, including, here where Joe and I live in South Florida, also in Seattle and all over, Atlanta, if I'm not mistaken, there's a match today as well.
But this one is in Seattle, so it's Belgium minus 165, and the game is at 3:00 PM Eastern.
They take on Egypt, and as you can see, this one is closer to a potential pick 'em here.
Do you have any research or opinion that would lead you to take the other side outside of Belgium today, Joe?
Because this is one that, that would seemingly be up in the air a little bit today.
Well, Belgium is your favorite to win Group G, the, the group that they're in here with Egypt, and, and it all has to do with the offensive side of the ball.
They've got plenty of offense here, Craig.
You're talking about, in the qualifying, matches leading up, they averaged almost four goals a game in eight matches.
So this is a team offensively that is always attacking and will have absolutely no issue if you are lazy and give them the opportunity, they will score here.
But Egypt actually pretty good defensively here, and that's their only shot at winning this game, is by slowing this down, not giving, Belgium all the opportunities, and shots on goal.
So I think maybe, looking not only Belgium to win, but pairing it up with maybe an under, in this game is not a bad way to go.
Because sure, I think Belgium's gonna win.
I'm not gonna run and lay the 170, but at the same time, I don't think there's gonna be a ton of goals happening, 'cause that's the only way Egypt's gonna have a chance to keep this thing close.
And good morning, welcome into Prediction Markets Edge here on Sports Grid.
We'll dive into some of the World Cup action, but before we do that, Joe Renari and I will take a look at the story of the weekend which had nothing to do with the pitch.
In fact, England's stolen World Cup equipment has finally been recovered.
If you missed it this weekend, two arrests have been made in Kansas City with a vehicle break-in.
The items were taken Friday night.
Team's gear was transferred to England's Swope Soccer Village base, including footwear, but no elite boots or game critical items were lost.
Gotta be, I guess, a little bit more cognizant of security during the World Cup.
Hard to believe that this would happen, but let's, check in on this report on exactly what went down.
FA logistics before any England game away from home are huge, but even more so before a major tournament.
The, it is a hugely complicated operation to get all of the equipment and kit out in advance of the team arriving anywhere.
We're talking training cones, mannequins, footballs, a kit, that sort of thing.
And our understanding is that large amounts of that kit were stolen while it was in transit heading towards where we are now in Kansas City.
Now, the FA are making no comment.
They say it's now a matter for the US police.
but my understanding is that the vast majority of the kit that went missing has now been recovered, and that's really good news, of course, for the players who are due to arrive here in Kansas City later on today.
They'll hold an open training session, later on in front of local dignitaries and children, a bit of a show training session, if you like, and they've only got three more training sessions after that before their World Cup opener against Croatia on Wednesday.
All right, so gotta be more careful with the equipment.
I guess that's the moral of the story there in, in the World Cup.
All right, meanwhile, let's hit on the prediction markets here.
prediction markets games of the day, we'll start off with Spain, just a huge favorite today against, Cape Verde.
92% of the tickets, on Spain.
You know, there, there are some analysts, Joe, that feel that we're gonna g- because there's so many teams now in this and so many opportunities, there's gonna be a massive upset.
But I don't know.
This does not seem like one of them to me, but you're more educated on me than this one, so, I'll defer to you.
No, no, you're, you're right.
I mean, the upsets are gonna happen, but it ain't happening here with Spain against Cape Verde here.
It's just not, it's not in the cards here.
And I do think, listen, they are extremely dominant.
There's a reason why they're considered one of the top favorites, in the World Cup.
They're deep, they have experience, they can score in waves, and, they got a pretty good goaltender, and they play defense better than most.
So I think, finding the back of the net gonna be a little bit hard for Cape Verde here.
I don't think it's gonna be hard for Spain.
They have al- We've already seen blowouts against, Bulgaria leading into the World Cup.
they beat Turkey, which everyone thought was gonna be pretty good, six-nothing here.
And I kind of tend to think that maybe, maybe playing, the alternate markets here, not a bad look for Spain because we should not be shocked.
You got Germany in a seven-one win, right, over the weekend.
And could we see a five-nothing, four-nothing, four-nil game?
Absolutely correct.
So I would tend to look and maybe move that slider there on the, Calcis or the polymarkets.
Move that slider and maybe lay two and a half goals or three and a half goals and take a shot that way.
All right.
Good, analysis there from Joe.
Let's see if we can get some more here because Belgium is gonna take on Egypt.
Now, naturally, Egypt has a better shot here.
This could be one of those potential upsets that we were talking about.
16% of the, tickets here are on Egypt.
The tie, by the way, 24%, as what Joe mentioned before, if you missed it earlier in the show, and then Belgium 62%.
You think that this is one of them, Joe, or you, I think you're more inclined to go with a, with a tie here maybe?
Well, I mean, listen, they're two total opposites here, right?
defense is the name of the game for Egypt.
Belgium is all about, controlling, the, the ball and making sure offensively I mean, they were averaging, heading into this here, Craig, about, four goals a game.
They're a veteran-laden group.
They got a ton of exper- Little bit older, but they've got a ton of experience, and they understand you gotta be able to score to win in the World Cup, and you're gonna have Egypt who's gonna try to slow it down and not give them a chance to do so.
I don't think they're gonna have much success, but I don't think this is going to be some sort of crazy four-nil, five-one type of situation here.
I think Belgium's team total, one and a half, maybe for them to score over one and a half goals may not be a bad look here.
But two totally different styles and clashes happening in this one
