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Bet your luck on Becks in dreads

John Scheerhout
15/ 4/2006

FOOTBALL fans will wager a record '1bn on the World Cup, with bookies prepared to offer odds on a series of bizarre bets.

Never mind the result and who scores, why not stake your money on which player will be the first to cry on the pitch or - at 33-1 - whether captain David Beckham sports dreadlocks for his team's opening match against Paraguay.

The '1bn that bookmakers based in Britain will take in bets - mostly from fans here but also from internet punters abroad - will eclipse the '250m bet on this year's Grand National and will easily beat Euro 2004, which still holds the record for the sporting event on which the most money has been wagered.

Biggest

"We are predicting that for the first time ever the British bookmakers will accept bets worth more than a billion pounds for the World Cup," Graham Sharpe, spokesman for William Hill, said.

"It will be the biggest betting event of all time."

England are second favourites to win the tournament behind Brazil.

"England are going into the tournament at the shortest odds they have been since the 1970 World Cup when they went to Mexico as the holders," said Sharpe.

"They are down to 11-2 second favourites with Brazil the clear favourites at 11-4."

Asked for the odds on Manchester United's England striker Wayne Rooney scoring the winner at the final in Berlin on July 9, he said: "We don't even know he's going yet. We expect he will be there but, God forbid, he could get injured and he misses the World Cup.

"We will have those odds once the season ends and we know the squad, even what hair-cut David Beckham will have when the first game kicks off.

"Michael Owen is 5-4 and Rooney 6-4 as to which of them scores the most goals and a tie between them is 11-4.

"I know it's inevitable we will lose in the quarter-finals and that's 11-4 to happen.

"We also have England at 11-4 to be knocked out in the last 16, 4-2 to go out in the semis, 9-2 to go out in the group stage and 13-2 to end as runners-up.

"We've got Trinidad and Tobago as the rank outsiders at 1000-1 just behind Saudi Arabia.

Backing

"There's been a lot of money on the Ivory Coast and they've gone from 150-1 to 50-1. It's the Premiership effect because Didier Drogba and Kolo Toure play for Ivory Coast.

"They were runners-up in the African Nation's Cup. We have seen a lot of backing for them.

"But we have seen recently that it's outsiders who have been picking up the glamour competitions like Liverpool winning the Champions League and Greece winning Euro 2004.

"If you look at the odds it's difficult to say which is the outstanding team, even with Brazil there. Brazil didn't qualify like an outstanding team.

"You could argue this is the weakest-ever World Cup and maybe we will see a shock result for maybe the Ivory Coast, the Czech Republic or the Swedes."