Since making three straight FIFA World Cup finals and winning two of them, Brazil has failed to advance to the finals in each of their last three World Cup appearances. Brazil will look to get back on track this year as co-favorites on the 2018 World Cup odds in Russia.
World Cup odds 2018: Brazil, Germany now co-favorites on betting lines at the sportsbooks
Brazil has joined Germany atop the futures board at the sportsbooks as the two teams enter the World Cup as betting favorites ahead of Spain and France.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Brazil and Germany are each going off at +450 to win the World Cup at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. Even with Neymar sidelined with injury through some of the qualifying process, Brazil lost only one game over a 12-5-1 run through 18 South American Football Confederation qualifiers to land the top spot in the group.
Neymar is now back at full strength and will lead one of the world’s top squads into Russia.
While most of the movement among the top teams on the betting board over the last few months has just been in the form of some minor odds tweaks, the one big jump has been Spain moving ahead of France.
Odds coming into 2018 had France as the third most likely team to win the World Cup at +600 with Spain sitting in fourth at +750, but those spots have been flipped as Spain would now pay +600 to win the tournament and France would pay +700.
Spain was on top of the football world less than five years ago, winning the UEFA European Championship in both 2008 and 2012 as well as the World Cup in 2010. The defending World Cup champions entered the tournament in 2014 as favorites to win it all, but instead fell flat in a shocking group stage exit.
Four years removed from that disaster, Spain returns with a chip on its shoulder and certainly looked the part of a dominant super power during the qualifying round in Europe’s Group G.
Spain went 9-1-0 over its 10 qualifying games, scoring 36 goals while conceding only three.
Rounding out the updated World Cup betting lines at the sportsbooks for the other contenders on the board are Argentina (+900), Belgium (+1100), England (+1600), and Portugal (+2500). Portugal won the UEFA European Championship in 2016 and has moved ahead of some teams it was previously bunched in with including Uruguay (+3300) and Croatia (+3300).
World Cup Betting Odds
Germany +450
Brazil +450
Spain +600
France +700
Argentina +900
Belgium +1100
England +1600
Portugal +2500
Uruguay +3300
Croatia +3300
For more odds information, betting picks, and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast with Jon Campbell and Andrew Avery. Subscribe on iTunes or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
