Brazil, Argentina Still Favourites

Published on May 21st, 2014 9:24 pm EST
The 2014 World Cup is just a few weeks away, as Brazil vs Croatia is set to kick off the tournament on June 12th.

As the tournament draws closer, there is more and more betting activity on who will win the tournament. As a result of this betting activity, the odds are quickly changing as sports books must adjust their lines in order to accommodate the influx in betting money.

The odds for the top three favourites have not changed over the past couple of months - they are:

Brazil, 3/1
Argentina, 9/2
Germany, 11/2

The odds for Spain to win, however, have ticked higher in the past week. Prior to May 20th, Spain was listed at 7/1 to win the World Cup. Today, they are listed at 6/1.

In addition to Spain, the odds for five other teams have changed in the past week. They are:

Columbia, 25/1 (previously 22/1)
Portugal, 25/1 (previously 33/1)
Uruguay, 28/1 (previously 25/1)
England, 28/1 (previously 33/1)
Croatia, 150/1 (previously 200/1)

A few things to note:

-it's interesting that the odds of England winning have slightly improved, as they are not even considered favourites to advance from their group

-Uruguay, which is in the same group as England, has seen their odds of winning drop as gamblers have bet that they England will advance from their group at Uruguay's expense

-Croatia will be in a dogfight in Group A (Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon) - gamblers have been jumping on Croatia a bit as of late, clearly confident that they will be able to advance from their group

-Portugal, led by Cristiano Ronaldo, have seen their odds of winning the World Cup narrow considerably in the past few weeks

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As the World Cup draws even closer, expect the odds to keep changing as money continues to pour in.