Thetownend.com

Someone (Lineker I think) said after the World Cup draw that England were 2nd favourites (which they appear to be with the bookies I've checked), but he then went on to say that was just because we're English and all betting on them and that it would be different in other countries.

Surely that isn't the case is it? Maybe in the past but nowadays with the interweb and all that, won't the odds be pretty much the same all over the world? If not, should we be trying to find a bookie in Brazil or Spain to place our bets on England?

Mind you, the odds appear a bit of a joke at the moment - Spain at 4/1, England 5/1, Brazil 11/2. I'm confident as always but even I don't see our chances as being that good.

You will still have bookies that cater to different countries. You wont find many people from Spain or Italy logging on to paddy power. And I cant imagine there being many Brits logging onto Bwin or whatever.

england would have to be 50/1 odds before i wasted any money on them

So could you make money betting on boxing, tennis etc by covering your bets in the two participant countries? I've always wondered this...

Say Murray was playing Roddick, could you bet on Roddick with a UK betting site, and Murray with the US one and always make monies?

The odds on England winning the world cup are rubbish because the bookies are scared of paying out on all this patriotic money which people wil be putting on them.

Yeah, people do it all the time, tried it a few times years ago. But Arbitrage is a slow and frustrating game. You gotta get big wedge down and then you win about £6, although the outcome doesn't matter. Unless you want to weigh it in one direction and then you could win say £12 for one person and break even if the other wins.

Well yeah, it works like any other betting. Lots of people bet, odds go down.