With the first two rounds of the Group Stage complete, there have been numerous changes to the odds on the FIFA 2010 World Cup winner. Because Betfair usually provides the best odds for tournament winners, the following figures are based on the Betfair odds. Note that Betfair caps odds at 1000-1, so for the tournament minnows you are better off placing bets with other bookmakers. For example, at the time of writing, bet365 is offering 1501-1 odds on Slovakia and 2001-1 odds on Honduras.
Below are some selected odds changes:
| Pre-World Cup | Now | |||
| Spain | 5.00 | 6.20 | ||
| Paraguay | 120.00 | 42.00 | ||
| Australia | 140.00 | 1000.00 | ||
| South Africa | 120.00 | 1000.00 | ||
| England | 7.00 | 13.00 | ||
| South Korea | 500.00 | 200.00 | ||
| Japan | 770.00 | 320.00 | ||
| New Zealand | 1000.00 | 1000.00 |
Despite technically still being in with a chance of getting through to the next stage, New Zealand and Australia are both considered to be as good as eliminated. Paraguay could prove to be a real dark horse in the tournament. If all goes as expected, they would play Japan or Denmark in the round of 16, which I would back them to win. Paraguay defeated Brazil, Argentina and Chile during their qualifying campaign.
South Africa has endured the largest rise in betting odds. They are on track to be the first ever World Cup hosts to be eliminated in the group stage. Fingers crossed they can avoid that fate. According to the BBC, some of the French stars may boycott the game against South Africa! I don’t recall what the odds were on France at the beginning of the tournament, but the odds are now 160-1 for them to win. To rub salt into the wound, French Sports Daily, L’Equipe, predicted prior to the tournament that New Zealand would fail to score a goal. With two games completed and France yet to score a goal themselves, they must be feeling sheepish.