With the summer’s top sporting even nearly over, it’s time to give the World Cup one last look and see the betting odds posted on the Final of the world’s most viewed soccer match. A quick recap may be needed to catch up the casual US bettor up to speed. The 2018 World Cup final will match France and the newcomer to this, the highest level of the competition, Croatia. To be perfectly honest, France was definitely on the tough side of the bracket, beating Belgium (who met with Brazil) to get to the final, and Uruguay in the previous round. Meanwhile the Croatians relied mainly on grit while facing much weaker opponents – Russia and England. Add to this the fact that Croatia went into extra time in their last three matches (two of them to penalty shots), and there is hardly a surprise that France is the favorite to win the 2018 World Cup final on Sunday.
Let’s quickly look at the top sportsbooks and the odds and money line they have posted on the soccer final. Starting with Bookmaker, France are sitting on -205 to win the game while the Croatians are a natural underdog at +172. Those odds have been moving and we expect them to continue to be moving in favor of France as the Final match nears, so lock in the bets, if France is your pick for a World Champion. The betting odds at Bovada Sports have already moved quite a bit, which is natural, considering the more international audience of this online sportsbook. Here the French are -220 favorite, while the money line on Croatia to deliver an upset this weekend are at the distant +190. But the true indication of this game’s outcome comes to us from the oddsmakers at another famous online sportsbook – 5Dimes, where France is currently listed with the whopping -106 money line, while the Croatians would be paying handsomely to the risky bettor, who takes their +396 odds to win and they manage to deliver on Sunday.
Overall, we tend to agree with the sportsbooks on this one.
While Croatia certainly fields some world-class player like Modric,
Lovren, Rakitic, and Mandzukic, over the last few games this teams has
played we have seen nothing that would assure us that Croatia could
deliver one of the biggest upsets in world soccer. And the ease with
which the French have been able to keep their opponents away from goal,
nearly guarantees a clean sheet for Courtois. The French attack, namely
Giroud, has been predictably impotent, which may just keep the game
interesting and even gave the Croatians a chance at another extra-time
miracle, who knows?