How to Gamble on the World Cup

Americans hate soccer.

I've never truly understood why the World Cup isn't as big in this country as it is the rest of the world.

Perhaps the reason it hasn't caught on in the U.S. is because there is no definitive gambling system for it. I've theorized before that the NCAA basketball tournament stinks, and it's only big because everyone bets money on it. Could the opposite be true for soccer's world championship?

If so, I'm the right man to figure it out. Here are my theories on how to bet on the World Cup.

 1. A random draw

Pretty simple, after all. Just find 32 or 16 friends, and pull countries out of a hat. If your team wins the whole thing, you scoop the pot. It's crap luck for whoever pulls North Korea, but you deserve to lose your money if you're rooting for Kim Jong-il anyway.

2. The draft

This one requires as few as 4, or as many as 8 or 16 people. Much like a fantasy draft, you draw for draft order, and you pick your squads. You can weight it like a basketball bracket (2 points for advancing past group stage, 4 for each round advanced) and give our prize money based on how many points you get.

3. Auction

Give everybody 100 fake dollars, and have them bid on teams. Pay a percentage of the pot to each team that advances beyond the group stage, and a percentage to the winner and runner-up. This one is a little more tricky because you have to get everyone together at once to do the auction.

4. Salary Cap

Give everybody that same fake 100 dollars (maybe we should use euros?) and list teams at fake prices. Award points for advancing through the group stage, and for each round they win. Most points takes the pot. As for the list? Make your own, but I would recommend setting top teams like Brazil, Spain and Argentina at around $60-75. Perhaps I'll post a list on the gambling page if I get enough requests (jason@morepointsthanyou.com).

5. Group stage betting

Pretty simple here - predict the two teams from each group that will advance. Whoever gets the most out of 16 scoops the pot. I highly recommend weighting these, as it's pretty easy to predict the juggernauts will advance.

6. Brackets

This one is good to combine with group stage betting. Once the group stage is over, distribute brackets and score them just like your NCAA brackets. I hate that this method eliminates group play, but it's the most likely to catch on with the office pool crowd.

7. Goal pool

Much like the 13-run pools, draw teams to see who will score 5+ goals. It brings about all kinds of drama, because it matters on what days your teams play. Much like the drawing method, this one doesn't involve any skill, but it's a blast to have people caring that the Slovenian goalkeeper is making saves in a 4-0 bludgeoning.

I'll be doing some sort of combination of all of these over the next few weeks. If the site shuts down, it's because I lost all my wagers and I sold the site to pay off my debts. On a side note, congratulations to Jason McIntyre of TheBigLead.com for selling his site. May all the great blogs in the world be as successful as his. He deserves it.

Everyone enjoy the World Cup, and be sure to gamble it up!

Comments

[cultured Pat in Indy =)]

Jason, US soccer fans have been talking about how it's going to catch on here since the first nil-nil match was played here. Haha. And i'm going to get around to doing all those household projects i promised the wife i'd do. North Korea has a team? Didn't know that. What's the over under on today's matches? =)

[Jason (you know, the guy who writes this stuff)]

Pat, soccer might beat indoor plumbing to Indiana. :)