Debate heats up over 2022 World Cup
It might be the planet’s most popular sport, with a single match able to generate enormous sums in bets, but football – or at least its governing body, Fifa – continues to court controversy. Qatar, the venue for the 2022 World Cup, was awarded the role of host despite concerns that its climate is far from ideal for the usual summer schedule.
The weather has always been a major factor at this tournament, causing problems for both bookmakers and punters alike, as the more extreme conditions could render the odds, and thus the betting markets, less reliable for sports gamblers thanks to some nations being more suited to certain temperatures than others.
In response to an increasingly popular campaign aimed at switching the event to winter, the host organisers recently confirmed their commitment to guarantee that temperatures up to 41C won’t be a problem. Indeed, as well as state of the art air-conditioned stadiums, they have also promised to provide a cooling system that serves entire neighbourhoods so that fans can avoid the searing heat as much as possible.
According to Hassan al-Thawadi of the 2022 supreme committee, the fans "... will be physically cool and they will be cool in every sense." Regardless of when the tournament finally takes place, the very different nature of the host country in terms of its culture and laws (and questionable human rights issues according to monitoring organisations) is going to make for a unique World Cup. This will likely be the case as far as mobile sports betting is concerned, too, as mobile technology will by then have made mobile betting optimally accessible even by today’s levels.
At an estimated cost of £137 billion over the next decade, one would hope that playing conditions will be perfect in what is both the first Middle Eastern country and the smallest nation to host a Fifa World Cup.
Meanwhile, our sports betting partners at gambling4mobiles are already taking bets on the 2014 World Cup. It is always an interesting betting market when the qualifying groups are yet to finish, but it should come as no surprise that the odds makers have installed hosts Brazil as favourites. A few sample prices currently are Brazil at 10/3, rivals Argentina and the mighty Spain at 9/2 and Germany 8/1. More generous prices are on offer for Holland (16/1) and Italy and England (20/1), while emerging football nation Belgium are up there with the ‘European Brazil’ Portugal and former champions France at 25/1...
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