South American heavyweights top of TAB’s picks

Football punters are backing either Brazil or their neighbour Argentina to win the Fifa World Cup — but a smart bet could be on dark horse France, a TAB bookie says.

The hosts are TAB favourites, paying $3.75 to win their sixth tournament with Argentina next on the list to lift their third title ahead of Germany and current world champions Spain, who are ranked fourth with the betting agency.

The TAB’s senior football bookmaker, Gary Pearn, said betting on the World Cup in New Zealand would top $20 million — making it one of its biggest sports betting events alongside the Rugby World Cup and ahead of the Olympics.

He said punters were backing Brazil, with one person betting $10,000 on the team to win the final next month, and he expected bigger bets to start flooding in after the group stage finished.

Argentina were also attracting a lot of interest which Mr Pearn said was no surprise as five of the top six predicted goal-scorers are either Brazilian or Argentinian.

“Every time there’s been a tournament in South America, South American teams win.”

Mr Pearn said a lot depended on how the groups progressed but he believed it was unlikely Brazil and Argentina would meet in the final. “We can see some very strong groups — in one you have Spain, the We can see some very strong groups — in one

you have Spain, the Netherlands, Chile and poor Australia — who’ll be very lucky to get a

point.”

TAB bookmaker Gary Pearn Netherlands, Chile and poor Australia — who’ll be very lucky to get a point.

“The other really strong group is the one England find themselves in with Italy and Uruguay, who have Suarez and Edinson Cavani, two prolific strikers up front.

If you compare that to Argentina who have Bosnia, Nigeria and Iran . . . there’s quite a gulf between the previous group and that one.”

A smart bet could be France, who are paying $20 to win: “They’re in a group where they should progress without too many problems.”

“I’d be very keen on Argentina. Messi on the world stage hasn’t really lit it up; if he does this time they could well be unstoppable.”

Kiwis have until midnight tonight to take a shot at $5 million at the TAB — its largest prize pool ever — by correctly picking all 64 game results.

TAB Football Ambassador Paul Ifill thinks Argentina will beat Brazil. “I think the pressure of the home crowd will be too much.”