African Cup of Nations
There is a golden opportunity for spread punters to not only start thinking about the football World Cup but also get a glimpse at some of the sides that will be present for the June tournament, as the African Cup of Nations kicks-off on 10th January. Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana will be doubling their bids for the trophy next month in Angola with preparations for the larger tournament in June.
Ivory Coast have been considered Africa's hottest prospect for a while, reflected in their favouritism in their outright index spread of 28-31pts for the tournament (50pts for winner, 30pts runner-up, 20pts for losing semi-finalist and 10pts for reaching the last eight). The Elephants are also favourite to progress furthest of all the continent's representatives in the World Cup with an outright spread of 17-20pts, while Cameroon are the closest African side behind them with a spread of 10-13pts.
With players such as Chelsea's Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou leading their front line, Sporting Index's traders are expecting plenty of buyers of Ivory Coast's match goals spreads throughout the tournament, and would not be surprised to see either take the tournament's golden boot. With Manchester City's Kolo Tour ruling defence in the same side, match supremacy spread buyers may be also be expecting profits after Ivory Coast games.
The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon possess another prolific striker who has impressed during his time in Europe - Samuel Eto'o. Spread bettors will be aware that the Inter Milan man is the tournament's all-time top scorer with 16 goals and spread buyers of his country's outright index at 23 and buyers of his goals spreads hope he impresses again in Angola. Cameroon have won the ANC four times previously and buyers of Cameroon's Group D index at 19 (25pts for winning group, 10pts for runner-up, 5pts for third) will hope they fulfill their billing as tournament third-favourites and easily make it through to the knockout stages.
Spread punters would be foolish to ignore Egypt, six time winners of the African Nations Cup, including the last two tournaments, but with a spread of 14-17 they are behind even Nigeria in Sporting Index's outright index market. Of more interest to spread buyers and sellers, and making up the current big three of African football are Ghana. Chelsea's Michael Essien and Inter's Sulley Muntari, formerly of Portsmouth, will be familiar to spread bettors and buyers of the Black Stars' outright index at 24pts and Group B index spread at 15 will hope these midfielders perform as well in the ANC as we have seen them play for their respective clubs. However, sellers of their group index spread will of course have noted that they share Group B with Ivory Coast and that a lack of firepower could be the factor that leads Ghana to a premature exit from the Cup.
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