Copa America Move To Trigger A Big Shift In Betting?

The governing body of international football in South America, CONMEBOL, have announced that this summer’s Copa America tournament will now take place in Brazil, rather than Argentina and Colombia as had originally been planned.

Colombia had already been removed as a host of the event due to virus cases surging in the country and a few days later, a similar situation also saw Argentina forced to pull out as hosts of the event.

Brazil, having had the infrastructure from the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games already in place, was the only realistic venue for the tournament left in South America that could host the tournament at short notice.

However, in a rather embarrassing gaffe, CONMEBOL made the announcement of the switch before the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) had sent an official request to the Brazilian government to host the event. Which means that CONMEBOL made the announcement without the Brazilian government actually agreeing that the tournament could take place in the country.

Of course, in a football-mad country like Brazil, no government wants to be seen to push away a glamorous international tournament from its shores, especially one the current Brazil team stand a good chance of winning, so that agreement from government may be a formality.

However, the change of venue is likely to precipitate a massive shift in betting for the outright winner of the event, with much more money likely to be bet on Brazil, than their likely main rivals and former hosts Argentina.

Remember, if you do want to have a bet on the outcome of the tournament, and you are a new customer with bet365 Sport, then you can use the bet credits you have earned thanks to the unique bet365 bet credit system.

And if you are based in the United States, for example in the state of Pennsylvania, then you can find out plenty of great odds at BetRivers PA, as well as PokerStars bespoke sports betting site too.

Let’s now take a quick look ahead to this summer’s tournament and see how the change in venue has affected the Outright Winner betting market at bet365.

Copa America 2021 Odds

Prior to the moving of the tournament to Brazil, the former hosts Argentina were strongly fancied by many to do well in their home country. However, the change of venue, especially to that of their closest rivals for the event, has seen a marked change in odds on the teams to win the tournament.

As you can see, Brazil have been well backed in to be the strong favourites to win the tournament and they are just better than even money at 11/10, while Argentina have drifted in the market out to 11/4.

Outside of those two teams, it is Colombia, Uruguay and Chile that are rated as being the most likely to go furthest in the tournament.

Let’s now take a look at the history of the tournament and the curr

ent state of the teams set to compete in it when it gets underway on the 11^th June.

A History Of The Copa America

The Copa America is the oldest international football tournament still running in the worldtoday. It was first contested in 1916, fourteen years before the very first World Cup Finals. It has been held a total of 46 times and eight of the ten CONMEBOL teams have managed to win the tournament.

Brazil are the current holders of the trophy having last won the event when it was held on home soil two years ago. They beat Peru 3-1 in the final with Everton Gabriel Jesus and Richarlison scoring the goals.

Despite being the most successful country in World Cup terms, Brazil have only ever won the Copa America on nine occasions. Argentina has 14 wins in total, but their last came back in 1993. The most successful team in the tournament’s history are Uruguay who have won 15 tournaments, their last coming in 2011.

Paraguay, Chile and Peru have each won the tournament twice, with Colombia and Bolivia winning it once apiece. Only Venezuela and Ecuador of the 10 CONMEBOL nations are yet to win the event.

Brazil have had plenty of recent success, winning the tournament five times since 1997, with Chile (twice), Uruguay and Colombia the only other teams to win the tournament since then.

Star Men At The Copa America 2021

There are a number of outstanding players that will likely be the stars of Copa America 2021 in Brazil and we have listed some of them from each country competing, below:

• Brazil – Alisson Becker (Liverpool), Marquinhos (PSG), Thiago Silva (Chelsea), Casemiro (Real Madrid), Fabinho (Liverpool), Neymar (PSG), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Richarlison (Everton), Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City)
• Argentina – Angel Di Maria (PSG), Leandro Paredes (PSG), Giovani Lo Celso (Tottenham), Rodrigo De Paul (Udinese), Lucas Ocampos (Sevilla), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Sergio Aguero (Barcelona), Lautero Martinez (Inter).
• Uruguay – Diego Godin (Cagliari), Jose Maria Gimenez (Atletico Madrid), Rodrigo Betancur (Juventus), Matias Vecino (Inter), Luis Suarez (Atletico Madrid), Edinson Cavani (Manchester United)
• Chile – Charles Aranguiz (Bayer Leverkusen), Alexis Sanchez (Inter), Eduardo Vargas (Atletico Mineiro), Ben Brereton (Blackburn Rovers)
• Colombia – David Ospina (Napoli), Davinson Sanchez (Tottenham), Yerry Mina (Everton), Juan Cuadrado (Juventus), Edwin Cardona (Boca Juniors), Luis Muriel (Atalanta), Duvan Zapata (Atalanta), Alfredo Morelos (Rangers)

Other players to watch include Miguel Almiron (Paraguay), Luis Advincula (Peru), Paulo Guerrero (Peru), Jefferson Farfan (Peru), Enner Valencia (Ecuador) and Marcelo Moreno (Bolivia).

Copa America 2021 – Draw

The ten teams at this year’s Copa America have been drawn into two groups and will play each of the teams in their group once. The top four teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals.

• Group A – Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela
• Group B – Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

The big games in the Group Stages of the tournament include:

• June 13 – Argentina v Chile
• June 15 – Colombia v Ecuador
• June 18 – Argentina v Uruguay
• June 19 – Peru v Brazil
• June 20 – Uruguay v Chile
• June 21 – Argentina v Paraguay
• June 24 – Chile v Paraguay
• June 25 – Colombia v Brazil
• June 27 – Uruguay v Paraguay
• June 29 – Ecuador v Brazil

The quarterfinals take place on the 2^nd and 3^rd July, with the semifinals on the 6^th and 7^th, the third place match on the 10^th July and the final on the 11^th July.

Our Tip To Win The Copa America 2021

With five wins out of the last nine tournaments and having home advantage once again, it is easy to see why Brazil are the favourites for this tournament and in truth, it is hard to back against them.

While Argentina have immense talent in their team, their form has been more erratic than the Brazilians over the last 12-18 months and that lack of consistency, even with the world’s best player in their team, is a worry.

In contrast Brazil are very consistent and have great strength in depth too, allowing them to rotate players if required without impacting the quality of the team. As such, add that to home advantage and I would take the 11/10 available on Brazil at the moment as I can’t see the odds getting any better than that on the host nation over the coming days.