Copa America Betting

Following the success of the 2024 Copa America tournament, the next one will be held in 2028. Copa America is an incredibly prestigious international football competition featuring all 10 CONMEBOL countries as well as other nations from different confederations. It is one of the largest sporting events both nationally and internationally, giving top players an incredible opportunity to showcase their abilities on an international stage. 

Although the location for the 2028 Copa has not yet been determined, it appears that either the USA, Ecuador, or Argentina are strong possibilities. The 2028 Copa America will certainly provoke substantial interest from fans, bettors and football analysts worldwide due to the valid four-year cycle after the completion of the 2024 edition; we can confidently predict that the excitement from this tournament will last throughout that time period before culminating at the 2028 Copa America.

Best Copa America Betting Sites

What is Copa America?

Copa America is the widest-ranging annual continental competition and unifies all of the member nations of CONMEBOL (the South American Football Confederation) into a tournament in which every member (i.e., all ten CONMEBOL nations) competes automatically without the need for qualification, plus two guest participants from other football governing bodies, usually from North America or Asia.

Unlike tournaments like the UEFA Euro championships, Copa America always includes at least 2 other nations, in this case guest teams, and the tournament’s history to date has never seen a guest nation win the tournament; although, Mexico has twice finished as the runner-up (in 1993 and 2001) and the United States has finished fourth in its four appearances in this tournament's history.

The format of this tournament mirrors the World Cup's format, which is to place the tournament into three groups of four, where each team will play a single match against each other, and then after the completion of the team matches, the two teams from each group with the best records (measured in total points first with a point being awarded for a tied match, and the number of total goals scored second) will advance to the knockout portion of the tournament. The two teams with the best records from the three groups that did not finish in the top two of their respective groups will also advance to the knockout portion of the tournament.

The intervals between Copa America are irregular, as historically Copa America has been played in back-to-back years, or every other, third, or fifth year; following the completion of Copa America 2024, there were no Copa America tournaments held until 2028.

Betting on Copa America

The most popular ways to bet on Copa America is individual games, the overall winner, to make the final, and top goalscorer in the tournament. Deciding between these could be just as easy as seeing which sportsbooks in Nigeria and Kenya.

Individual Games

Most people who place bets on sports will be familiar with betting options for specific games. When it comes to betting on soccer, however, the betting options usually consist of betting on one of the two teams or a draw, along with betting on the total number of goals scored in the match (Over/Under). When comparing soccer to other sports, the spread bet option is much less widely used due to the low number of goals scored during a soccer match.

While many bookmakers will also have additional markets (i.e., betting on first-half stats, which team will score first, or which player will score first), the two primary markets are moneylines and overs/unders of total goals scored. If you’re extremely confident in your abilities as a handicapper, you could attempt to predict the exact score of a soccer match for great odds.

Tournament Winner

Uruguay has won the most South American tournaments with 15 – the tournament came to be known as Copa America after 1975 – followed closely by Argentina with 14. Argentina has made 28 finals, Uruguay 21. Brazil has only won 9 tournaments and made 20 final appearances.

Beyond that is a very steep drop off. Paraguay, Peru, and Chile have won two Copa America championships apiece. Colombia and Bolivia have won one each. The lesson is that Uruguay and Argentina are almost always fairly safe bets to make deep runs.

There are few invitees that have ever had success in Copa America. Mexico was a regular fixture of the tournament for over two decades and became the only non-COMNEBOL team to see significant success.

Additionally, considering the host is always important. All tournaments hosted by Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay were won by the host nation.

Betting on teams in form at the time of the tournament is also a massively important factor. Copa America’s group stage can be unpredictable. In 2016, Brazil and Uruguay were bounced out of the tournament in the group stage, foreshadowing unspectacular runs in the 2018 World Cup.

To Make the Final

Making the final is also a popular market for people to bet on, though this can be even more predictable than betting the tournament winner. There have only been 9 tournaments where only one of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay made the semifinal.

Betting on one or more of the three regular South American powers to make the final is always a good bet. The 2015 and 2016 tournaments might have seen Chile win back-to-back finals, but Chile’s golden generation drove much of the team’s success those two years.

Top Goalscorer

Betting top goalscorer in Copa America is always a popular market due to the number of players that could claim the crown. Odds are usually pretty good too, as every player is over even odds due to the unpredictability of the market.

Considering the recent form of a player is always key, but consider the competition they’re playing against as well. Despite names like Messi, Aguero and Cavani playing in the 2016 Copa America, Chile’s Eduardo Vargas won the Golden Boot with 6 goals in the competition.

The biggest thing is that some players are better against South American competition than others. Lionel Messi, the most prolific goal scorer in Argentina history, has never taken the Golden Boot in the Copa America tournament.

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