Sports Betting Futures Odds: And Then There Were Four at the World Cup

by Ricky Dimon - 7/10/2018

It's a big week for two sports that do not get a ton of coverage around these parts throughout the rest of the year. The World Cup and Wimbledon are heading down their respective home stretches and they will actually overlap this coming Sunday with the World Cup final and the Wimbledon men's singles final taking place at the exact same time.

All odds provided by Bovada Sportsbook .

World Cup

France (+200) - France has been the most exciting-and arguably the best-team in the World Cup so far. It has posted three shutouts and it found the back of the net four times in a round of 16 win over Argentina. Kylian Mbappe has been the breakout star of the tournament and Antoine Griezmann also has three goals.

England (+250) - Is it coming home to England? This squad scraped past Colombia on penalty kicks in its knockout-stage opener before playing its best match of the event in a 2-0 quarterfinal victory at Sweden's expense. Harry Kane is the World Cup's goals leader with six. England's favorable draw continues with a showdown against Croatia.

Belgium (+275) - The top half of the bracket was always by far the toughest and that is once again the story in the semis, with Belgium going up against France on Tuesday. It's a meeting between Manchester United teammates Romelu Lukaku (BEL) and Paul Pogba (FRA). The Belgians are coming off a 2-1 quarterfinal upset of Brazil.

Croatia (+450) - Belgium needed to make a second-half comeback from 2-0 down against Japan in the round of 16, but no team has had it tougher than Croatia in the knockout stages. The Croats beat both Denmark and Russian in penalty kicks, and even trailed both shootouts in the early stages. This is their second WC semifinal.

Wimbledon

Roger Federer (-115) - Federer is a laughable 96-11 lifetime at Wimbledon with eight titles. A ninth title appears to be in the cards, because even at 36 years old he is looking simply dominant on grass. The defending champion has not lost a set, played a tiebreaker, or even dropped serve a single time through four matches.

Rafael Nadal (+450) - Nadal has been every bit as good as Federer so far this fortnight, but his draw is more difficult with potentially Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarterfinals and Novak Djokovic in the semis. If it is Nadal vs. Federer in the final, the Spaniard is 0-5 in their last five meetings and grass obviously favors the Swiss.

Novak Djokovic (+400) - Who should be the second favorite behind Federer? Nadal has obviously been better-and healthier-than Djokovic over the past few seasons, but the Serb's comeback is gaining momentum and he has won Wimbledon three times (2011, 2014, 2015) since Nadal last triumphed at the All-England Club (2010).

Juan Martin Del Potro (+1200) - Del Potro still has to complete his fourth-round match, as he led Gilles Simon two sets to one on Monday when play was halted due to darkness. If the Argentine finishes the job, he will face Nadal on Wednesday. Although Del Potro has never been at his best on grass, his huge hitting makes him dangerous.

NBA title

Golden State Warriors (-175) - This past season it was the Warriors, the Rockets, and then everyone else. Now it appears to be the Warriors and then everyone else. Golden State edged Houston in the Western Conference Finals before destroying Cleveland in the NBA Finals. Now DeMarcus Cousins is on board to make this team even better.

Boston Celtics (+550) - With the Western Conference continuing to get better and better, only the 76ers appear to be in Boston's way of a berth in the NBA Finals. But would the Celtics be able to challenge the Warriors in the finals? If Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward can return healthy, this is the second best roster in the business.

Houston Rockets (+600) - The Rockets re-signed Chris Paul, but that is just about where the good offseason news ends. Not only did the rich get richer when Golden State landed Cousins, but LeBron James is also now in the Western Conference. Houston is good, but it may still have a problem even getting out of the West.

Los Angeles Lakers (+650) - At some point before he retires, LeBron is going to be expected to deliver another championship to the Lakers. Could it be immediate? Right now he does not appear to have enough help, but the Kawhi Leonard saga is still ongoing. No other team has better than +1600 odds to win it all (Philadelphia).

John Deere Classic

Bryson DeChambeau (+1000) - DeChambeau won the Memorial last month. It was his second career PGA Tour victory after previously triumphing at none other than the John Deere Classic in 2017. The 24-year-old American has remained in fine form with a T25 finish at the U.S. Open and a T9 performance at the Travelers Championship.

Francesco Molinari (+1000) - Previously a made-cuts machine who did not win much, Molinari has been on fire of late. The 35-year-old Italian won a European Tour event in May and he captured his first career PGA Tour title at the Quicken Loans National two weeks ago. Molinari is one spot off his career-high ranking at No. 15 in the world.

Zach Johnson (+1200) - Outside of Jordan Spieth and Steve Stricker, no active player is better at the John Deere Classic than Johnson. In the span of three seasons from 2012 through 2014, the veteran American won it once and finished runner-up twice. Johnson also placed T5 last summer, three strokes behind DeChambeau.

Ryan Moore (+1600) - Molinari is the only one of this foursome who is not a former champion of this event, as Moore lifted the trophy in 2016. The 35-year-old American missed the cut last season, but he seems to be playing better now. Moore owns four top-10 finishes in 2018 and has four top-16 performances since mid-April.

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Sports Betting Futures Odds: And Then There Were Four at the World Cup

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