TAB soccer customers have it good through this Christmas long weekend with bumper Soccer 13 pools on Friday and Saturday and loads of entertaining football with AFCON group matches and full rounds of games in the English Premier League and Championship.
This Friday’s Soccer 13 starts with a R2.7-million carryover that should generate a likely jackpot pool of R4.5 million, but that’s small fry compared to Saturday’s mammoth R36-million guaranteed pot for all-13-correct entries.
Friday’s bet comprises mostly Championship fixtures plus a couple of League One contests and the sole EPL fixture on the day.
That clash sees Manchester United at home to Newcastle in a tough-to-call encounter. Both have produced several quality displays this season, but those by and large have been interspersed by indifferent performances.
Recent history favours Newcastle, but they have been poor on the road this season and have lost five of their last seven away games. That said, United have been pretty moderate in front of their fans at Old Trafford and now have to make do without linchpin and playmaker Bruno Fernandes, who could be out for a month. Newcastle are three points behind United on the log and this may prove an ideal opportunity for them to make up the leeway.
Best bankers in the soccer 13 are home victories by log-leaders Coventry and Leicester.
Saturday’s Soccer 13 is a real cocktail of games with six EPL matches forming the core of the bet. They are mostly tricky, but Liverpool should have no problems putting Wolves to the sword at Anfield. Wolves looked to have a real chance of begging their first victory of the season at home to Brentford last weekend, but fluffed it and went down 2-0. One now has to wonder if they could finish the season winless, although that is unlikely statistically.
The other standout banker in the pool is Juventus to win away at Pisa in a Serie A clash.
Closer to home the Africa Cup of Nations finals is gathering momentum and Morocco are the hot favourites, but the continental championship is a tournament in which the form book is often way off the mark.
Morocco’s status as the nation tipped to win is enhanced by the fact that they are hosting the 24-team event. Plus they are the top-ranked side on the continent, have gone through their last two qualifying campaigns unbeaten and set a world record for successive wins.
Their victory over Comoros in last Sunday’s opening game of the tournament in Rabat was their 19th in a row. They broke Spain’s old record for successive wins by a national team in October when they went past 15.
Morocco have not lost a competitive fixture since South Africa knocked them out of the last tournament in the Ivory Coast, where their favourites tag came on the back of them becoming the first African side to get all the way to the FIFA World Cup semi-finals.
But the reality of the Cup of Nations field is that there are any number of legitimate challengers, and it will be the form over the month that counts - not previous results, quality of players in the squad or coaching expertise. Or, for that matter, even home advantage.
In fact, the burden of expectation looked to weigh heavily on the Moroccans as they made hard work of what should have been an easy start against the small Indian Ocean island nation.
Other North African sides will be hoping that the familiar conditions give them an advantage; Algeria and Egypt have strong sides, while the usually coterie of West African challengers are also in with a chance, like holders Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Senegal.
Of that list, Nigeria are the one side not heading to the World Cup. That could prove extra motivation for the Cup of Nations where they will look to assuage their disappointment.
South Africa coach Hugo Broos has said he wants to his side to do better than they did at the last tournament in the Ivory Coast. That is a tall order because they were exceedingly fortunate to get as far as the semi-final and go home with the bronze medal last time out.
Broos has ridden his luck through his tenure, both at the last Cup of Nations and the just completed World Cup qualifiers. But you cannot argue with results as he has improved Bafana’s fortunes.
But the decision to take only 23 players, plus two youngsters, to the tournament in Morocco is unwise, given almost all the other competing countries have a full complement of 28 in their squad. Injuries and suspensions can take their toll and leave Bafana short changed.
The key game for South Africa is on Boxing Day, up against Mohamed Salah and the rest of a powerful Egypt team in Agadir.
You will find many AFCON matches in TAB soccer bets in the next few weeks and to help you with your bets below are our tips for the tournament and the countries we reckon will win their groups.
A – Morocco
B – Egypt
C – Nigeria
D – Senegal
E – Algeria
F – Ivory Coast
TOP FIVE: Morocco, Senegal, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria.