Man City Favorite, PSG Surprises: CWC Bets with Messi and Miami in Sight

The FIFA Club World Cup enters its knockout stages, and although several European teams are favorites, the overall popularity of the tournament in the United States is uncertain, according to the volume of sports betting.

Manchester City is the favorite to win the tournament, with odds of +275 according to ESPN BET. However, it has not been a popular choice among the betting public in the futures market, with a maximum of 12% of bets and volume on DraftKings, ranking third in both sportsbook rankings.

The Paris Saint-Germain has proven to be much more popular, leading the money share in both DraftKings (27%) and BetMGM (23.8%). In this last betting house, the current UEFA Champions League champion went from +1200 at the beginning to +300 entering the round of 16, being second in the odds table, only behind Manchester City. On Sunday, PSG will face their former star Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament. ESPN BET considers PSG the favorite at -500 on the three-way line, while Miami is at +850 and a draw in regulation time is at +550. ESPN BET reports that 80.2% of the volume supports PSG, with an intriguing 5.5% on the draw. Messi’s team is a long shot to win it all (80-1), but his popularity in the United States, combined with his long odds, has made him a liability for bookmakers.

Other popular selections among the betting public include Real Madrid (+450) and Bayern Munich (+700). The former is the most popular choice by volume on ESPN BET and FanDuel (both 31%), while the latter is BetMGM’s main liability after attracting 22% of the money and leading with 20.7% of the bets. However, the overall volume of the Club World Cup has been less than remarkable. A representative from a betting house commented that it has not compared to other major football events on the calendar, and that many of its matches are attracting less daily volume than MLB and WNBA games this summer. While it might be easy to be pessimistic about the FIFA World Cup to be held in North America next year, it’s important to note that the Club World Cup is in its first year of greater prominence and that other more established football tournaments work perfectly well in betting houses. The last two World Cups also didn’t have a fair chance to attract volume, as the 2018 one occurred at the dawn of legal sports betting in the United States, while the 2022 one was held unconventionally in the fall, in the middle of the American football season.