Maltese punters backing Germany to lift fourth World Cup

Betting companies, including U*Bet put Germany as clear favourites to beat Argentina in World Cup final

60% of local punters are backing Germany to win the World Cup
60% of local punters are backing Germany to win the World Cup

Germany are 90 minutes away from claiming a fourth World Cup and punters are backing the Die Mannschaft to beat rivals Argentina in tonight’s showdown in Rio de Janeiro.

Local betting company U*Bet have put Germany 2.25 to win as opposed to 3.20 for an Argentinian victory. According to the company’s webpage, almost 60% of punters are backing Germany, while 25% are putting their money on the South Americans. 15% are betting on a draw within the 90 minutes which is given at 3.10.

Similarly, foreign betting companies put the European powerhouse as slight favourites over Argentina who is seeking their third title.

The odds suggest the twentieth World Cup final will be more evenly matched than Tuesday’s historic 7-1 defeat Brazil suffered at the hands of Germany, with the majority of bets in the UK pointing towards a narrow German victory.

But it’s not just punters taking a crack at predicting World Cup results. Sporting analysts, investment banks and even Microsoft’s artificially intelligent digital assistant, Cortana, have given it their best shots.

And so far Cortana has come closest. The virtual assistant has successfully predicted the outcome of every game in the knockout stages, besting even the late and alarmingly great Paul the psychic octopus.

It has also turned out to be more accurate than the raft of investment banks — Goldman Sachs included — that had home-field-advantaged Brazil tapped as the winner.

Goldman Sachs’s complicated model predicted Brazil to win the tournament after facing down the Netherlands, however both teams were knocked out at the semi-final stage.

The bank’s analysts crunched data on 14,000 past matches to arrive at a 67-page report that confidently calculated the outcomes of all matches, published in May. However, after only guessing half of the group stage results, it soon became clear reality wasn’t quite matching the historical dataset.