Thursday 24th March 2022

In Across the Leagues EXTRA today:

• World Cup Playoffs, 7.45pm…
• Small stakes, big odds…
• Yankee on the Draws…

World Cup Playoffs tonight: 400/1 for high drama…

There are no Premier League games this week. Our Predictor game will resume next weekend. There are some massive International games taking place tonight though… so I thought I’d give you a free glimpse at the big-odds advice sent to Across the Leagues members today…

Small stakes, big odds…

We’ve had a couple of forays into backing the Draw recently. As with Win & Both Teams to Score combos, at the odds generally available for these, backing two or more Draws can roll up to some juicy multiples…

It’s a speculative route, as are all bets that offer a massive potential payout for a small stake.

Tonight’s World Cup 2022 European Playoffs look prime contenders for applying this approach…

All games 7.45pm, Sky Sports:

Italy v North Macedonia

Portugal v Turkey

Sweden v Czech Republic

Wales v Austria

These semi-final playoff matches will all be settled on the night. They are one-leg only, knockout contests.

If it’s all square at the end of Normal Time, then Extra Time & Penalties will decide it.

High pressure. Huge games. And we really should expect to see some drama in at least one or two of these…

The Match Result prices above (from Unibet) show that the games in Wales and Sweden are priced-up as the most likely to be Draws.

Italy and Portugal weren’t firing on all cylinders in the Qualifying Group stage – otherwise they wouldn’t have found themselves in the Playoffs. Those two nations have long had the knack of getting the result they need in the end, one way or another (remember the Euro 2020 final last summer…).

None of these teams will care if they need Extra Time or Pens tonight – just as long as they get through to the final…

For me, that makes the set of draws worth a look for a small-stakes multiple this evening…

Unibet and Marathonbet offer the best prices on that front. For example, the 4-fold accumulator on the draws is 415/1 with Unibet, and 396/1 with Marathonbet.

A Yankee bet consists of 6 x Doubles, 4 x Trebles, and the 4-fold Acca. That gives a return if two or more draws come in.

• If you’re looking for staking advice, then I’m treating this as approximately a ‘1-point’ stake, divided across the 11 lines of the Yankee (so that would be ‘1.1 pts’ to be precise)

• For example, a 50 pence Yankee is a total stake of £5.50. A £1 Yankee is a total stake of £11, and so on

Here’s looking forward to some closely-fought matches tonight…

Enjoy the football…

Best wishes,

Oliver Upstone

Across the Leagues