January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Bookmakers predicting a goalless final
A low-scoring tournament that has seen defences and negative tactics prevail has prompted the bleak outlook from the bookies.
Lee Beauchamp, manager of Seahorses on Queen Street, said punters were still letting the heart rule the head and making wild predictions of 4-2 wins and other six-goal thrillers.
But all the evidence so far points to another tight cagey game, with 0-0 the favourite.
Seahorses has taken a fair bit of money over the last month with the World Cup pool, which challenges pundits to predict every result in the competition, proving very popular.
The winner of the $6,000 jackpot will be revealed after the final on Sunday.
The Bermuda Sun's sports pundit — er, me — has already won the charity pool, played out between the 16 'experts' who have appeared on Nick Jones' On the Bench World Cup show.
But just to show that Joe Public knows his stuff better than anyone, none of the pundits are in a position to make the top 30 in the island-wide pool.
The final itself is proving to be one of the betting events of the year with Seahorses opening on Sunday to take best right up until kick-off.
The high-odds bets are proving popular with every day punters with a sample bet of Totti to score first and Italy to win 2-0 paying out at 55/1.
Beauchamp said most of the money was coming in for Italy with the waiters from La Tratteri and Portofino placing some patriotic bets on their team.
"The French presence is not as strong on the island. I think I heard a single horn beeping after the semi-final the other day. It must have been a Renault.
"But yeah, the punters are mostly betting with their hearts and they are getting behind Italy.
"There's plenty of neutrals who are backing Italy as well and we make them slight favourites to win the competition."
The Portugal v Germany third place play-off is still attracting some interest as well, with a series of bets available.
Italy is an 8/11 to win while France are at 6/5.
First Scorer: Luca Toni 5/1, Thierry Henry 5/1, Alberto Gilardino 6/1, Francesco Totti 6/1, Zinedine Zidane 11/1. Andrea Pirlo 11/1. Marco Materazzi 33/1. Others on request.
Sample scorecasts: Italy to win 2-0 with Luca Toni to score first 50/1, 1-0 Italy and Totti 33/1, 3-0 Italy and Materazzi 250/1; France to win 1-0 with Henry scoring first 25/1, 2-0 and Zidane 60/1.[[In-content Ad]]
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