Who will win AFCON 2022? Betting favorites, group winners and futures odds

The 2022 Africa Cup of Nations is ready to start January 9, about six months later than initially deliberate, however the event is lastly right here.

Gamers have departed their membership groups to journey to Africa for the competitors, and can start coaching with their respective nationwide groups forward of the beginning of the event. After a pair of video games on opening day, the group stage will see three or 4 video games performed per matchday.

The highest two groups in every of the six teams will advance to the knockout stage, along with the 4 finest third-placed groups primarily based on factors. The knockout stage begins on January 23 and it is a fast turnaround for each subsequent spherical, with the quarterfinals on January 29, the semifinals on February 2, and the championship and third-place video games on February 6.

MORE: All Premier League players at AFCON 2022

AFCON 2022 odds: Who will win all of it?

The event subject is extensive open. Of the 24 groups that certified to the event, seven of them wrapped up qualification with out a loss. And qualifying was tight, with 10 of the 11 qualification teams determined by a mere one- or two-point margin. Groups have been battling for AFCON berths till the ultimate day.

Algeria is the defending champion, led by Manchester Metropolis’s Riyad Mahrez, who was at occasions unplayable within the 2019 version. They may face stiff competitors, nonetheless, from Egypt in addition to Senegal , each led by Liverpool stars (Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane).

The Ivory Coast squad has a lot of recognizable names, and Morocco is captained by Wolves stalwart Romain Saiss. Nigeria romped in qualifying, however will probably be with out its largest star in Cameroon: Napoli ahead Victor Osimhen, who examined constructive for COVID-19 and remains to be recovering from a critical facial harm.

Listed below are the highest 10 groups projected to win all of it with odds courtesy of DraftKings and BetMGM:

BetMGM and DraftKings futures markets additionally characteristic odds for groups to achieve the ultimate. They’re primarily the trophy-winning odds minimize in half:

AFCON 2022 Group Winners

Group winner odds can be found by way of DraftKings and BetMGM, with the latter sportsbook’s odds showcased beneath. (The chances are solely associated to successful the group, not advancing from the group.)  

Along with being the slight favourite to win all of it, Senegal is an awesome favourite to prime Group B (-550). Algeria, Egypt and Morocco have longer odds to win their respective group given the standard of opposition they will be dealing with.

MORE: Top 10 January transfer targets

AFCON 2022 Prime Scorer

There are many family names among the many star-studded squads in Africa this January.

No one within the event has extra worldwide objectives than Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah . Algeria’s assault is loaded, with Man Metropolis’s Riyad Mahrez joined by Baghdad Bounedjah , who had 4 objectives in qualifying and owns an unbelievable goalscoring file with Qatari membership Al-Sadd, bagging 128 objectives in 108 video games.

MORE: Chelsea furious Mane not shown red

Ivory Coast additionally has a lot of key gamers in entrance of web, as in-form Ajax man Sebastien Haller is joined within the Elephants’ assault by a pair of Premier League wingers in Nicolas Pepe and Wilfried Zaha. Haller has 12 objectives in 17 Eredivisie video games this season, however extra impressively scored an unbelievable 10 occasions in six Champions League group matches as Ajax compiled an ideal file within the group stage.

These are the 18 gamers with the shortest odds to win the highest scorer award at AFCON 2022, courtesy of BetMGM and DraftKings: