🌍⚽Sportsbet.io AFCON 2024 prediction pool discussion thread

[Trofo]

Sponsorship:

I am pleased to announce that Sportsbet.io will be sponsoring us this year as well. Big thanks to them and Steve in particular.

50 mBTC for the end of competition prizes
1 mBTC free bets for round winner, depending on how many players we get.

Buy in
1 mBTC or equivalent in USDT at the time of paying. Rounded to the nearest full dollar.

I am escrow on following BTC address:
bc1q53hhdvpgm6mwgqutgnzup4pk25lw4z6fqxlqye

buwaytress is our USDT escrow on following TRON address:
TWdUP82gVw5JVw1VQgFAKGPVhCP87AxZou

Last time this pool was free for participants of sportsbet pools this time I decided to have buy in since we have much better rewards and additional buy ins will make them even better. You have an option on paying in BTC or USDT over tron network. Hope everything is clear and I am sure nobody can object to buwaytress being USDT escrow.

Send me tx id over PM and I will send you joining details.

Prizes:
We have 68 mBTC (50 mBTC sponsorship + 18 buy ins) and roughly 224$ (5 buy ins) in the pool. 23 players in total.
1. Place - 30 mBTC
2. Place - 15 mBTC
3. Place - 10 mBTC
4. Place -  8 mBTC
5. Place -  4 mBTC

Best overall yellow cap - whole $ fund, so 224$ minus any tx fees.

That comes to 67 mBTC and we have 1 mBTC for tx fees. If something is left or missing it will be added or taken from 1st place. Least impact on reward. I will pay generous tx fee for confirmation inside 5 blocks or so as always.

We will use Superbru tie breakers to settle any ties if possible. If it is all the same then prize will be shared. Example in this post.

[CLS63]

The members who joined these pools at the beginning of the season absolutely get their money's worth. Just think about the delight of following every game on every week in the Premier League. In addition, this kind of extra prizes help you feel yourself good also. Therefore, I definitely recommend you to experience it even if you haven't joined these pools.

[LTU_btc]

Ok, I'm in, let's give a try. I have not much knowledge about African football, except these teams which playing in World Cup usually and I haven't followed much previous AFCON tournaments. But I'm going to try.

The members who joined these pools at the beginning of the season absolutely get their money's worth. Just think about the delight of following every game on every week in the Premier League. In addition, this kind of extra prizes help you feel yourself good also. Therefore, I definitely recommend you to experience it even if you haven't joined these pools.

Despite that I'm doing so bad in all 3 pools this season, I don't have any regrets about joining it. Yeah, I lost some money and not going to recover it, but it was worth it and playing there gave me so much fun.

[Welsh]

I've got a bit of a bone to pick with the AFCON, and honestly I'm not trying to get political here, however I'm on the side of being a little bit annoyed that despite us paying wages to players, they're practically forced to go to the AFCON during the season. I know there's been a lot of former players coming out recently saying that the AFCON is being discriminated against, but its not the competition I have a problem with its the timing of it. Surely, it would make more sense to the organisers, as well as for the fans to schedule it during the off season?

At the very least AFCON, and the Premier League need to work out some sort of compromise where the premier league schedules games around these competitions, and potentially has an international break. Though, an international break seems a little over kill for only a few players that do end up being impacted.

I just feel in its current state it creates an unfair advantage to the likes of Manchester City who can afford higher quality backups. Now, I know you could argue that Liverpool, and those that have purchased AFCON eligible players knew it before hand, and therefore accepted they would be missing for the games, but it still stings a little when there's plenty of time that this could be scheduled for out of any other competitions schedule.  

Maybe, I'm being a little unfair, and being biased to the Premier League due to only caring about my club that's in it. Anyway, I'll be routing for Egypt (more bias there I'm afraid), but I suspect Algeria or Nigeria to come away with the win. Senegal has all the potential in the world, but they never seem to click at the right time. Also, with Mane being slightly off the mark at the moment, I think that'll have an impact on their chances too.

[Trofo]

... but its not the competition I have a problem with its the timing of it. Surely, it would make more sense to the organisers, as well as for the fans to schedule it during the off season?

At the very least AFCON, and the Premier League need to work out some sort of compromise where the premier league schedules games around these competitions, and potentially has an international break. Though, an international break seems a little over kill for only a few players that do end up being impacted.

I agree that AFCON causes unfair advantage in some leagues, and it is probably most obvious if you are Liverpool supporter. I don't know what can be done with schedule to lessen the impact. I am not the expert for climate condition in Africa but I sort of think that it would be unplayable due to high temperatures if the tournament gets pushed to summer (same time as Euro/WC).

[bittraffic]

I've got a bit of a bone to pick with the AFCON, and honestly I'm not trying to get political here, however I'm on the side of being a little bit annoyed that despite us paying wages to players, they're practically forced to go to the AFCON during the season.

I'm also looking at it to be very political seeing how many leagues going on like that Premier despite the weather that might just hold back the games. There is even bigger like the Beijing Olympics. There are so many to pay attention to so what might happen is that some of the guys here will just rely on the predictions and analysis of who could win the match.

[cryptofrka]

I don't even know in what state the teams are playing and who the favorites are but hey - let's give it a try anyway. Maybe it will make me follow the competition a bit more, I usually fully ignore this one.

The only thing I hope for is that Egypt and Senegal don't go far, we need Salah and Mane back as soon as possible. Senegal has to be among the favorites though, their team looks really good on paper.

[tomahawk9]

I'm in!

I don't even know in what state the teams are playing and who the favorites are but hey - let's give it a try anyway.

I'd say Ivory Coast, Algeria and Nigeria are main favorites to win the whole thing. Algeria are the defending champions so of course they're favorites, plus didn't lose a single game in 2021, they're looking pretty strong alright. The other two teams have really stacked squads so i expect them to have a really good run. And how could i forget about the hosts: Cameroon,, you know what they say about the home advantage, should give them a nice boost in confidence thoughout the tournament

[Trofo]

I'm in!

I don't even know in what state the teams are playing and who the favorites are but hey - let's give it a try anyway.

I'd say Ivory Coast, Algeria and Nigeria are main favorites to win the whole thing. Algeria are the defending champions so of course they're favorites, plus didn't lose a single game in 2021, they're looking pretty strong alright. The other two teams have really stacked squads so i expect them to have a really good run. And how could i forget about the hosts: Cameroon,, you know what they say about the home advantage, should give them a nice boost in confidence thoughout the tournament

I did not do my homework yet but there is still time to do it before it starts. I am actually interest in AFCON quite a lot this time around, there are some great players attending and I hope to see some good football. I forgot some of them for sure but these are some players I am keeping my eye on:
Salah
Mane
Haller
Mahrez
Auba
Benhrama
Zaha
Osimhen

Should be goals this time around

[swogerino]

The members who joined these pools at the beginning of the season absolutely get their money's worth. Just think about the delight of following every game on every week in the Premier League. In addition, this kind of extra prizes help you feel yourself good also. Therefore, I definitely recommend you to experience it even if you haven't joined these pools.

Yes we just paid 0.001 or 0.002 Bitcoin to join the Premier League pool which is the pool with the most players and I just checked that thread to check what the price I paid was.The fun is huge there every week with the hope to get a few positions up,I was myself in the top for 6-7 first weeks but then I got down quickly and I am not able to recover.

This AFCON is beautiful to play but I would have loved it much more if it was a pool with prizes like Euro 2020 was and if I remember correctly we had a lot of fun there.

[buwaytress]

@Trofo man thanks for the thread. I'm actually an irregular follower of Afcon -- mainly because Senegal and Egypt are great to watch, and in fact last 2 seasons or so I did add a lot of qualifiers from the region into my picks, great value on some of them if you know where to catch the good odds. News is hard to come by but every now and then you get some juice news -- the entire region is ripe and Afcon matches anyway can get quite good to watch IF you get nice pitches! Add me!

Edit: of course, Thanks Steve and Sportsbet for the free joy =D

@Welsh: Totally understand where you come from, it annoys me every year being a Liverpool fan, not as much as other internationals annoy me, but I think the main issue for me (and I could be wrong but it's my opinion haha) is the world needs to move to a common calendar season, but of course the global South doesn't have summer and winter to contend with, though for me it's arguable that it's better for Europe to have off season at the end of the year (the business world already does this) and then a lot of these issues are solved because everyone's got the same off season period.

We've got Asian games (not so much a European league problem YET but if Japan, S Korea and China begin to have a larger presence in future, it will), American games and African games that affect clubs differently in Europe... just because of this weird 2021/22 season when the rest of the world begins new seasons in 2022. We have, for example in Southeast Asia about 8 months of pure league and club football, and then entire 3+ months stretch of off season to holiday, train, and take part in national/regional tourneys. And you never need to remember if it was 2021 or 2022 season you won that trophy, because it happened in the right year =p

P.S. You're right about Senegal, always talented, always explosive, always fun, but they're like the BVB or Liverpool pre Klopp of Afcon. Always punching above their weight to fall at the last.

[Trofo]

This AFCON is beautiful to play but I would have loved it much more if it was a pool with prizes like Euro 2020 was and if I remember correctly we had a lot of fun there.

I thought about that, but I am quite sure there would not be more than 10 of us willing to pay since most people don't follow football in Africa. Therefore I decided to go for fun version and hopefully we will get 20-30 players.

I am always disappointed how small is the number of people willing to pay for something here. Everybody talks about gambling but 50$ is out of question. Hell I can't get more than 15 players for La Liga and Serie A and with the help of Sportsbet you have to be really unlucky to not end the pool in profit with all the free bet challenges even if you have no clue.

[Newlifebtc]

The African Cup of Nations kicks of soon in the next eight days, already anticipating greatly to see loads of goals.
The Algerians are very good when it comes to creativity, watched few of their games, with Salah Egyptian's will have an edge up front.
Having Sadio mane a vital one for Senegal and The ivorians Zaha can be very deadly when trying to create, Mad Diallo the Manchester United youngster has got it also.

[casperBGD]

~snip
Hell I can't get more than 15 players for La Liga and Serie A and with the help of Sportsbet you have to be really unlucky to not end the pool in profit with all the free bet challenges even if you have no clue.

to start, happy new year
yeah, agree, La Liga and Serie A are really good value, in terms of sportsbet sponsorship and number of participants, it is really a booger that we have less than 15 participants
Premier league is obviously most watched, but I am playing Calcio just for community, since I do not follow that league much

regarding Africa, do you pick favorites on first post, my is Morocco

[Harkorede]

I'm not sure I'll be following the tournament with all dedication at least except if my favorite team is doing really well, I'll be rooting for the Nigerian Super Eagles of course! I'd like to Victorh Osimhen and Dennis Emmanuel both replicate their form in their respective leagues in the national side as well.

Thanks to Sportsbet for the Sponsorship.

[slaman29]

Thanks to Sportsbet, yes, please count me in, a short tournament, I have again no idea about any of the teams except a few players, but I don't mind picking all my scores before the tournament starts.

I've never really bet on AFCON I guess, I mean sometimes I insert random African games into my multibets, but never because I know what I'm doing lol

[Trofo]

I am doing my best to send invites to all the people that expressed their wish to join AFCON pool.
However, only few of you actually sent me a pm as I requested so there is good probability I missed someone. It is not intentional, just let me know if that happened.
Still couple of days to go but as I thought there is only about 10 of us and I don't expect much more participants.

[Trofo]

Bump.

Outrights are live on Sportsbet.



My money is on Algeria They were always solid in defense and Mahrez and Benhrama should bring enough creativity to break most of the teams.

[tomahawk9]

Outrights are live on Sportsbet.

I have a good feeling about Nigeria,, odds @10 atm, i'll wait a little bit more and see if they go a up 
btw, some fiat bookies have Senegal @4.8 wth? i must the only one who thinks they're a bit overrated :/

[leea-1334]

Hey guys and Trofo so nice to see everyone here, I am so glad for another chance to win another pool as currently I am not near anywhere except in Serie A (which is very strange for me).

I unfortunately have to admit I am ultra low knowledgeable in these teams and I just thought Salah being the world player who did not win Ballon he will take his team to this one.

PM you Trofo already and thanks Sportsbet again!