Copa America Betting

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A passionate sports betting and casino expert with over 15 years spent in the gambling industry.

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Last Updated: 9 Jan 2024

The 2021 Copa America, from June 13th, 2021 to July 11th, 2021 is the South American football tournament. The tournament occurs at irregular intervals; it was held in 2015 and 2016, is happening in 2021, two years after happening in 2019 and then won't happen again until 2024.

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What is Copa America?

Copa America is the confederation-wide tournament of South America’s COMNEBOL. The tournament features every South American country, without need for qualification, and two guest teams from other confederations.

Because of the guest teams, Copa America is unique among confederation tournaments. None of the guest teams have ever won the tournament, but Mexico finished runners-up twice: 1993 and 2001. The United States has finished fourth twice in four appearances in the tournament.

Australia and Qatar were originally set to take place at the 2021 Copa America, but both teams withdrew from the tournament back in February 2021, due to the postponement of the AFC Second Round of 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifications to June 2021. This means that the 2021 Copa America will be played with only 10 teams, which will be the first case since 1991.

Originally, the tournament was formatted such like the World Cup: there are three groups of four teams, each team plays each other once. The top two teams in each group move onto the knockout stage. The two best-performing third-placed teams move on as well, based on points and goal differential.

However, due to the latest events, the format will be different, as there will be two groups formed of five teams in each group. The top four teams of each group will advance to the quarter-finals, with the winners of each group facing the 4th-ranked team from the opposite group, and the runner-up of each group matching up against the 3rd-best from the opposite group.

The tournament is held at irregular intervals. It can be back-to-back years or sometimes it occurs every two, three or four years.

Betting on Copa America

The most popular ways to bet on Copa America is individual games, the overall winner, to make the final, and top goalscorer in the tournament.

Individual Games

Many punters know what’s available to bet for individual games, but football betting generally simply offers markets on both teams and a draw, and an over/under goals. Handicap betting is less popular in soccer due to the lower number of goals scored in games.

The best football bookmakers offer more than just that, but those are the main two markets. Other markets offered include first-half or second-half stats, which team will score first, and which player will score first. If you really feel clairvoyant, you can even try to predict the exact score for excellent odds.

Tournament Winner

Uruguay has won the most South American tournaments with 15 – the tournament came to be known as Copa America after 1975 – followed closely by Argentina with 14. Argentina has made 28 finals, Uruguay 21. Brazil has only won 8 tournaments, and made 19 final appearances.

Beyond that is a very steep drop off. Paraguay, Peru, and Chile have won two Copa America championships apiece. Colombia and Bolivia have won one each. The lesson is that Uruguay and Argentina are almost always fairly safe bets to make deep runs.

There are few invitees that have ever had success in Copa America. Mexico was a regular fixture of the tournament for over two decades and became the only non-COMNEBOL team to see significant success.

Additionally, considering the host is always important. All tournaments hosted by Brazil, Colombia, and Uruguay were won by the host nation.

Betting on teams in form at the time of the tournament is also a massively important factor. Copa America’s group stage can be unpredictable. In 2016, Brazil and Uruguay were bounced out of the tournament in the group stage, foreshadowing unspectacular runs in the 2018 World Cup.

To Make the Final

Making the final is also a popular market for people to bet on, though this can be even more predictable than betting the tournament winner. There have only been 9 tournaments where only one of Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay made the semifinal.

Betting on one or more of the three regular South American powers to make the final is always a good bet. The 2015 and 2016 tournaments might have seen Chile win back-to-back finals, but Chile’s golden generation drove much of the team’s success those two years.

There's nothing more exciting than having a bet on the Copa America final in-play. If you aren't already signed up with a bookmaker that offers this type of betting check out our favourites now:

Top Goalscorer

Betting top goalscorer in Copa America is always a popular market due to the number of players that could claim the crown. Odds are usually pretty good too, as every player is over even odds due to the unpredictability of the market.

Considering the recent form of a player is always key, but consider the competition they’re playing against as well. Despite names like Messi, Aguero and Cavani playing in the 2016 Copa America, Chile’s Eduardo Vargas won the Golden Boot with 6 goals in the competition.

The biggest thing is that some players are better against South American competition than others. Lionel Messi, the most prolific goal scorer in Argentina history, has never taken the Golden Boot in the Copa America tournament.

Recent Copa America Champions

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