The tie 1-1 between Italy and the United States in Group E for the World Cup established a record last Saturday regarding the amount of money bet in the European country. Italians gambled €8,16 million on that single soccer match.
This information was released by SNAI, the house of bets, which indicated that gamblers bet such a huge amount that they broke the previous record. The World Cup match won by Brazil over Croatia 1-0 reached €6,5 million in bets.
According to Nielsen//NetRatings, more than 2.5 million UK fans visited sports and gambling websites during the first week of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. That's equal to one in six people online in the UK between Monday, June 5 and Sunday, June 11, 2006.
One of the most popular sports web sites was BBC, with 1.3 million Unique Visitors -- almost four times as many as nearest rival Sky Sports. Ladbrokes was the most popular gambling website with 114,000 Unique Visitors.
The most important houses of bets in England have assured their victory in the World Cup 2006, unless England ends up with the trophy next July 9 in Berlin, what would mean bookmakers losing millions.
“To make it clear, if England wins, that could be the worst result in the history of betting for us”, synthesized Simon Clare from Coral Sports Betting.
Paraguay’s goalkeeper, Justo Villar, will miss the rest of the World Cup due to an injury in his calf muscle. The 28-year-old player suffered the injury during the match against England and left the field in tears.
Doctor Osvaldo Pangrazio informed that a scan revealed that the goalkeeper would be out of action for around a month. “The scan shows a very serious tear that will take him four weeks to get over. It's a five-centimeter tear, with a hematoma of more than 10 centimeters. It's a serious injury”, Dr. Pangrazio explained.
Their non-stop sequence of victories has lasted for eight matches already. It all started in Ulsan 1,471 days ago, when they won 2-1 over Turkey, and last Tuesday placed a milestone by defeating Croacia 1-0. No other team had conquered so many victories in a row in the FIFA World Cup as Brazil.
The match was not one of those to be remembered, notwithstanding, it was enough for Kaká to make a difference. Brazil is now a goal over France, which held the previous record for World Cups. The French could not increase their score against Switzerland, what leaves them in the second position.
Doctor Enrico Castellacci announced that Gennaro Gattuso would miss one or two games of the FIFA World Cup due to a thigh injury. The midfielder will need 15 days to recover from the muscle strain and be able to play again.
“I'm disappointed, missing two games is a lot for me. I'm not superstitious but I think someone has put a curse on me”, said Gattuso. “But I'm going to the World Cup even if I have to tie myself with a rope to the team bus.”
The World Soccer Championship is about to start and the fever has already begun to grip the world. Of course, online casinos are no exception. Sports betting and props wagering are huge areas of business in the world of online gambling.
Online casino industry is therefore cashing in big time on the world cup. More than 60 games will be played by different countries from around the world. In total, 32 teams will play in the 2006 World Cup between June 9th and June 23.
"What hurts the most is that I worked so hard to be able to play in this World Cup. But that's a thing of life” , said Edmilson after he was dropped from Brazil’s national team due to an injury.
Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and his assistant coach Mario Zagallo made the announcement along with the doctors and Cafu, the team’s captain. Sao Paulo midfielder Mineiro will take Edmilson’s place in the team.
Jose Saturnino Cardozo, who took part in Paraguay’s 1998 and 2002 FIFA World Cup campaigns, will miss the 2006 FIFA World Cup due to an injury that he suffered during a friendly match against Denmark.
"Jose Saturnino Cardozo has suffered an injury involving a pulled calf muscle on his left leg with a bruise in the affected area", Oscar Harrison, President of the Paraguayan Soccer Association said.
Nadal defeated Robin Soderling in a first-round match at Wimbledon and broke Guillermo Vilas’s record of 53 consecutive victories. This was the 54th consecutive victory on clay for the 19-year-old player who hasn’t lost since April 2005.
Christian Bimes, President of the French Federation of Tennis and Vilas himself were present and gave Rafael Nadal a glass trophy representing a cross section of a clay court. "It is special", Nadal said. "It’s a lot of matches, not one day. It’s very difficult. I'm very happy for that."
