Brazil v Croatia Tip: Man of the Match Betting

With FIFA announcing that every Man of the Match award at the World Cup will be decided on Twitter, our capacity to make easy money out of a popularity contest appears to have increased.

Neymar is nothing longer than 23/20 (Ladbrokes) to score anytime during Thursday’s curtain-raiser but there’s a strong case for saying we’d be better off taking the best price 9/4 (Betfair Sportsbook) on the poster boy being named the official man of the match.

There was already a trend beginning back in 2010 for the most popular players to win the award after mediocre displays. On one such occasion Cristiano Ronaldo looked as baffled as anyone to ‘earn’ the tag after an ineffectual personal performance as Portugal drew 0-0 with the Ivory Coast.

Such results have occurred to some extent ever since FIFA handed the decision over to the fans, but in 2010 the vote was still only accessible on the official website. Now that the doors have been opened to Twitter, truly populist choices seem even more likely.

In fact, some would argue that the award could be handed out before a ball has even been kicked. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, but we could be latching onto a goldmine by targeting this market from the off.