Sports | Five bets to place in 2022

Another batsh*t mental year has drawn to a close, having brought plenty of ups and downs in sport, betting and, well, just life in general really. 

But we’re not here to dwell upon the past - we want to look to the future. Therefore the experts here at Betting.co.uk have decided to bring you our top five bets to place at the start of 2022.

All of the bets and odds provided below are correct at the time of writing and have been brought to you thanks to our mates at Betfred.

1. Spurs to finish in the top four - 9/4

Spurs have improved dramatically since replacing Nuno Espirito Santo with Antonio Conte. They’ve gone from being the team that ran the least in the league, to the team that now covers the most ground.

The White Hart Lane outfit are now unbeaten in eight Premier League games and look set to continue that run of form. Crucially Harry Kane seems to be back to his old self again, and there are even signs that Dele Alli could be returning to form.

They currently sit in 7th place on 30 points but have two games in hand on North London rivals Arsenal, who have 35 points. Therefore, should Tottenham win their games in hand, they would leapfrog West Ham, Manchester United and Arsenal into the final Champions League spot.

They look to have enough quality to challenge the teams around them, and given the current dips in form being experienced by Chelsea and Liverpool, we wouldn’t rule them out of putting pressure on the 2nd and 3rd placed teams. The fact that they are out of Europe should also work to their advantage.

At odds of 9/4, we think it’s worth a punt!

2. Celtic to win the Scottish Premiership - 13/8

The Green and White side of Glasgow are priced well behind rivals Rangers in the eyes of the bookies - and we think that could be a misstep on their part. 

The odds on Celtic winning back the title drifted dramatically after they dropped two points in a 0-0 draw against St. Mirren before Christmas, a game that followed their League Cup win over Hibernian.

However, the Hoops sit just six points behind their rivals Rangers, with the league currently in a premature winter break following the Scottish government’s announcement that fans will be shut out of stadia for at least three weeks.

This has meant that the Glasgow Derby at Celtic Park, which was originally scheduled for January 2nd, has now been postponed to February 2nd. Celtic were hit with massive injury problems throughout December, so the delay gives their sidelined players time to recover.

Perhaps more crucially, Celtic have already signed a trio of Japanese players that are expected to arrive in Glasgow in the coming days. The postponement of the Derby now means that these new signings will have time to bed in over the winter break and will have a run of three games in the lead up to the crucial tie in the east end of Glasgow.

If both sides make it to the derby match without dropping points and Celtic win, which we believe they will, then the pendulum should swing the momentum in Celtic’s favour as we move into the business end of the season.

It’s a title race that’s sure to go down to the wire, but we like the look of Ange Postecoglou’s men as 13/8 underdogs. 

3. England to win the Six Nations - 9/4

The bookies once again have France as favourites to win the Six Nations - but they did as well last year, and we all know how that panned out! 

Of course, England had an absolute mare in last year’s tournament, but we believe they will use that as fuel to come back stronger this time around.

The reason why fancy England now though, is because of the news that captain Owen Farrell is expected to be fully fit in time for the tournament following the ankle injury he suffered in England’s win over Australia during the Autumn Internationals in November.

Additionally, Jamie George and Manu Tuilagi also look set to be fit in time. George suffered a knee injury during the Australia game, while Tuilagi tore his hamstring against South Africa in the following game.

England have Wales and Ireland at home, so victory in both will be crucial. Scotland away is a potential banana skin for them, but we see them winning it.

It will most likely come down to the final game of the tournament between France and England on March 22nd at the Stade de France. Something about England’s performances in the Autumn internationals tells us they’ll get over the line.

We fancy England’s chances highly, and like the value in backing them at 9/4. We do think a Grand Slam is out of their reach though, which is currently priced at 5/1 with Betfred. 

4. Amir Khan to beat Kell Brook - 6/4

It’s the British boxing fight that we all wanted to see…about five years ago.

It might be happening much, much later than it should have, and most definitely won’t be the spectacle that it could’ve been. However, it’s happening on February 19th and certainly looks to be worth a punt.

The winner will most likely be determined by who’s skills are still the sharpest. Had this fight taken place five years ago as it should have, we would’ve told you that Khan’s timing and speed should beat Brook’s power…

…and that’s what we’re still predicting. 

We’re not overly surprised that Khan is the underdog for this fight, as his attributes are ones that generally tend to get affected by the sands of time more quickly.

However, we believe that at 35 years of age, Khan is still sharp enough to use his speed and timing to dodge and outwit the power of Brook, and fancy backing him as a 6/4 underdog.

Does he have enough to knock out Brook though? Not likely. Therefore if we were to pick the method of victory, we’d back a Khan win by decision at 3/1

5. Boris Johnson to leave post before the end of 2022 - 11/10

We couldn’t end a turn-of-the-year post without a little novelty political bet, could we? And who better to focus on than old Bojo himself?!

The British Prime Minister has had a nightmare end to 2021 - thanks to the revelations of Downing Street lockdown parties, the general balls up that is Brexit, and fresh revelations of how he funded the renovations of his Downing Street flat, the British public’s trust in Boris is waning fast.

It’s even gotten so bad that the King of Beige, Keir Starmer, is now creeping up the polls!

However, it’s the dropping support within his own party that makes Boris’ downfall look all the more likely next year, with Chancellor and self-confessed Coke addict, Rishi Sunak, looking like the most likely successor.

The key to Boris’ survival as PM in 2022 will be how much his PR team can subtly blame the countries economic downfall on Chancellor Sunak.

But Bojo loves an own goal, and we don’t think we’ll have to wait too long before another series of f**k ups.

That’s why we’re backing him to go sometime in 2022 at odds of 11/10.