World Cup odds kick off in a big way on Thursday, with Mexico vs. South Africa.<\/p>\n
As a tournament co-host \u2014 along with the USA and Canada \u2014 Mexico wants to make a splash from the outset. And El Tri is a significant favorite to do just that in a 3 p.m. ET match on FOX.<\/p>\n
Caesars Sports head of soccer trading Mark Bickerdike breaks down Mexico vs. South Africa odds and action.<\/p>\n
This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX Sports may be compensated. Read more about <\/i>Sports Betting on FOX Sports<\/u><\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n
Favorite Finding Favor<\/strong><\/p>\n No matter who Mexico was paired with, this match was destined to get a lot of action. You\u2019ve got a popular team at home, in the first match of the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a fine recipe to attract the public betting masses.<\/p>\n “Absolutely. With it being the first game, you\u2019ve got the climate buildup for the whole tournament,” Bickerdike said. “Historically, the first games of the tournament are high handle, and I don\u2019t see this being any different.”<\/p>\n When Caesars first posted this match, Mexico was a -185 favorite in three-way betting, which accounts for all outcomes in 90 minutes plus injury time.\u00a0<\/p>\n South Africa opened as a +550 underdog, with Draw at +280.<\/p>\n Now, as of 6:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Mexico is an even stronger favorite at -245, with South Africa +700 and Draw +330.<\/p>\n “Mexico is very popular. It\u2019s fairly one-way traffic on this match. Mexico is also popular in parlays,” Bickerdike said. “Given the fact that their group is fairly favorable, that\u2019s only going to enhance the interest in Mexico.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s very rare that we\u2019re not rooting for the Draw. That\u2019s the best result.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY World Cup odds kick off in a big way on Thursday, with Mexico vs. South Africa. As a tournament co-host \u2014 along with the USA and Canada \u2014 Mexico wants to make a splash from the outset. And El Tri is a significant favorite to do just that in a 3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}