Brazil have been tipped to win the Qatar 2022 World Cup for the sixth time.
The World Cup kicks off on Sunday, November 20, 2022.
This is according to a Reuters poll which last successfully predicted the champions in 2010.
The global survey of 135 football-following market analysts worldwide, agreed with the bookmakers that Brazil would triumph for the first time since 2002.
Almost half of the respondents expect Brazil to win, while 30 per cent were evenly split between France and Argentina.
Germany, England and Belgium scored in high single digits.
“Brazil have a big chance this time with the depth and variation in their attack, coupled with experience of Casemiro (midfield) and Thiago Silva at the back,” said Garima Kapoor, an economist at Elara Capital in Mumbai.
Brazilian talent was prominent in the poll results.
This is with the likes of Neymar and Vinicius Jr, who have boasted brilliant starts to the club season, coupled with goalkeeping duo Alisson and Ederson, shining as well.
“We assign a probability of 17 percent to Brazil winning the tournament, which translates into odds of 5-1,” wrote Peter Dixon, head of EMEA country risk at Fitch Solutions in London.
Dixon put Germany second at 11 percent (8-1) and France third at eight percent (11-1).
His calculations differ from bookmakers’ odds, which have England as the third favourite compared to Dixon’s four percent chance.
This is largely because bookies’ odds are calculated based on how much they would need to pay out, not probabilities.
Forecasters in previous years also used quant models, while others used simpler methods such as guesswork and superstition.