The African Cup of Nations is the primary international football competition in Africa. It is their equivalent of the Euros of Copa America and is held every two years.
There are various online betting sites that you can place bets on the African Cup Of Nations.
Also referred to as AFCON it is now held in June as opposed to January and is contested between 24 teams. In this article we are going to take a brief look at the history of the competition, consider the most successful teams and players, show you some examples of bets that can be placed on the competition and show you who we that after the best free bets available for your Football Betting.
The African Cup Of Nations was first held in 1957 and Since 1968 and been held every two years. The 1957 competition actually only included three teams, those being Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. There has been tremendous growth since then, so much so that a qualifying tournament is now required.
The first two competitions were only contested by three teams and Egypt triumphed on both occasions. The 1962 competition was contested by nine teams Ethiopia won this competition by beating holders Egypt after extra time.
Ghana won the competition on their debut in 1963 before then retaining the title two years later. Ghana could not quite make it three tournaments in a row in 1968 as the Democratic Republic of Conga triumphed. Ghana also lost in the final in 1970 to Sudan.
From 1970-1980 each competition was once by a different side. These in order being Sudan, Congo- Brazzaville, Zaire, Morocco, Ghana and Nigeria. When Ghana won they became the first side to win three titles whilst Zaire became the first Sub-Saharan African nation to win it.
Cameroon won the competition in both 1984 and 1988 whilst they lost on penalties to Egypt in the 1986 final. Ghana won their fourth title in 1982 whilst Algeria triumphed in 1990.
The Ivory Coast won their first competition in 1992 when the competition was expanded to 12 teams and they did so without conceding a goal. It also took 22 penalties between Ghana and themselves to settle the winner in the final. Nigeria won in 1994, the year of their first World Cup, beating Zambia in the final. This was just a year after Zambia lost most of their team in a plane disaster.
South Africa hosted and contested their first competition for decades due to being banned for the Apartheid system. They won the competition after beating Tunisia in the final. Egypt equalled Ghana’s haul of four trophies by defeating South Africa in the final in 1998.
The turn of the millennium saw Cameroon defeat Nigeria on penalties. They repeated the feat two years later beating Senegal (who exceeded expectations in that year’s football world cup) on penalties. Tunisia won their first competition in 2004 in the same year that they hosted it whilst Egypt also won as host nation in 2006.
2010 saw Egypt set a record by winning their third trophy in a row and seventh overall. That meant 19 game unbeaten streak in the competition as well as 9 win streak. It was in this year that it was announced the competition would be moved to odd numbered years in order to avoid clashing with the World Cup. This meant a competition in 2012 and 2013 with Zambia and Nigeria. 2015 saw the Ivory Coast win an epic penalty shootout 9-8 against Ghana. Cameroon then triumphed in 2017 with Algeria the current holders after winning the competition this year, their first since 1990. Sengal lost this final meaning they are the only team in the history of the competition to have played in more than one final and not won it.
Total Goals In A Competition – 102 (2019)
Overall Top Goal Scorers – Samuel Eto’o (18 Goals)
Oldest Goal Scorer – Hossam Hassan (39 years in 2006)
Top Goal Scorer In Single Tournament – NDaye Mulamaba (9 Goals in 1974)
Tournament Winner Outright –A popular bet is to place a bet on the overall winner of the African Cup Of Nations. This may placed Antepost (before the competition) or during the competition.
Match Winner – This is when you predict the overall winner of a match whether it be a group game or knockout match. If you place a bet on a knockout tie you should be aware that this will be limited to 90 minutes unless you select the ‘To Qualify’ market.
Correct Score – You will get far larger odds if you can predict the correct score of the match at full time. This will often be the favoured market if there is a short price in the match winner market.
First Goal Scorer – Is there a player in a rich vein of goal scoring form? If so you may want to take advantage of the first goal scorer market. There are usually also last goal scorer and anytime goal scorer markets.
Half Time/Full Time – You can place bets on who will be winning (or drawing) at half time and full time.
