Football: Czech punters bet on Portugal – reports

Czech punters are largely pessimistic about the country’s chances in the Euro 2012 quarter final against Portugal, so much so that most of them have put money on a Portugal win, newspapers said on Thursday.

“About 90 percent of bets that we’ve accepted predict a Portugal win,” Petr Srain, a spokesman for betting firm Fortuna, was quoted as saying in the Lidove Noviny newspaoer.

Srain said that punters were of the mind that whatever the result of the match, “they can’t lose”.

“Either they win their bet or they’ll celebrate the Czech Republic’s qualification for the semi-final,” he added.

Fortuna is offering longer odds on a Czech win, as is the second-biggest Czech betting firm, Tipsport.

“For the Czechs’ first match against Russia (which Russia won 4-1), we also had more bets on a win for the opponent,” said Tisport director Petr Knybel.

The country’s press meanwhile also assessed the relative value of the players on the field, with Lidove Noviny calculating that Portugal’s Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo was worth 90 million euros (72 million pounds, $114 million).

In all the team was worth 333.7 million euros, the newspaper added.