Handball 2023 World Cup
Time for the World Cup which will be held in Sweden and Poland between 11 and 29 January. It is expected to be an awesome championship, since the top teams of the world will compete for the trophy and there will be many great and exciting matches! Four cities in Sweden will organize the group stage (Kristianstad, Malmö, Jönköping and Gothenburg) while the semi finals and the final will take place in Stockholm. In Poland the games will be played in Kraków, Gdańsk, Katowice and Płock. Lots of tickets sold already which means the stadiums are going to be full and the atmosphere great. Who will be the winner? You can bet right here for the 2023 Handball World Cup winner.
The tournament
The tournament has 32 teams divided in 8 groups. 3 teams from each group advance to the intermediate round where each group is crossed with another group. From there, the first & second go to the quarter finals. In order to reach the finals a team is going to play 9 matches in 18 days, which will require a wide range of squads.
From the way the tournament is structured, a team from the first four groups cannot meet another from the other four before the semi-finals. The groups in Sweden are crossed against each other and the same goes for the groups in Poland.
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Groups A-B-E-F (Poland)
The big favorites from this side of the tournament are Spain and France. Poland, Slovenia, Germany, Serbia & Norway can all go all the way to the final stage if they manage to clear their matches against Spain/France. Serbia has an interesting team & not at all impossible that they beat Germany in the first group game. Several of the Serbian players are doing well in Europe, complete team & good goalkeepers. They shouldn't be so high in relation to Germany, I think it's 50/50 who wins their group.
In Groups A and B, the question is whether Poland/Slovenia can disrupt France/Spain. Poland can do it thanks to the home field, at least I am confident in relation to the odds. Spain isn't as good as in previous championships (they have a couple of injuries) and France is the team with the most injuries, of course they have a breadth that no others have, but they are not completely impossible.
Groups C-D-G-H (Sweden)
Besides the world champions and super-favorites to win this tournament as well Denmark, there are some interesting teams which will play in Sweden, such as Iceland, Hungary, Portugal, Croatia & Egypt. And of course there is Sweden, which will play at home. Sweden gets Brazil & Cape Verde from the group stage and is the clear favorite to qualify. Sweden will then face Iceland, Hungary & Portugal (most likely) in the intermediate round and must beat two of them in order to advance in the knockout stage. Iceland will be the team that reaches the quarter-finals with Sweden. If you put Sweden and Iceland against each other it looks like a 50/50 match. Iceland has a really good team (the best they've had in 10 years) and can be difficult. Game-wise, the value lies in Iceland.
Denmark seems to cruise into the quarter finals. Denmark has a very good draw, will get through the first group without wasting much, then Egypt or Croatia will not be able to threaten and the quarter-finals are a given. Croatia has a couple of injuries in Lucin & Cupic which makes the squad very thin. Cindric & Karacic together with a couple more will have to play a lot which will cost in the long run. Egypt suffers from the fact that the star Omar is unfortunately injured, but they have a high top level when things work so everything is open between those two teams.
Top Scorer
In big tournaments such as the 2023 Handball World Cup it's always interesting to hunt the player that will score most goals. The clear favorite here is Omar Ingi Magnusson from Iceland, who is in great form and scores regularly in the top Bundesliga league. Another option is Mathias Gidsel from Denmark. He will definitely also score a lot of goals, but will probably be rested a bit against the weaker teams. The fact that the group Denmark plays is such an easy one will allow him to score many easy goals.
Top picks for the 2023 Handball World Cup
Here are our top picks for the 2023 Handball World Cup:
- Denmark to win the tournament at odds of 2.2
- Omar Ingi Magnusson to become top goalscorer at odds of 3.24
- Mathias Gidsel to become top goalscorer at odds of 10
- Iceland to win Group D at odds of 1.75
- Serbia to win Group 3 (intermediate round) at odds of 6
- Iceland to win Group 2 (intermediate round) at odds of 2.75
* All odds and markets are correct at time of publication and subject to change.