It's Brazil's World Cup to loose - World Cup Predictions

Looking for a World Cup favorite? All you really need to know is this: The World Cup gets underway Thursday in Sao Paulo, and it’s really hard to beat Brazil in Brazil.

The table below calculates every team’s chances of advancing past the group stage and eventually winning the tournament. The forecasts are based on the Soccer Power Index (SPI) — a system that combines game- and player-based ratings to estimate a team’s overall skill level — to calculate odds of each country’s performance during the two stages of the World Cup. SPI has Brazil as the heavy favorite, with a 45 percent chance of winning the World Cup, well ahead of Argentina (13 percent), Germany (11 percent) and Spain (8 percent).

True, Brazil is the betting favorite to win the World Cup — but perhaps not by as wide a margin as it should be. The team’s price at the betting market Betfair as of early Sunday evening implied that it has about a 23 percent chance of winning the World Cup — only a little better than Argentina (19 percent), Germany (13 percent) and Spain (13 percent).

Who has the hardest World Cup 2014 draw?

The 2014 World Cup in Brazil is approaching and the draw has been made. And after every World Cup draw, a debate ensues as to which group is deemed the "group of death." Quickly many proclaimed Group B, with Spain and the Netherlands to be the one, but the analysis shows that in fact Group G is this tournament's deadliest.

GROUP A

• Brazil
• Croatia
• Mexico
• Cameroon

GROUP B

• Spain
• Netherlands
• Chile
• Australia

GROUP C

• Colombia
• Greece
• Ivory Coast
• Japan

GROUP D

• Uruguay
• Italy
• England
• Costa Rica

GROUP E

• Switzerland
• France
• Ecuador
• Honduras

GROUP F

• Argentina
• Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Nigeria
• Iran

GROUP G

• Germany
• Portugal
• United States
• Ghana

GROUP H

• Belgium
• Russia
• Algeria
• Korea

Analysis of all the teams of FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil

GROUP A
Brazil (BRA), Croatia (CRO), Mexico (MEX), Cameroon (CMR)

GROUP B
Spain (ESP), Netherlands (NED), Chile (CHI), Australia (AUS)

GROUP C
Colombia (COL), Greece (GRE), Ivory Coast (CIV), Japan (JPN)

GROUP D
Uruguay (URU), Costa Rica (CRC), England (ENG), Italy (ITA)

GROUP E
Switzerland (SUI), Ecuador (ECU), France (FRA), Honduras (HON)

GROUP F
Argentina (ARG), Bosnia & Herzegovina (BIH), Iran (IRN), Nigeria (NGA)

GROUP G
Germany (GER), Portugal (POR), Ghana (GHA), USA (USA)

GROUP H
Belgium (BEL), Algeria (ALG), Russia (RUS), Korea Republic (KOR)