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AFCON: West Africa Catching up

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Senegal celebrates

The battle for the 2021 AFCON is over and the highest-ranked African nation, Senegal, has finally bagged the African title after years of failure.

This one was definitely their time, after falling at the last hurdle in the 2019 and 2002 editions. They overcame a slow start to the competition, and an early penalty miss in the final, to see off record-holders Egypt.

This win is Senegal’s, and the manager Aliou Cisse too, after losing two finals, as a player in 2002 and coach in 2019. It is the rebirth of a new golden generation after the 2002 team failed to hit the expected highs. On a broader view, however, Senegal’s win is a win for West Africa, as the region now has four teams that have won the African title.

Senegal’s win at AFCON 2021 is a precursor to a brewing rivalry with Egypt. The two nations are set to face off twice again in their immediate fixtures, another contest but this time for a bigger prize – a place at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and the betting sign up offers on Wincomparator will just serve to spice things up. Among the top bookies, 1XBet stands out with a bonus of up to €130 while 22Bet has one of up to €122 and Betsson €125 among others.

As Africa shifts focus to the World Cup qualifiers in March, West Africa is still playing catch up to North Africa as far as AFCON titles per region are concerned. North Africa has in Egypt the most successful African nation in football, with seven African titles. No team in Africa has won six. North Africa has 11 titles; Algeria is the second-best after Egypt with two while Morocco and Tunisia have each managed one.

The closest challenger to Egypt is Cameroon, which is more in the Central African part than the West. Cameroon have five titles so far; their fifth having come at the expense of Egypt in 2017. Their race for a sixth on home soil was ended by Egypt in the semi-finals. Central Africa has eight African titles – DR Congo having won two and Congo-Brazzaville with one.

After Senegal’s win, West Africa is now just one title behind North Africa; there are 10 African titles in the region. Ghana leads the pack here, having bagged four titles, followed by Nigeria with three, Ivory Coast with two and now first-time winners Senegal.

The two regions still lagging way behind are Southern Africa and East Africa. Each one of these has two titles. In Southern Africa, Zambia has one and the Republic of South Africa has one. South Africa won theirs in 1996 and Zambia claimed the big prize in 2012.

In East Africa, Ethiopia and Sudan were the only nations to have lifted the AFCON title. Teams from this region are normally eliminated early and even the quality of players from the region don’t match up to their mates in the other regions.

Modupe Gbadeyanka is a fast-rising journalist with Business Post Nigeria. Her passion for journalism is amazing. She is willing to learn more with a view to becoming one of the best pen-pushers in Nigeria. Her role models are the duo of CNN's Richard Quest and Christiane Amanpour.

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Analysis Reveals Wilfried Zaha as Africa’s Most Handsome Athlete for 2024

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Wilfried Zaha

By Dipo Olowookere

An analysis has shown that an Ivorian footballer, Wilfried Zaha, is the most handsome African sportsperson in 2024.

Zaha, who opted to play for Cote d’Ivoire after the Three Lions of England snubbed by him, currently plies his trade in Turkey for Galatasaray.

He moved to Turkey from England, where he played for Crystal Palace, and was one of the stars of the football outfit.

In research conducted by Bettors, Zaha topped the list as the most attractive African male athlete of 2024, closely followed by Odion Ighalo, a former Nigerian striker, and Akani Simbine, a South African sprinter.

The Most Handsome African Athletes of 2024 rankings used the golden ratio as a benchmark for facial attractiveness.

This study carefully analysed high-quality images of athletes from various sports, offering a fresh perspective on their aesthetic appeal.

The methodology involved selecting three high-quality images per athlete, sourced from official sports archives, media outlets, and verified athlete profiles, ensuring accuracy and clarity, according to the results of the research made available to Business Post.

Fourth on the list is Alex Iwobi of Nigeria, who plays for Fulham FC in England, and a Tanzanian footballer with Greece’s PAOK, Ally Samatta, is the fifth Most Handsome Athlete in Africa.

Ghana and Arsenal’s midfielder, Thomas Partey, is sixth, Senegalese Kalidou Koulibaly is seventh, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Garbon is eight, Ivorian Cheick Sallah-Cisse is ninth and Senegalese Reug Reug is number 10 on the list.

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Premier League Festive Fixtures Begin on DStv, GOtv

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Premier League Festive Fixtures

Second-placed Arsenal and ninth-placed Manchester United will square up at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday in the first big match of the Premier League festive schedule.

The action-packed month of December will see each Premier League team play six matches within the next 28 days, with Champions League, Europa, Conference League and Carabao Cup matches in between.

The Gunners face the Red Devils knowing there’s no room for error in their chase of Liverpool who are nine points clear at the top of the table. United lost on each of their last three visits to Arsenal but will bank on the new Manager bounce. United Manager, Ruben Amorim, led Sporting Lisbon to a penalty shootout win over Arsenal at the Emirates in the Europa League round of 16 encounter two seasons ago.

During his press conference, Amorim charged his team to be brave against the Gunners. “Arsenal is the best team I’ve faced by far, they are in a different moment. But every game is a big test now because there are few days to train and we have to manage the minutes of every player. But I want my players to be brave to play this game. We need to have the ball and dominate moments of the game,” he said. United will be without Lisandro Martinez and Kobbie Mainoo due to suspension. Tune in to catch the action as it unfolds live on DStv channel 203 and GOtv channel 66 at 9:15 pm on Wednesday.

In the other big match of the day, Liverpool will aim to continue their impressive run when they visit Saint James’ Park to take on Newcastle in one of the 8:30 pm matches on Wednesday. The match will also be available on DStv and GOtv.  Newcastle lost 2-0 at home to West Ham last Monday and will be desperate to prevent a consecutive home defeat in front of the Geordies.

Other matches on Wednesday include Southampton vs Chelsea, Aston Villa vs Brentford, Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest, and Everton vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. On Thursday, Fulham will host Brighton while Bournemouth welcome Tottenham Hotspurs to the Vitality Stadium.

Customers can enjoy all matches this festive period by reconnecting their DStv or GOtv decoders. Simply dial *288# to renew or upgrade your subscription. You can also take advantage of the GOtv Golden Window and upgrade to Supa Plus package for N13,900 instead of N15,700. You can also download the MyGOtv app for a better self-service experience.

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What is SRL & Why is It Better Than Virtual Football

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Virtual Football

Today’s sports betting services are way more advanced than several years ago. Modern punters can wager on all kinds of sports from the comfort of their homes. Aside from the standard alternatives, however, players can also bet on virtual sports and even take part in the simulated reality league (SRL).

Unlike Virtual Sports, which has been around for years, SRL is relatively new, meaning that not a lot of people know about it. Although it has its specifics, a lot of punters agree that it can be better than v-sports, especially virtual football. There are many reasons for it, so let’s dive in and learn more.

What’s the Simulated Reality League?

Before learning why the SRL is better than virtual football, it is important to share a few things about it. Generally speaking, the Simulated Reality League is a place where advanced machine learning tech and AI process large amounts of data from numerous sporting events. Thanks to that, the AI algorithm can create different numbers of situations, gameplays, and outcomes.

To put it in other words, this complex system uses the real performance of teams or players and creates a similar sporting experience where the results are unpredictable. Unlike in Virtual Sports, where everything is based on the RNG system, here, the Simulated reality league matches are based on the performance of the players and teams. In the case of football, the league offers matches from the world’s best football competitions, such as the EPL, La Liga, and the Bundesliga, and all of them take place at the same time as the real games.

It’s no surprise that the Simulated reality focuses mainly on football because this is the most popular sport in the world. With that said, it is also possible to find simulations for cricket, especially the T20 format that includes the Indian Premier League. Additionally, players will find daily coverage of the big WTA and ATP tennis tournaments.

The specifics

Since Simulated Reality is not that common among sports bettors yet, many people are not exactly sure how it all works. The most important aspect to remember is that everything is unpredictable and exciting. The matches are simulations of real-time events, and AI and the RNG tech ensure that the result is not predetermined. Instead, it is based on what’s happening in the match, making it much more exciting.

AI is the main star of the show here and is the “engine” behind everything. The people behind the SRL train the algorithm to process a lot of data and come up with unique sequences. The latter replicates the real match, providing bettors with a unique experience.

Since all Simulated Reality is new, it also means that people who have not used it so far will have a completely new experience. As we have seen, SR is very different from virtual sports, so it will be something that players will be interested in.

Things to keep in mind when comparing SR to Virtual Football

As mentioned, these two have many differences that people need to take into account. Perhaps the biggest one is realism because V-sports are just simulations that are entirely based on RNG. This means that their outcomes are random and have nothing to do with the real performance of the teams and players.

Those who decide to bet on the Simulator Reality League, however, will see that the latter uses a different algorithm. In other words, players have various types of experience.

With that said, there are some drawbacks of the SRL that bettors need to take into account, one of which is availability. Virtual Sports are available around the clock, which means you can bet on them at any time of the day. The SRL, on the other hand, is based on actual matches across football, cricket, and tennis. This means that there are only a handful of events per day.

The second drawback that users have to take into consideration is the match’s length. As mentioned, virtual sports are always there when you need them, and each match lasts no more than a couple of minutes. This allows you to bet on multiple options.

Due to how it works, the SRL is not like that because the matches there take as much time as the real ones. In the case of soccer, players will have regular 90 minutes of play.

Conclusion

Despite some disadvantages, the SRL is a very attractive option for people who want to bet on football. The new tech is somewhat between real sports betting and virtual sports, so it will definitely have a lot of fans. It will be very interesting to keep track of this option’s future development.

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