World Cup moneyball ⚽

It’s kick-off time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. But off the pitch the experts are split on trying to predict a winner. 🏆

Lloyds Banking Group (LYG - ADR) has correctly predicted two of the last three World Cup winners and says that this year England is the team to back for World Cup glory. While it’s great to see big banks predicting something other than rampant inflation this year, Lloyds has nothing on the incredible hattrick prediction performance by Electronic Arts (EA). EA has correctly picked the last three World Cup winners. So, who’s EA backing this year? After simulating all 64 matches, EA says Argentina, led by the GOAT Lionel Messi, will likely come out on top. Vamos, vamos, Argentina!? 🥳

The winning team is set to score a cool US$42 million, while the runners-up will be ballers with US$30 million. 🤑 Still, that’s just a fraction of the outrageous US$300 billion Qatar is estimated to have spent on stadiums, infrastructure and entire cities to host the World Cup.

Perhaps the biggest winners last week though were investors in English Premier club Manchester United (MANU). Just hours after the club announced that red devil Cristiano Ronaldo would hand back his horns and leave the club, the company revealed they were looking at ‘strategic alternatives’ for the club, including a potential sale. 🪧 

That was met with wild cheers from fans and investors alike. Manchester United is publicly listed, but effectively controlled by an American family called the Glazers. The Glazers got off-side with fans after loading the company up with debt, taking dividends for themselves and failing to deliver a trophy since 2017. Just how keen are Man U fans to see the Glazers get the boot? Since the news, Man U’s share price has sailed more than +60%. Who could have predicted that? 🔮