The African Cup of Nations is held every two years, with the 2006 tournament being notorious for a number of low-scoring matches. Therefore, there were plenty of people who profited from backing the goalless draw in the final between Egypt and Ivory Coast, which the former ended up winning on penalties.

It helped that they were the home nation, an advantage that seems to count for a lot in this competition. For example, South Africa were victorious on home soil in 1996, Nigeria reached the final in their own country in 2002, while Tunisia were victorious in 2004 in front of a vociferous home crowd.

Nevertheless, every team goes into this tournament desperate to win and claim the bragging rights of the entire continent. This can often lead to ill-tempered matches where a flurry of yellow cards and the occasional red are commonplace. This will be reflected on the prices bookmakers offer about the number of bookings points and similar markets.

Although Ivory Coast are probably the best African team right now, it’s Cameroon who have the best recent record in the Cup of Nations, winning in 2000 and 2002. It’s also interesting to note that Nigeria have finished third on the past three occasions so could be well worth an each-way punt in future tournaments.