The last time France and Senegal met at a World Cup, it ended in one of the tournament’s great ambushes: Senegal beating the reigning champions 1-0 in the 2002 opener.
Twenty-four years on, the two meet again, this time to open Group I at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Kick-off is 8pm BST on Tuesday 16 June. France arrive among the favourites for the whole thing. Senegal will play remembering exactly how vulnerable the French can be on day one.
France vs Senegal – Betting Odds
The bookmakers have made France clear favourites for this one, but the France vs Senegal betting odds tell a more interesting story once you look across the World Cup markets. Below we break down the current prices for every main bet and explain what each market means before you stake anything.
1X2 Betting Odds
The 1X2 market is football’s headline bet: three options covering the only three results possible at full time. The “1” is a home win, the “X” is the draw, and the “2” is an away win. In a World Cup group game at a neutral venue there is no real home side, so simply read “1” as the team listed first (France) and “2” as the team listed second (Senegal).
One thing that trips up beginners: 1X2 settles on the result after 90 minutes plus stoppage time only. It does not include extra time or penalties, which matters in the knockout rounds – but in the group stage a draw is a perfectly valid, paid-out result, so the X stays live right to the final whistle.
The current France vs Senegal odds for the three-way result are as follows:
| France win (1) | Draw (X) | Senegal win (2) |
| 5/12 | 10/3 | 6/1 |
Double Chance Odds
Double chance lets you back two of the three possible outcomes on a single bet, so you win if either of them lands. There are three combinations: “1X” covers a France win or the draw. “12” covers either team winning, but not the draw. “X2” covers a Senegal win or the draw.
It’s the market people reach for when they fancy a result but want a cushion against one specific outcome. The trade-off is obvious: more safety, smaller returns.
In a fixture with a heavy favourite, backing the favourite outright through double chance often returns very little, which is why many bettors use the X2 option instead to back the underdog with the draw thrown in as insurance.
Here are the France vs Senegal odds for all three double chance options:
| 1X – France or draw | 12 – France or Senegal | X2 – Draw or Senegal |
| 1/9 | 2/11 | 10/7 |
Handicap Betting Odds
Handicap betting is built for exactly this kind of mismatch, where one team is a strong favourite and a straight win bet offers very little value. The bookmaker gives the outsider a virtual head start and the favourite a virtual deficit, then settles the bet on the adjusted score.
Example: France -1. For that bet to win, France need to win by two clear goals or more, because a single goal victory removes the handicap and turns the result into a virtual draw, which loses. Senegal +1 is the opposite: the bet wins if Senegal win, draw, or lose by exactly one goal (because they have that extra virtual goal to use).
You will also see quarter handicaps like -1.25 and +1.25. These split your stake across two lines. A France -1.25 bet places half of your money on -1 and half on -1.5, so a France win by exactly one goal would see half the stake refunded and half lost. If France win by two goals (or more), your bet wins fully.
| France –1.25 | Senegal +1.25 |
| 10/11 | 10/13 |
| France –1 | Senegal +1 |
| 20/29 | 21/20 |
Both Teams to Score (BTTS) Odds
Both Teams to Score, usually shortened to BTTS, doesn’t care about who wins. All it asks is whether both sides will score at least one goal. Pick “Yes” if you think both France and Senegal will find the net. Pick “No” and you are betting that at least one team is kept off the scoresheet.
The appeal of this market is that the final result does not matter. A 1-1 draw, a 3-2 and a 4-1 rout all settle “Yes”. A 2-0, a 1-0 or a goalless stalemate all settle “No”.
It pairs neatly with other markets: plenty of bettors combine BTTS “Yes” with an over goals line, or BTTS “No” with a favourite handicap, to build a bet that matches how they see the game flowing.
| Yes | No |
| 13/12 | 4/6 |
Goal Total (Over/Under) Odds
The goal total market is a bet on the combined number of goals scored by both teams. Doesn’t matter who wins, doesn’t matter who scores, the only thing to care about here is how many goals are scored in total. The bookmaker sets a line (here it is 2.5) and you decide whether the match will finish with more or fewer goals than that number.
The half-goal in 2.5 is deliberate. Because no match can end on exactly 2.5 goals, there is no possibility of a tie on this bet: three goals or more and “over” wins, two goals or fewer and “under” wins. So a 2-1, 3-0 or 2-2 all go over, while a 1-1, 1-0 or 0-0 all stay under.
If you expect France to break Senegal down repeatedly, over looks tempting. If you expect a strong defense from Senegal, under has the same value.
Remember, 2.5 is just an example – you can also set the line differently (like 1.5 or 3.5). These are the France vs Senegal odds for the 2.5 goal line:
| Over 2.5 goals | Under 2.5 goals |
| 5/6 | 5/6 |
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Correct Score Odds
Correct score is the toughest of the common markets to call and, predictably, the most generous when it comes off. You are not just predicting who wins – you are naming the exact final scoreline. Get the winner right but the score wrong and the bet still loses.
Many punters usually back two or three likely scorelines rather than pin everything on one. The table below features a handful of popular scorelines for this match, but you can back any result you like.
| 0–0 | 1–1 | France 1–0 | France 2–1 |
| 11/1 | 15/2 | 5/1 | 15/2 |
Please note that the odds are accurate as per the publishing time of the article. Make sure to re-check the latest France vs Senegal odds before placing a bet.
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