‘It’s hard to see anyone stopping a healthy Sinner from going deep in the Grand Slams’ – our experts pick out their best sporting specials for 2026
Football
Kylian Mbappe to score five or more goals at the World Cup
5-4 with bet365
By James Milton
France forward Kylian Mbappe looks a great bet at odds-against to score at least five goals at the 2026 World Cup given his sizzling form for Les Bleus and Real Madrid.
Mbappe struck five times in France’s qualifying campaign, despite only 353 minutes of playing time, and he has claimed 27 goals in just 23 starts for Real in La Liga and the Champions League this season.
France take on Senegal and Norway in Group I but Mbappe may well fill his boots in their second game, which will be against Iraq, Bolivia or Suriname.
He has already had a couple of sensational World Cup campaigns, scoring four goals as a teenager in Les Bleus’ 2018 triumph and eight in 2022 – including a hat-trick in the final.
American football
Houston Texans to win AFC Championship
13-2 generally
By Phil Agius
The NFL regular season comes to an end this weekend and the playoff battle to come will be one of the most open contests in recent years.
With only two teams to be eliminated before the 14-team playoff field is set, it’s 11-2 the field to win Super Bowl LV, with nine teams priced at 14-1 and shorter.
The NFC field looks the stronger conference so the best value bet to have at this stage could be the much-improved Houston Texans to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
After a 0-3 start to the season, the Texans have won 11 of their last 13 games including the last eight in a row.
Their suffocating defence is the key to their success and they have averaged only 16.4 points per game over their last seven outings.
With wins over AFC playoff rivals the Ravens, Jaguars, Bills and Chargers already this season, they will be a tough test for anyone, even if the Jaguars pip them to the AFC South title.
Boxing
Ryan Garner to win a world title
9-1 with Ladbrokes
By Gareth Freeman
British pair Conor Benn and Moses Itauma may be able to engineer world-title chances in 2026 but the value play is taking a chance on unbeaten Ryan Garner to capture one of the major belts.
After Garner’s win over Reece Bellotti last summer, promoter Frank Warren is planning a world title tilt for the Piranha this year if he gets through what is expected to be a tough tune-up bout beforehand.
Garner’s most likely target for world honours is WBC super featherweight champion O’Shaquie Foster, while the winner of the unification bout between Eduardo Nunez and Emanuel Navarrete in February is another option. Garner would probably be the underdog against all three of those fighters, but he wouldn’t be a 9-1 chance.
Cricket
Abhishek Sharma to be top Indian runscorer at the IPL
14-1 with bet365
By James Milton
Abhishek Sharma hammered 46 off 19 balls on his IPL debut for Delhi Capitals in 2018 but he had to wait until 2024 for his breakthrough season.
The outrageously talented left-hander scored 484 runs at a stunning strike-rate of 204 per 100 balls for Sunrisers Hyderabad, following up with 141 off just 55 deliveries against Punjab Kings last term.
That was the third-highest score in IPL history and, at the age of 25, Abhishek is capable of producing huge scores on a more regular basis.
His T20 international strike-rate of 188 is the best in history, helped by February’s blistering 135 against England in Mumbai, and he could take the IPL, which starts on March 26, by storm.
At 14-1, he is a big price to be the leading Indian runscorer in this year’s edition.
Cycling
Tadej Pogacar to win Paris-Roubaix
3-1 with bet365
By Matthew Ireland
Tipping Tadej Pogacar to win any bike race is hardly original, but the Slovenian superstar is currently too big a price to win one of the two Monuments he has yet to conquer.
Pogacar has already won the Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Il Lombardia all on multiple occasions and he needs only to win Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix to complete the set of all five of cycling’s biggest one-day races.
It is the latter for which he has the best chance and you can bet that the Tour de France winner and world champion will be gearing his whole spring around the second Sunday in April.
Second on debut last year, Pogacar could relish his Sunday in hell on the cobblestones of northern France.
Formula 1
Oscar Piastri to win F1 Drivers’ Championship
13-2 bet365
By Adam Scriven
It’s all-change in Formula 1 for 2026 with a completely new set of rules governing both car design and power units.
While little is known about what the aerodynamicists have come up with, Mercedes are believed to be well ahead in the engine department, which is good news for both the works team and reigning constructors’ champions McLaren.
Defending drivers’ champion Lando Norris is vying for favouritism for 2026 along with Red Bull’s four-time champ Max Verstappen and Mercedes ace George Russell.
However, Oscar Piastri led most of last season’s championship and won seven of the first 15 races before a late collapse.
The Australian McLaren driver looks the value pick of the pre-season prices.
Rugby league
Leeds Rhinos to win Super League Grand Final
6-1 general
By Matthew Ireland
Leeds last won the Super League title in 2017 but the Rhinos’ time in the rugby league wilderness could be about to come to an end.
The Headingley club got their succession planning to their golden generation, who won eight Grand Finals between 2004 and 2017, all wrong, but the arrival of astute Aussie coach Brad Arthur midway through the 2024 campaign has transformed Leeds’ flagging fortunes.
Arthur has been persuaded to stay on another year and the Rhinos will be desperate to atone for their dramatic defeat in last season’s playoffs, when they conceded a last-second try against St Helens.
The Rhinos showed last year that they can match and beat Super League’s top two, Hull KR and Wigan, and they could mount a serious title charge in 2026.
Rugby union
No Six Nations Grand Slam
11-8 bet365
By Graham Woods
The Six Nations betting has been all about France and Ireland in the last few seasons but England crashed the party to finish second last year and their successful autumn campaign, which included a win over the All Blacks, has opened up the market for the 2026 tournament.
Champions France remain odds-on and face both their key rivals at home, but the value at this stage looks to be in backing another Grand Slam blank.
Les Bleus missed out on a clean sweep last year after losing by one point to England at Twickenham. They can be slow into their stride, though, and face a key battle in round one against Ireland, who will be keen to atone for last year’s third-place finish.
Throw dangerous Scotland, who face both England and France at Murrayfield, into the mix and there is plenty of room for an upset or two along the way, especially as the new condensed format leaves only one rest week this year.
Snooker
Neil Robertson to win the Masters
9-1 each-way with Coral and Ladbrokes
By Henry Hardwicke
Alexandra Palace has become the spiritual home of darts but it is not just arrers fanatics who head to the north London venue in the winter.
The Palace has also staged snooker’s Masters since 2012 and this year’s tournament, which starts on January 11, looks wide open.
Mark Selby is the only player to have won more than one major title this season while Judd Trump and record eight-time winner Ronnie O’Sullivan have yet to win a ranking competition this term.
Neil Robertson won the lucrative Saudi Arabia Masters in August and his hopes of a third Masters crown are enhanced after being drawn in the opposite half to Trump and world champion Zhao Xintong.
The Thunder from Down Under must get past O’Sullivan in round one, but that may be his toughest hurdle en route to the final.
Tennis
Jannik Sinner to reach all four Grand Slam semi-finals
11-8 with bet365
Jannik Sinner put his Australian Open title on the line in Melbourne later this monthCredit: Getty Images
By Joe Champion
Jannik Sinner made the final of all four Grand Slams in 2025, winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles, and he appeals at odds-against to reach the semi-finals in each of them this year.
Sinner and his great rival Carlos Alcaraz, who beat him in the final of both the French Open and US Open, appear so far ahead of the ATP Tour’s chasing pack, which is still headed by a 38-year-old Novak Djokovic, who struggles with the best-of-five format.
With the top two’s rankings likely to keep them apart until the final of each Grand Slam, it’s hard to see anyone else stopping a healthy Sinner from going deep in the four events – he has now made the semi-finals in seven of the last eight Slams.
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