Spin Palace Sports: Uruguay Named Most Improved Football Team Ahead of this Summer's Tournament

LEEDS, England, June 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Research by Spin Palace Sports ranks participating teams on performance over 20 years, with England hanging near the bottom of the table.

Uruguay could be the squad to shake things up in Russia this year after being ranked as the most improved international team over the last two decades.

Sport betting brand Spin Palace Sports crunched the numbers to find the teams who could change the status quo this summer, analysing 20 years-worth of data to create an interactive league table including all of this year's participating countries.

Uruguay came out on top based on a number of factors, including goals scored, matches played, wins, historic transfer value and even social media following. The majority of these factors were compared with performance in previous tournaments going back to 1998.

Spin Palace Sports looked specifically at teams who had seen improvements, meaning teams who consistently performed well like Brazil found themselves much lower down the league table.

While in 1998 the South American team didn't manage to score a single goal, their fortunes lifted in 2010 with 11 goals total and 2014 with four. Looking at match wins, from 1998 to 2006 Uruguay failed to gain a single triumph, but between 2010 and 2014 they had six under their belt.

Rising stars Belgium came a close second on the league table, with the number of matches played in global tournaments increasing over that last 20 years, along with a dramatic uptick in match wins. When it came to transfer value, Belgium has invested heavily in talent since 1998, with a 2,137% increase in value - the second highest among this year's participants, next to Senegal who racked up a cool 3,250% increase.

The lowest ranked teams were the ones who had either fallen from grace or have never performed in a global tournament, with Nigeria, Japan and Serbia taking the bottom three places. England found themselves in the lower half of the table - in position 23 out of 32, owed to increasingly poor performances in past tournaments.

Liam Tillett from Spin Palace Sports said: "Everyone knows who the favourites are for Russia this year, which is why we decided to look at things a little differently. We asked ourselves, which teams could come from nowhere to steal the trophy? Rather than merely speculate, we crunched the numbers to find the teams who have seen the most improvement over the past 20 years.  

"We assigned points to each team based on a number of different metrics to give us an overall view of who could be on the rise this year. This gave us a table that showed the biggest improvers, rather than anyone who has performed consistently well or poorly. Two-time world cup winners Uruguay came out on top, a country that, per capita has recently been hailed as the most successful footballing nation in the world.

"Belgium has risen to third place in the FIFA rankings, showing just how much of a powerhouse the country has become in football. Since 1998 they have played and won more matches, investing in talent and fostering players' abilities incredibly effectively. We're excited to see how much of an impact this could have in Russia."

10 most improved teams (most to least) 

• Uruguay
• Belgium
• Germany
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Australia
• Spain
• Portugal
• Poland
• South Korea

10 least improved teams (most to least) 

• England
• Tunisia
• Morocco
• Mexico
• Brazil
• Iran
• Denmark
• Serbia
• Japan
• Nigeria

Notes to Editors 

League table: Teams ranked on a points system, where each factor (i.e. number of wins) is rated at a maximum of 32 and a minimum of 1. These points are totalled to create the final league table.

About Spin Palace Sports 

Spin Palace Sports is an online and mobile betting platform committed to delivering secure wagering and fair results. The company offers favourable odds across a wide range of sporting areas from horse racing, football and boxing, to darts and Formula 1 - in addition to international games and global tournaments.

Spin Palace Sports is a member of the CityViews Group and operates online casinos that are accessible to players all over the world.