The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) for the year 2023 will kickoff on Saturday, January 13, 2024. According to the fixtures, Ivory Coast, the host country, will face Guinea-Bissau in the opening match.
According to Opta’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) prediction model, Senegal, the current title holders, are the narrow favourites to win the tournament this time. If they win, they will become the fourth team to win consecutive AFCONs and the first team since Egypt, who won three in a row between 2006 and 2010.
The prediction model uses betting market odds and Opta’s team rankings to assess the probability of each match outcome, victory, draw, or defeat, to provide a more comprehensive picture of who will win the delayed 2023 AFCON.
The odds and rankings are determined based on past and present team performances. Using match result probability, group composition, and possible knockout round match-ups, the model then takes opponent strength and the difficulties of their route to the final into account.
Senegal is the most likely winner according to the model, with a 12.8% chance, just ahead of hosts Ivory Coast (12.1%), who are attempting to win the trophy for a third time, after 1992 and 2015,
Morocco (11.1%) is given the third-best chance of winning by the predictor model. Algeria (9.7%) is the fourth-most likely winner, with Egypt fifth (8.5%) to round off the top five. Nigeria, a football superpower in the African continent was not considered in the top five by the AI rating model.
