2020 Dakar Rally Bets: Can Local Guy Al-Attiyah Win His Fourth Dakar?

By: Eniko

Posted: December 5, 2019

Updated: February 19, 2020

42nd Dakar Rally will be in Saudi Arabia
Last year’s winner, Nasser Al-Attiyah is the favorite
French Stephane Peterhansel can win his 14th Dakar

Image source: X-raid1 / CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons

The 42nd Dakar Rally will take place between the 5th and 17th of January in a new location, Saudi Arabia. The race will start in Jeddah and finish at Qiddiyah, near the capital of Riyadh. More than 350 vehicles have registered to take part in the long and demanding race. In our 2020 Dakar Rally bets preview, we check the favorites in the car category. The Dakar is one of the most famous rally races in the world, with a long history. The first Dakar was held in 1979, and the route was from Paris to Dakar, the capital of Senegal. In recent years, due to security concerns, the race has been moved to a different location, South America. In 2020 Saudi Arabia will host the event, it will be the first time to have the race in the Arabian Peninsula. Surely there will be plenty of sand and dunes for the participants on the 7900 km they had to conquer.

2020 Dakar Rally bets predict a tight race between former winners

Last year, driving for Toyota, Nasser Al-Attiyah from Qatar has won the race for the third time in his career. He finished ahead of Spanish Mini driver Nani Roma and French legend, Sebastien Loeb who was driving surprise, surprise, for Peugeot. Another top driver, 13-time race winner Stephane Peterhansel had issues last year and couldn’t finish his race. But he will always be a favorite due to his experience and results. In the 2020 Dakar Rally bets, Nasser Al-Attiyah has the smallest odds to win again, with 2.875. Meanwhile, Peterhansel has the odds of 3.50 at 1xBet. Probably you’re not so familiar with the Qatar driver, but besides being a sport shooter and a sheik, he has great successes in the rally world. He is a 13-time Middle East Rally Champion, also WRC-2 champion and World Rally Championship driver. On top, he has won the Dakar three times, 2011, 2015 and 2019. And we can’t forget, that he is from the region. Surely he has lots of experience in driving in similar conditions and territory. Well, Stephane Peterhansel is from France, which was the starting point of Dakar for several years. But surely he doesn’t really mind starting from Paris, Lisbon, Buenos Aires or Jeddah, the race stages are tough everywhere. Amazingly, he had his debut at the Dakar in 1988, more than 30 years ago in the motorcycle category. He was winning his first six titles in that category, then he switched to cars with similar successes. Peterhansel has already managed to win with three different carmakers, Mitsubishi, Mini, and Peugeot, he is definitely a good ad for all of them. We’ll see if he can win his 14th trophy now, to get more background about last year’s race, read our 2019 Dakar Rally prediction.

Familiar names are also taking part

Online sportsbooks in France are still predicting Al-Attiyah and Peterhansel’s duel for the victory, but there are other drivers who can easily reach the top. Like Carlos Sainz, who is still rolling at the age of 57, or another familiar name, two-time Formula 1 world champion, Fernando Alonso. Yes, Alonso, who wants to try out every kind of car racing now, from 24 Hours of Le Mans to Indianapolis 500. He has some experience in rally racing as well, he took part in a Moroccan and a Saud Arabian rally as a preparation for the Dakar. His co-driver is a five-time Dakar bike winner Marc Coma with whom they already reached a podium finish. But taking part in the Dakar will be another level, which might be a bit too big step for even Alonso. Anyway, his odds at 1XBET of winning are not that bad at 13.00.

2020 Dakar Rally Bets — Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah - Image source: Flickr

Giniel de Villiers, the winner of the 2009 Dakar is also favored by online gambling sites in France. He is a very experienced driver who has been taking part in the Dakar rally since 2003. Beside his victory, the South African has eight podium finishes, which explains why he was given the odds of 4.00 at 1xBet. We find drivers representing Eastern Europe as well, where rally driving is also very popular. Polish Jakub Przygonski is a top contender now, after improving every year, finishing fourth last season. He also holds the Guinness record in drifting for the fastest controlled skid with almost 218km/h. So he is definitely fast and the youngest driver from the favorites, so his odds of 7.00 might be worth to bet on him. To learn more about betting, you can also read our latest review about 1xBet sportsbook.