Guide to Soccer Betting

The Premier League is an English tournament comprising the top-ranked soccer teams in the country. Some of the most famous soccer teams in the world take part, such as Manchester United and Liverpool.

The tournament was founded in 1992 as part of a schism with the far older Football League. It is considered to be one of the most significant and prestigious competitions in the world.

La Liga is the Spanish counterpart to the Premier League. It comprises the 20 top-ranked soccer teams in Spain, with a double round-robin format. This means that each team plays every other team, once at home and once away. Thus, each team plays 38 games in a season.

The Spanish League has undergone many changes over the years, but there is a general consensus that La Liga’s origins can be traced back to 1929. The competition is extremely popular, garnering the highest viewing and spectator figures in Europe.

The Bundesliga is the top tier of the German game. Comprising 18 teams, the tournament follows the broader European format of each team playing every other twice, home and away.

The origins of the league can be traced back more than a century in Germany, although because of the history of the same century, the progression is not linear. Many separate leagues have come and gone along the way.

Serie A is the top league in the Italian soccer league table. The competition has operated along with the same round-robin format since its inception in 1929. Today it comprises 20 teams, again following the same home and away system used across Europe.

Soccer is a national pastime in Italy, a little like baseball for Americans. Serie A is viewed in the same way by Italians as the major leagues are in the US, so the competition is very fierce.

Founded in 1932, Ligue 1 is France’s premier soccer tournament. Each of the 20 teams that qualify to enter the league plays every other team twice. Once at home, and once away. The format is round-robin in its structure.

As the premier French event, Ligue 1 mirrors the English Premier League on the other side of the channel, and so the games in Ligue 1 are of the highest calibre.

Held every four years since 1930, the FIFA World Cup is the single most viewed and supported sporting event in the world. For example, the final of the 2018 cup was viewed live on television by more than a billion spectators around the globe.

This gigantic sporting draw is a mecca for bettors, pulling in vendors from everywhere, offering the best odds, tips, and lines available. If you only ever place a single soccer bet in your life, chances are it’ll be on the World Cup.

The UEFA Europa Conference League is a planned third league in the UEFA calendar, comprising teams that fall outside of the qualification process of the other two major competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League.

Talks began as early as 2015 and are currently ongoing. It will form the third tier to the European championships under UEFA auspices, providing a stepping-stone for teams to gain entry into the upper two levels.

Founded a little over a century ago, the Copa America tournament is among the oldest tournaments in the soccer world. It’s held annually under the auspices of the South American Football Confederation.

The venue changes each year, with the host nation being among the 12 teams competing in a round-robin format. The group stage features three groups of 4 teams, with the leading teams entering a knockout stage for the finals.

Hosted by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the Champions League is among the most prestigious tournaments in world soccer and is the premier soccer tournament in Europe.

It is composed of the top championship teams from every member nation and is competed in two stages. The group stage victors emerge to play in a knockout round leading to the final match.

Re-branded in 2009, the UEFA Europa League can be traced back to 1971. It is the second-highest league in European soccer, after the Champions League. It has perhaps the most complex format of all the championships.

One hundred sixty teams compete in the tournament, with 48 of these reaching the group stage of the contest. These are placed into four groups of 12 teams, all of whom play according to the double round-robin format. The winners of these groups advance to the final stages.

Hosted by the South American Football Confederation since 1960, the Copa Libertadores is the premier club soccer tournament of South America. It’s an annual event that spans much of the year and has several stages.

The group stages feature eight groups, with four teams in each. The top two teams in each group progress to the knockout stages, which result in the finals at the end of the season. Some of the world’s greatest players have emerged from this tournament.