The second leg of the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League is just about to begin, and the chosen teams will go all out and battle one and another to reach the quarter-finals. The Champion’s League is one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and football fanatics from all over the world flock to stadiums to watch their favorite teams and players in action.
Due to its huge popularity, UEFA Champions League is equally popular among sports bettors. Each year thousands of new and seasoned punters place bets on the football matches in a bid to rake up huge winnings. As a result, almost all betting sites have special promos, rewards, and bonuses for the Champions League.
Since football has many interesting betting lines, it’s easy for new bettors to find the easy ones and increase their chances of winning. This article will tell you all you need to know as a novice bettor before betting on the UEFA matches. This includes picking the teams, reading the odds, understanding the betting lines, and finding the best betting sites. So buckle up and keep reading!
What’s UEFA Champions League?
The Champion’s League is the elite football tournament of UEFA (Union of European Football Association). The top football clubs across the continent battle against each other for the trophy. The championship began in 1995 as the European Cup with 16 clubs and has now expanded to 79 clubs entering the league.
Over the years, this competition has become one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world, and this year we will see the 67th season of the league. The final will be played at the Stade de France in France and Chelsea are the defending champions while Manchester City is the runners-up.
How Does The Format Work?
The league begins with the group stage in which 32 teams participate. The teams are divided into eight groups with four teams each. For making the draw, seeding is used at this stage to ensure no two teams from the same nation pay play in the groups together. Once sorted into groups, each team plays six group stage games; three on home soil and three in the opponent’s country in a round-robin format.
The winners and runners-up of each group then proceed to the next round while the teams who finished in third-place can enter the Europa League. The next stage is called the last 16, referring to the remaining 16 teams. In this stage, the winning teams of one group play the runners-up of the next group, and again teams from the same association aren’t drawn together.
After this round, the knock-out stages start in which the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final rounds are held. There isn’t any restriction on the draw, and the teams that play against each other are chosen randomly. Group stages are typically held from September to December, while the knock-out stages are played in February in a two-legged format except the final.
Things To Know Before Betting
When it comes to betting on an event of this scale, there are a few things you need to keep in mind before you dive into the betting scene. This is because newcomers often end up losing huge amounts of money just because they didn’t quite understand the betting principles when it comes to the Champion’s League. Here are a few things that can help you grasp the concept of betting on UEFA and understand how to make winning bets and reduce your losses.
What Are The Top Teams?
When it comes to the top teams, you don’t need to know everything about all of the teams as a newbie. Instead, good knowledge of the top teams with the best odds for winning is enough.
Manchester City
Manchester City has always been one of the top teams for the UEFA Champions League and a favorite among sports bettors. This year they had a weaker round 16, but their performance in the Premier League was spectacular. Now we know that the two leagues are quite different, but this year’s odds dictate that they very well may win the remaining matches and solidify their presence in the league. Currently, the team is a top favorite and has odds of +275.
Bayern Munich
Following closely behind is Bayern Munich with +350 odds, making it the second favorite of sports bettors around the world. The team has shown some incredible gameplay and won 6 titles in 2020. This year they have won all of their group matches but had a draw against RB Salzburg in the first leg of their last 16 matches. Despite the draw, their overall performance has been good enough for them to be considered the second most-likely team to win the league.
Chelsea
Despite being last year’s defending champions, Chelsea ranks lower than last year’s runners-up Man City. The team is listed with odds +650 at major betting sites making them the third most-likely team to win. In their first leg of the last 16, the team managed to take down the French champions LOSC Lille. So there are hopes of them coming on stronger as the league progresses and reach the finals.
Liverpool
Even after their subpar performance, Liverpool seems to be climbing the ranks steadily in the last 16 rounds. They’re the champions of the 1028-19 Champions League and have 5 European Cups. Currently, they’re listed with +450 odds, but their performance suggests that they can climb up the ranks in the coming matches.
How To Bet On UEFA?
You can bet on the UEFA Champions League in two ways; one through a bookie who takes bets, pools it, and then pays the winners a percentage of it, or you can use online bookmakers. Due to heavy regulations and laws, online sports betting is a far safer option.
These betting sites also have special bonuses for different sporting events, including the Champion’s League, where punters can win extra if they play their cards right. Not to mention if you’re a loyal customer, you get plenty of rewards and free wins. The first step in betting on the Champions League is finding a good sportsbook that’s registered, licensed, and authorized to operate in your region. Otherwise, you could end up in a scam and lose all of your money. Even within different cities of a country, there could be separate gambling laws, so make sure your chosen site covers all the areas.
After picking a site, you need to register as a member before you start betting. This part is quite straightforward, but you need to keep one thing in mind. A lot of betting sites have special signup bonuses that give you deposit matches and free bets, so make sure you avail of it. After this, you’re all set and ready to bet, but before that, you need to learn a bit about the football betting lines.
What Are The Top Betting Lines?
Moneyline
Moneyline bets are the most common bets when it comes to UEFA Champions League and is available on all betting sites. The bets are pretty simple; all you have to do is pick a team and wager on it. The way to win the bet is that your chosen team needs to win the game; if they don’t, you’ll lose the bet.
This bet is so easy because if you’ve been following the tournament and know the teams, it won’t be difficult for you to pick a team after looking at the odds. The team with the highest winning chances is called the favorites, while the other team is the underdogs. If you bet on the underdogs instead of the favorites, you’ll win more, but the chances of winning are less.
Point Spreads
Compared to moneyline bets, point spread betting is a little tricky. The odds are written the same way as moneyline bets, with the plus sign indicating the favorite and the minus sign indicating the underdog. However, point spread bets are in decimal or fractions. At the end of the match, the underdogs have points deducted from their final score while the favorites get points added to theirs.
For you to win the bet, the favorites need to win by points higher than those listed on the wager, and the underdogs should lose by points greater than the ones listed on the bet. This part makes bets tricky because you can predict the winner, but it’s quite difficult to predict the points.
Totals Bets
Totals are one of the simplest bets when it comes to betting on football. These bets are represented by a number without any signs and are written next to the team’s name. All you have to do is predict whether the chosen team will score points higher than the stated number or lower. For this reason, these bets are also called over/under bets.
So if you pick over, the chosen team needs to score than the allotted points, and if you pick under then, the team needs to score under. Since there are no specific points involved, you can win these wagers easily if you know which team has better performance.
Futures Bets
Instead of focusing on the winners and the player’s performances, futures bets focus on specific events that might take place during the game. For example, you can bet on who will win MVP and which team will have the most number of penalties. You can even bet on unforeseeable events like how many players would get injuries and how many will be yellow-carded. These bets are fun to make and are pretty easy to win as well because they don’t depend on the outcome of the match.
Which Betting Lines Should You Pick?
Picking a betting line isn’t as easy as it looks; you need to have a bit of betting experience before you start. So if you’ve been betting for a while, you can place more challenging bets and rake higher risks, especially if an unforeseeable injury throws the whole bet off. So if you’re new to sports betting, it’s better to go for the easy wagers to gain a bit of experience and understand the line properly. Generally speaking, moneyline bets and totals are the easiest to grasp if you have a bit of knowledge of the game and the players, while futures betting is good if you’re just here to win a few easy wagers.
Which Betting Site Is The Best?
When it comes to betting on UEFA, Bovada is one of the best sites. It has a pretty good layout and user interface, and it’s also one of the few websites that have an interactive as well. Besides that, you’ll get a 100% deposit match as a signup bonus along with many other in-game bonuses during betting. The best thing is that this site allows cryptocurrency trading as well for sports betting, and their banking options are fast and secure. Not to mention, their live betting feature is pretty elaborate with proper viewing and updated odds.
Bet Us is another great site for UCL and offers clients a 125% signup bonus and many free bets. The site is one of the safest to bet on and offers clients many banking options. This site also accepts cryptocurrency and has many additional bonuses and promos for UCL. Their customer service is one of the best, and the website offers fast payouts to clients.
Finally, we have BetOnline, which is another popular betting site that offers a generous signup bonus along with several sports-specific promos and bonuses. This website s one of the first to have their odds displayed, and you get a lot of betting lines as well. The website has several deposit options, including crypto, and the payouts are quick as well.
Want to bet on the UEFA Champions League but can’t find any authentic websites? Take a look at Betting Sites Ranking. It’s an online listing website where you can look up all the top online bookmakers from all over the world. In addition, you can even check reviews of these betting sites and compare their features to find the one that suits you best.
Apart from looking up online gambling sites, the website also lets you look at the top daily bets for different sporting events happening in the next 24 hours. You can even search local online casinos in different countries along with reading helpful tips and guides on how to start betting on different sports.
