One of the things that continues to drive the popularity of football betting is the sheer number of matches that take place worldwide, and that’s each and every week throughout the season.

Punters can tuck into a huge menu of games most weekends in the winter across Europe’s key leagues, before moving onto pastures new in the summer with the European Championships and World Cup, as well as summer competitions such as the MLS.

From pre-match wagers to the thousands of live betting markets available at 888sport, there really is something for everyone. Here’s your guide to the top European leagues, and some football betting pointers to follow.

 

Premier League Betting: Tips & Hints

What happens when billionaires decide to invest some of their fortune into a football club?

Despite the idea of money buying success not being a particularly comfortable one for many, it generally rings true in football. Wealth has been a major fact in creating league champions, as has been the case for Manchester City and Chelsea in recent times.

The duo have won eight of the last 14 editions of the English Premier League between them, and both Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Roman Abramovich have to take a large proportion of responsibility for that, having opened their cheque books quite liberally.

The stranglehold that those two clubs have had on English football is loosening slightly in the presence of Liverpool, who are emerging as the leading pretender to the throne in 2018/19.

Jurgen Klopp has purchased a number of quality players in recent seasons, including the irrepressible Mo Salah, and the current Reds squad are closing in on creating history for the club.

The beauty of the English Premier League is that there are at least six teams capable of producing the most entertaining football.

Tottenham have flirted with challenging for the league title before, and perhaps a move to their new ground can be the spark that sees them challenge for honours.

Arsenal and Manchester United have both dominated the English Premier League at various times. Can either of those teams reach great heights once more in the coming seasons?

EPL bettors, of course, will never forget the moment that Leicester City won the title back in 2015/16. They did so at odds of 5000/1; you won’t find many times in sports betting history where that has happened!

The English Premier League is a fascinating competition to bet on, with hundreds of outright winner and match-based betting markets available.

La Liga Betting: Tips & Hints

If you think there’s a monopoly on success in the English Premier League, just wait until you see Spain’s La Liga.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have shared the title for 14 of the past 15 years; the only aberration coming in 2013/14 when Real’s Madrid neighbours, Atletico, gatecrashed the party.

Barca have been blessed with the presence of Lionel Messi for years now. The Argentine is one of the most iconic figures in world football history, and it helps that he’s an amazingly skilled player, too.

Real lost their own icon, Cristiano Ronaldo, in the summer of 2018, and they seemed to lose their mojo, too, with a disappointing domestic campaign backed by an early exit from the Champions League.

Can the Galacticos knock Barcelona off their perch in the coming seasons? Only time will tell.

The Spanish La Liga doesn’t quite have the strength in depth of, say, the EPL. Atletico Madrid are always a tough team to beat, but they generally save their best work for the continental competitions.

Clubs like Sevilla and Valencia, meanwhile, have to be filed under the heading of ‘fallen giants’ these days.

From a betting perspective, it is hard to look past Barcelona and Real Madrid in the outright market, but there’s plenty of games to bet on every week where value can be found with the best betting sites.

 

Bundesliga Betting: Tips & Hints

There are few forces in European football quite like Bayern Munich, who have won six straight German Bundesliga titles. Between them and perennial rivals Borussia Dortmund, they have captured each of the last ten editions of this competition.

Those two clubs show no signs of slowing down, either, so it’s no wonder that they are so strongly favoured in the outright betting market.

Behind them, this is a division that always throws up an intriguing race for the rest of the Champions League places.

Clubs like Schalke, Borussia Monchengladbach, Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig have all qualified for the continent’s biggest tournament, and bettors always have lots going on as far as German football is concerned.

There’s usually a lot of Bundesliga fixtures played on a Sunday, which appeals to those who normally have a wager on the Premier League because they can bet on their favourite German teams while watching the action unfold.

The Bundesliga is also a notoriously high-scoring league, which lends itself to the excitement of live betting opportunities.

 

Serie A Betting: Tips & Hints

Juventus see Bayern Munich’s achievement of six straight league titles and they raise it by one; the club known as the ‘Old Lady’ have produced a magnificent eight straight Serie A title wins.

They have added to their squad with the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, the world icon who can almost win football matches single-handedly, and so perhaps Juve’s dominance isn’t set to come to an end any time soon.

As ever, Italian football has a strong supporting cast of teams jostling for second place behind the traditional champions. Napoli have emerged as one of the strongest teams in recent years, with the likes of Inter and AC Milan doing their best to get back into the title picture.

Once upon a time, there was a stigma about Serie A that the games were slow-paced, devoid of action and usually low scoring, but that trend seems to have been kicked to the kerb in recent years.

For most of the 2018/19 season, all 20 teams had an average goal per game count of two or more, and you can imagine how that fed into the betting.

Punters had many opportunities to bet on the Both Teams to Score and Over 2.5 Goals markets, as well as many other football betting markets where goals are the main currency.

 

Ligue 1 Betting: Tips & Hints

In France’s Ligue 1, Paris St Germain have taken the template of the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid – persuading a cash-rich investor to come on board – and run with it.

They’ve been able to flash the cash at young stars such as Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and they have dominated football in the country in recent times.

Monaco’s golden generation of 2016/17 has been broken up, and they are now a shadow of the side that thrilled everyone with their title win.

Others, such as Lyon, Marseille and Lille, are trying to bridge the gap to PSG, but you suspect the giants will continue to rule the roost in France for many years to come.

Remember, you can bet on all of the best football action from across Europe, and beyond, with 888sport.

The 888sport blog, based at 888 Towers in the heart of London, employs an army of betting and tipping experts for your daily punting pleasure, as well as an irreverent, and occasionally opinionated, look at the absolute madness that is the world of sport.