With so much of the football season left to play, the idea of selecting outright winners and league champions may seem like an impossible task. However, with a little bit of informed guesswork and a little bit more research, selecting champions is less of a risk than it first seems.
Many punters like to select multiple champions to form what is known as an accumulator. This type of bet offers considerable odds and allows a flexible range of bets to be included.
When you come to select outright winners, do not restrict yourself to the main European leagues, as the wealth and depth of talent within them makes their outcomes far harder to predict. For example, the Romanian league is largely dominated by Steaua Bucharest, who have claimed the last three Liga I titles.
Top European Leagues:
As previously stated the top European leagues are some of the hardest to bet on, as they contain the world’s best sides and it is uncommon for one team to pick up consecutive league titles. The key exceptions to this are PSG and Bayern Munich. Domestically both are unstoppable and have won their last three respective league titles. Bayern are enjoying the best start in their history while PSG are already pulling ahead of their Ligue 1 rivals.
There is no such thing as a “sure thing” when it comes to betting, but piling your money onto these two to win their leagues is the closest you will ever get.
La Liga betting is probably best avoided for now, as none of the top three sides (Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico) have leapt ahead of their rivals and smaller sides like Villarreal and Celta Vigo have launched ahead of them for the time being.
Like Spain, the Premier League and Serie A are very hard to call, both the current champions (Chelsea and Juventus) have had disastrous starts to their season, leaving a host of potential winners fighting it out at the top.
The safest bet out of those three would be free-scoring Man City to win in England.
Rest of Europe:
One of the most consistent league winners around is the Austrian team Red Bull Salzburg, who have picked up 6 of the last 9 Austrian titles. Thanks to their wealthy owners and international team, headed by super striker Jonatan Soriano, the Austrian giants are well worth a punt, and are around 8/13 to win. The same goes for Steaua Bucharest, who are on course to continue their domestic dominance
Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb have won a staggering 10 titles in a row and sit comfortably at the top of the table. The downside of betting on the Croatian league, and even the larger bookies are often reluctant to offer markets, however if you can find one that does tagging Dinamo onto your acca probably won’t hurt.
Another interesting market is the Russian league. Typically in recent years the title is traded by CSKA and Zenit, but with a poor start from the latter and CSKA placed at an attractive 4/7 to win they’re a very appealing selection.
One of the most interesting title challenges is currently unfolding in Sweden, with minnows Norrkoping dominating the league. The team from Northern Sweden are 11/10 winners, which is excellent odds for a title favourite.
How the acca looks:
A basic six team accumulator with Bayern, PSG, Man City, Salzburg, CSKA and Norrkoping offers a potential return of £90 from a £10 bet. Considering the likelihood of this outcome it’s a very good return for a modest stake.
For punters looking for something a little bit more daring – but also plausible – could combine PSG, Bayern and Norrkoping with Austria’s current league leaders Rapid Vienna, Arsenal and Juventus which if successful returns £780 from a £10 stake. Juventus have started poorly but this is in part due to key injuries and a lot of new players to bed in, and it won’t be long before the four-time consecutive champions are back winning games.
