Champions League Betting 2024
Hundreds of millions of football fans tune into the UEFA Champions League every game week. And every game week, betting sites offer free bets, enhanced odds, and other specials in a bid to reel in all those punters. There’s definitely no shortage of options, which can make it tough to be sure you’re choosing the right bookie. In the table below you’ll find our latest ranking of the best Champions League betting sites in the UK, so you can be sure you’re getting the best betting experience possible.
Recommended Sites
Champions League Betting Odds, Promos & Tips
When it comes to football betting, there are few times the industry is as bountiful as when the Champions League is in full swing. Just as Europe’s leading teams put on their finest performances, so too do the betting industry’s top operators. The Champions League has long surpassed the FA Cup as the UK’s favorite cup competition for online betting.
Naturally, when the bookmakers are pulling out all the stops, finding the right site can be one of the toughest decisions you’ll have to make. Fortunately, when you’ve been a part of the industry as long as we have, knowing which Champions League betting sites are worth placing your bets is second nature. So, to ensure you score every time you ante-up, here’s our guide to Champions League betting.
Best Sites for Champions League Odds
Bookmakers will, of course, differ on their assessments of Champions League odds. How, for example, do you objectively measure the chances of two teams like PSG and Real Madrid, who play in different leagues? Of course, this gives an opportunity for anyone gambling on the Champions League to find some extra value. The table below shows the outright odds for the 2018 Champions League winners from our recommended UK bookies.
| Bookmaker | Manchester City | Barcelona | Juventus | PSG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Paddy Power | 11/2 | 13/2 | 6/1 | 15/2 |
 | Betfair | 11/2 | 13/2 | 6/1 | 15/2 |
 | Sky Bet | 11/2 | 6/1 | 6/1 | 15/2 |
 | Karamba | 11/2 | 6/1 | 6/1 | 7/1 |
 | Mr Green | 11/2 | 6/1 | 6/1 | 8/1 |
 | Sport Nation | 21/4 | 23/4 | 5/1 | 27/4 |
As you can see from the table, there is some consensus on the odds of certain teams. The favourites, Manchester City, have been frequently quoted at 11/2. However, Sport Nation has opted to put Juventus, buoyed by their recent signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, as the outright favourites at 5/1. T
Verdict: The winner here seems to be Betfair/Paddy Power, who offer competitive odds among all the favourites, as well as generous odds for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Best Sites for Promotions and Offers
All of the recommend bookmakers featured above offer regular betting promotions. Innovative promos such as Betfair’s Acca Edge, where you will receive your stake back (as cash) if there is one losing selection (in return for slightly lower odds), are excellent for the Champions League. However, Paddy Power Sport offers a range of promos, week in week out, that can be applied to Champions League betting
- Free Bet Club: Get rewarded with a £10 free bet each week when you place five bets of £10.
- 2 Up promotion: Get paid out early if your selection goes two goals up, valid for all Champions League group stage matches
Verdict: Paddy Power
Champions League Markets
| Market | Description |
|---|---|
| Winner Betting | market for a specific team to win the Champions League. For example, last year’s champions Real Madrid are priced at 8/1 to retain the trophy in May 2019. |
| Individual Match Betting | Bet on the outcome of an individual match. Bookmakers will offer well over 100 markets, including correct score, first scorer and over/under goals. |
| Top Goal Scorer Betting | Bet on the player who will score most goals throughout the competition. Cristiano Ronaldo was the top scorer for the 2017/18 season with 15 goals. |
| Teams to Qualify | Bet on a team qualifying (finishing in the top two places) of the group. |
| Final Betting | Bet on the Champions League Final match, which is played in late-May |
Tipsters and Predictions
For a long time, the perceived wisdom was that anyone could win the Champions League, as up until 2013 no side had retained the trophy in the competition’s modern format. However, Real Madrid tore up that script in recent years by winning four out of the last five tournaments, including the last three.
Does that mean Los Blancos are likely to win it every year? Not necessarily. They are, in fact, around fifth or sixth favourites for the 2018/19 Champions League. Indeed, measuring the relative strengths and weaknesses of a team before the competition kicks off is not always easy to do, especially when so many leagues across Europe send their best teams to compete.
As the Champions League is one of the most popular sporting events on the planet, there is certainly a wide choice of tipsters out there. Some are reliable, some not so much. It might surprise you to learn that some of the best tips come from the bookies themselves. For example, the Betfair Blog provides comprehensive and objective analysis of Champions League betting.
There are other mainstream sources for tips. ESPN’s Betting Blog covers all major football events and includes a running total of profit/losses, so you can keep track of their success. OLBG is another site that provides both expert tips and the viewpoints of other punters.
We would always suggest that you be care when signing up for tips on subscription. While some are demonstrably profitable, they may also require a dedication to frequent betting that you find challenging.
Don’t bet blindly: whether you follow a tipster or use your own intuition, it’s best to not bet blindly. A good tipster will record both success and losses – do they match up to your expectations? Is there any evidence of the tipster doctoring results?
Some of you may feel that betting can be more rewarding if you do some of the research yourself to come up with that ‘killer’ bet. There are countless sites that will provide data on the Champions League and, crucially, national leagues. You could, for example, use Soccerstats.com to learn more about the records of teams across Europe, giving you information on their strengths and weaknesses.
It is also imperative to remember that European football does not always follow the same patterns as domestic leagues. For instance, factors like playing at home or away usually has much more impact than in the Premier League. But you can also look at how clashes of styles and tactics influence a result:
Consider how difficult Spanish teams, accustomed to moderate temperatures even in winter, would find it difficult playing in the freezing temperatures of Kiev or Moscow in late November? Consider how a long flight across the continent could cause performance levels to drop slightly? Or, how playing in a stadium as famously intimidating as the Turk Telekom (Istanbul) could affect players confidence? These factors are should all be weighed up against how the two teams are matched up on paper.
Above all, we always advise that you look for value and bet with a cool head. Champions League games are played every couple of weeks, albeit there is a break over winter, so there is plenty of opportunity to find a value bet, even if you have to postpone it for a week or two.
Remember: Exercising patience over your bankroll and not betting for the sake of it are key to having an enjoyable and, possibly, more profitable experience.
Champions League History
When it comes to prestigious cup competitions, the Champions League is the domestic equivalent of the World Cup. Formerly known as the European Cup, from its inception in 1955 until 1992, the competition has steadily increased the number of participating teams it accepts over the years. Initially contested by 16 teams, including Milan, Anderlecht, PSV Eindhoven and Hibernian, the Champions League now kicks off with a total of 78 clubs from around Europe.
Two qualification tournaments feed into a double-round robin stage that sees 32 teams compete in eight separate groups. With teams in each group playing each other twice, the early stage of the Champions League runs from September to December before the top two finishers progress to the knockout stages.
Overall, this format not only provides a wealth of footballing action, but plenty of Champions League odds throughout the season. From the qualifiers to the finale in May, the competition provides a huge amount of betting options for all football fans.
While the Champions League invites teams from all over Europe, it still pans out, certainly at the latter stages, as a competition between the very elite sides, one that is notoriously difficult to win. Clubs like Arsenal, with such a long, successful history, and Paris Saint Germain, with a seemingly unlimited transfer budget, have yet to win the Champions League.
However, clearly some teams have the knack of winning in Europe. Real Madrid, by a considerable distance the most successful club in the competition’s history, have 13 titles, nearly double that of the next best side, AC Milan (7). For UK clubs, Liverpool have been the most successful, winning five titles. Chelsea were the last Premier League club to win the Champions League, after beating Bayern Munich on penalties in 2012.
The Champions League is one of those competitions when, as a punter, you’re really in a position of power. Bookmakers are fighting tooth-and-nail to get a big slice of all that lucrative betting action. That means there’s no excuse to take sub-par odds, or to bet with a bookmaker that doesn’t offer the markets you want to bet on.
