La Liga

As one of the strongest national football leagues, Spanish representatives have managed to win the most Europa Cup I/Champions League titles in history (by far).This is why some sports fans claim that La Liga should be seen as the most prestigious league in world football. We also can’t forget that this league featured a long battle between Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo, who were dominating world football for a tremendous amount of time. It is currently the second most viewed national football competition on our planet. The Spanish top tier has 20 football clubs playing in it. At the moment, the three lowest ranked teams go down. The top four will qualify for the Champions League, places five and six will qualify for the Europa League and the seventh ranked team will play Europa Conference League the following season (things can vary if a lower ranked team wins the Copa Del Rey). The popularity of La Liga also makes it one of the leagues where betting on is widely practiced. The top clubs especially, are popular to bet on by punters from all over the globe. We’re gonna talk about those giant clubs and we’ll give you some bet-related information as well. Let’s see if La Liga would be a suitable league for you to stake your money on. 

La Liga history

In 1928, the director of Basque club Getxo proposed to create a national football league for the first time. It was decided that ten teams would feature in that league and a year later the first Spanish national football league was born. Football became more and more popular in Spain throughout the years and soon after the foundation of La Liga, Spanish teams would also leave their mark in European competitions. In La Liga itself, there have been two persistently dominant football Clubs: Real Madrid and Barcelona. They are responsible for winning 61 titles since the start of La Liga (Real Madrid 35 and Barcelona 26). La Liga teams were the home for some of the best players of all time like Alfredo di Stefano, Johan Cruijff, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and many others.

Popular teams that play in the Premier League

Like we’ve mentioned before, two clubs have been the dominant factor in history and still are today: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. Real Madrid comes out on top with the most La Liga titles as well as dominating with Champions League trophies. Barcelona is second when it comes to league titles. Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Valencia are miles away compared to the top two’s silverware but still hold a reputable amount of league titles. It is no surprise that Barcelona and Real Madrid are the two clubs that have been bet on the most in recent times. Many football fans and sports bettors are either ‘Camp Messi’ (Barcelona) or ‘Camp Ronaldo’ (Real Madrid). It makes sense because these players are arguably two of the best players of all time. Messi is La Liga’s all time top scorer with 474 goals in 520 games and Ronaldo comes in at second with 311 goals in 292, averaging higher than the Argentinian. Atletico Madrid, under Diego Simeone’s lead, has performed well in recent times. They’ve managed to win two league titles since Valencia’s 2003/2004 winning season. All the other titles since that season went to either Barcelona or Real Madrid. In the 1999/2000 season, Deportivo La Coruna pulled off a shocking performance and managed to lift Spain’s most important trophy. It would have surely given you some incredible odds if you would have bet on that to happen.

Tips for betting on La Liga

Because there are so many La Liga fans worldwide, it’s relatively easy to gather in-depth information about teams and players that play in this league. Real Madrid and Barcelona especially have so many fans to feed with all kinds of news around the clubs and players. But it’s up to you, as a sports bettor, to recognize that and secondly to convert and exploit that information. This gives you valuable tips on why a certain team could perform strongly against another or the other way around. Think about player injuries, players returning from injuries, possible lineups, tactics, etc. These factors might have an influence on the outcome of a certain game. Looking into recent form only isn’t going to give you the long term betting results that you are looking for.

The downside to betting on this league is the fact that it’s easy for those bookmakers to get the same valuable information you need as a sports bettor. This is where you need to be really thorough with your research on football games. Bookmakers can’t keep up with all the information on every single game so it’s an opportunity for you as a punter to create an edge on them. Second thing we want to warn you about is favorite betting in this league. Odds on the Barcelona and Real Madrid games (even with handicaps) are quite low usually. It’s really hard to find value in those odds. In a lot of cases, you might be better off betting against favorites (with Asian handicaps).

What type of bets are suitable for this league?

It’s good to look at it game by game but overall it could be beneficial for you to bet against the favorites in certain games with so called ‘Asian handicaps’. You can decide that a team loses with a maximum of a one goal margin and still win your bet. Big clubs are gonna have games against smaller clubs where smaller clubs are well rested and in good form against struggling top clubs that just had a midweek away game in a European competition. There might be some good opportunities with odds that hold a lot of value. Betting under a certain amount of goals could also be suitable for this league due to the fact that there are a lot of tight games but also the fact that small clubs will line-up defensively against the big ones. Draws should be considered as well in our opinion. Most sports bettors don’t like them but we think there is a lot of value in them from time to time.

Alternatives to betting on La Liga

Another popular and comparable league to bet on is the English Premier League. Loads of information out there for you to assess games as well. What is also comparable to the Premier League is that top clubs have a busier schedule than smaller clubs who don’t play European competitions or the later stages of the national cups. Spanish clubs tend to go deep in European tournaments and often reach the later stages. For the same reasons, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1 could also be decent alternatives to La Liga.

Bookies with La Liga affinity