With huge TV audiences and global interest, Champions League Betting is huge business. The Champions League is UEFA's blue ribbon event, with Europe's elite clubs battling it out for the trophy once known as the European Cup.
Sides like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Benfica, Juventus, Inter and AC Milan, etc, etc, all regularly compete for the Europe's top prize every season.
With the Champions League being such a huge event, bookmakers regularly offer football free bets and other incentives on the high profile matches. These offers can be for both new and existing customers.
UCL Qualification; How it Works
The current qualification format for the Champions League is done through domestic leagues, winning the champions league, or winning the Europa League.
Some sides go directly into the group format (for example league winners of major European Leagues, like the Premier League). While some sides have to play preliminary qualifiers.
A typical example of a side who would have to go through the qualifying process, would be the 4th placed team from the Premier League or La Liga.
Champions League Group Stages Betting
Once qualification is completed, the competition proper starts. This is made up of 32 teams in 8 groups of 4 teams, labelled A to H.
All teams play each other in their group, in round robin format.
Knock-Out Stages
The top 2 from each group then go into the Round of 16, the first of the knock out stages. This is then followed by Quarter Finals, Semi-Finals, and the Final to decide the Champions of Europe.
Popular Champions League betting markets are Outright Winner, Group Winner Betting, Top Tournament Goalscorer, and Match Betting.
History of the European Cup and Champions League
The original name of the competition was the European Cup. It was first played for in the season of 1955/56, and was won by Real Madrid, who beat Reims 4-3 in Paris.
Real Madrid went on to win the first 5 European Cups, until Benfica stopped the run in 1960/61. To this day, Real are the most successful club in the history of the competition.
When did the European Cup become the Champions League?
In the season of 1992/93, UEFA opened up the tournament to allow more than just the national champions into the competition.
This meant that the name changed from the European Cup to the Champions League for the first time in the 1992/93 season. The trophy competed for is the same cup.
This was done to appease the bigger clubs in Europe, who were threatening a break away Super League.
This has made the cup far harder to win, as now instead of just facing one team from each nation, you can now face four teams from countries such as Spain, England and Germany.
This means that rather than just having to potentially face one of Real Madrid or Barcelona in the draw, you now have both in there.
Likewise with the English Premier League teams, where you can now have Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool (for example), rather than just one of those 4 clubs.
Last 10 Champions League Winners
- 2022/23 - Manchester City
- 2021/22 - Real Madrid
- 2020/21 - Chelsea
- 2019/20 - Bayern Munich
- 2018/19 - Liverpool
- 2017/18 - Real Madrid
- 2016/17 - Real Madrid
- 2015/16 - Real Madrid
- 2014/15 - Barcelona
- 2013/14 - Real Madrid
Champions League FAQ
Real Madrid are the most successful club in the history of the Champions League and European Cup with 14 wins. AC Milan has seven titles. Liverpool and Bayern Munich have won the trophy six times.