The European championships are widely regarded as the highlight of the European football international calendar. With 16 teams competing for the inaugural spot of the best team in Europe, competition in 2012 looks set to be as fierce as ever.
Euro 2012 will be co-hosted with Poland and Ukraine winging the bids. The two countries will be hosting their first major championships as a pair and will no doubt be adding their own homely touch to the completion. The lead up to the 2012 championships has not been without controversy however, with questions marks being raised over whether stadiums will be completed on time and the current transport system improvements. Both the Polish and Ukrainian governments have ensured to UEFA that everything will be completed come the start of the tournament in June 2012.
The 2012 European Championships will be the last one on place with its current structure. The now 16 team format will be changed to that of a 24 country for the 2016 competitions. This change has brought about mixed reactions from the footballing community with many saying that Europe doesn’t possess the strength in depth of nations to make it a high class event with 24 countries taking part. Others argue that the change is a positive move for European football giving lesser countries a larger chance of playing in top level competitions.
The betting markets are set to be ripe with punters as the bookmakers look to cash in on one of the biggest football tournaments of the year. It’s highly likely that there will be an abundance of betting offers available throughout the competition, so shop around for the best offers and prices. At EuroBetting.co we will constantly look out for and update our site with the latest offerings.
The 2008 tournament saw Spain dominate in what was the start of a return to the glory years for Spain. The individual prizes also heavily featured that of the Spanish national team with no fewer than 9 of their squad in the overall team of the tournament. David Villa and Xavi also won the golden boot and player of the tournament respectively.
Spain will no doubt head off as favourites in 2012 competition, but with strong qualifying campaigns from Germany, Holland and England, this year’s tournament looks to be a closely contested one. This will prove a major advantage when it comes to sniffing out those illusive value bets.
Euro 2012 Betting Sites
With the Euro 2012 tournament being such a massive international occasion, all of the top online bookmakers will be offering a host of markets in some form or another. Competition is often a good thing when it comes to betting due to the fact bookmakers will be looking to undercut that of their rivals to attract punters. It’s for exactly these sorts of tournaments that you should invest even more time than normal in searching for the best price.
Bet365.com will be one of, if not the leading Euro 2012 bookmaker. The vast array of markets and football betting specials will make the tournament seem like a bettor’s paradise. Coupled with that is the fact that Bet365.com will offer up many of the games on its live streaming service whilst running simultaneously with its live in play betting markets. It’s quite often the in play markets that offer the greatest betting markets when it comes to the major championships such as Euro 2012.
The ever increasing popularity of betting exchanges will also provide some excellent value. Sites such as Betfair are amongst the biggest betting exchanges in the world and provide a service that no ‘high street’ bookmaker can, the ability to lay a bet. More often than not, prices on the exchange can be up t 25% higher compared with that of an online bookmaker, so make sure to check this source of betting out before finalising your bet.
Which markets to look out for?
There will be host of markets when it comes to kick off time at Euro 2012; some provide more value than others. Let’s take a look at some of the more popular markets and see who could pose good value in each.
Outright Winner
Picking the winner of any competition can be a tough ask, especially as the field for the Euro 2012 Championships will be one of the toughest for years.
Spain will head into the tournament as clear favourites on the back of their victory in 2008 and their World Cup win in 2010. The sheers strength and depth that they poses throughout their squad is rivalled by few teams in the competition and are almost a certainty to be there or there about come the business end of the tournament.
Germany has a young and upcoming team. They have spent a few years in the wilderness of international football, but have invested a lot of time and money into producing a squad that will be challenging for major international honours for the coming years. After reaching the World Cup semi final in 2010 (before losing to Spain) they have grown as a team with many of the layers from that squad being snapped up by some of the biggest clubs in Europe. All these factors will hold them in good stead come Euro 2012.
England has been a very poor package in major tournaments for a number of years now. However, looking through their squad Capello has tried to inject a new philosophy in the team with some high class individuals. Whether they have the mental strength to overcome what’s renowned as a very harsh media following in England remains to be seen.
Holland is another team that have unachieved at major championships in the past. Their dominance in the qualifying campaign is showing that 2012 could a breakthrough year for the Dutch who poses an array of exciting, young talent.
The four teams mentioned above will likely prove to yield a winner in the Euro 2012 championships come finals day on 1st July in Kiev.
Golden Boot
When selecting a player in contention for winning the golden boot it’s important to take note of a number of facts before you select your bet.
How will the team they are in fair? – Selecting a player from a team who you think will have a long run in the tournament can be a defining factor. You want to give your player every chance of playing the most possible games and hence, scoring the most goals
Player form – You need to be looking at players who are on form in the lead up to the competition. This can be a mix of both international and domestic games.
Track record – Spend time looking through how each player has fared in previous tournaments. We’ve mentioned about form already, but some players simply raise their game for the big occasions and it’s these players that can offer slightly better value than that of the form players.
Group qualifiers
The group qualifiers market more often than not will spring a surprise or two. The quality of European international football as a whole is a very mixed bag, with some of the best teams in the world with that of some of the lowest ranked teams in the world.
The group stages are opportunities for some of these lower ranked teams to cause an upset of two and scrape through into the knockout stages of the competition. Asses each group individually, look at its fixtures then see if you think one of the smaller nations have a chance of qualifying.
Euro 2012 Betting Systems
There are countless sports betting systems freely available on the internet. Many are totally useless, whilst there are a select few which turn out profits time and time again. The backing and laying of the draw system is one that continues to turn out a profit in the long run and will work perfectly when betting on the Euro 2012 championships.
The concept behind the system is that you want to be in a position throughout the match where you can make a profit no matter what the end result is. It’s a system that requires the use of a betting exchange. The strategy behind it is that a very high percentage of football games actually finish 0-0, meaning at some point there will be a goal in the game. The fluctuations in the draw market occurs when a goal is scored, meaning the result of a draw will become less likely.
What you need to do is, before the game look at the draw market and ideally you want to find the odds of the draw somewhere in between 2.8 and 4.0. Once you have selected your match then you want start by laying the draw before the game kicks off.
After we have done this, the match will start and we wait until a goal is scored by either team. Once a goal goes in the odds of the draw will increase making the result less likely. As this happens we can back the draw for a much greater price than that of which we have laid prior to the game. Resulting in us then having each result covered (the drawing being both backed and lay).
The beauty of a betting exchange will allow us to work out exactly how much we need to back for to make each result profitable for us. Once we find the right amount, simply place the bet and we have a guaranteed profit.
The competitive nature of a European tournament such as Euro 2012 means that it’s highly likely that the team will need to score at some point to grind out a result either for survival or qualification. This makes the back and laying system a very profitable endeavour.
