As the domestic football season across most of the world’s top leagues comes to an end, so the build up to the biggest ever European Football Championships will begin. A total of 24 national teams will compete across France this summer in the hope of succeeding Spain as the 2016 European Champions.
Of course, such a big sporting event will always bring out the punters as well as the fans and of course as you would expect from one of the world’s leading betting sites, Bet365 Sport have been putting the finishing touches to their dedicated Euro 2016 section on the website.
Well this week, they finished it and on the eve of the Champions League final, just barely two weeks before the action kicks off in France, the console went live on the Bet365 website and there is plenty to get excited about.
Before we examine the betting available for Euro 2016 with Bet365 in more detail, let’s learn a little about the forthcoming tournament and how the 24 teams will compete across June and July to decide who eventually is crowned the best team in Europe.
How Euro 2016 is organised
After a lengthy qualifying period lasting 18 months, 19 teams made it through into the Euro 2016 directly. The 9 Group Winners, 9 Group Runners Up and the best Third placed team. They joined France (who qualified as hosts) in the tournament, with the remaining four places taken by the four third placed teams in the group that won their two-legged play off.
In December 2015, the draw for the groups took place in France and the groups were decided as follows:
- Group A – France, Romania, Switzerland, Albania
- Group B – England, Russia, Wales, Slovakia
- Group C – Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Northern Ireland
- Group D – Spain, Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey
- Group E – Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Republic of Ireland
- Group F – Portugal, Iceland, Austria, Hungary
Each team will play the other teams in its group once, with the top two teams in each group earning a place in the knockout phase. In addition to these 12 teams, the four best third placed teams with the best record compared to the other third placed teams, will also reach the knockout phase. The two third placed teams with the worst records, plus the six teams that finish bottom of the groups are eliminated.
At this point, teams play off against other teams in the knockout round based on a pre-determined seeded draw with winners of groups taking on either second place or third placed teams depending on the draw. The knockout phase is a single match, with extra time and penalties used to decide the winner if required.
After eight matches in the round of 16, there will be the quarter finals, semi final and final played to decide the winner. The final will be played at the Stade de France on Sunday 10th July. Unlike the World Cup, there is no third place play off in the European Championships.
Betting on Euro 2016 with Bet365
- Euro 2016 Section
You can access the Bet365 Euro 2016 console via the website or the downloadable app and it is very easy to navigate through the different options on the site. The home page will list the next matches in the tournament in chronological order as well as some of the Outright betting markets underneath, but there are a series of tabs available you can use to place other bets.
The Matches tab offers you a chance to view all the scheduled matches in the tournament (useful for accumulator betting in particular), while the Team Betting market allows you to select an individual team and then view all the different betting markets available for that team.
The Outright tab lists all the different outright betting markets available which includes the To Win Outright market, the Top Goalscorer market, as well as betting on each of the individual groups in the competition (such as who will win the group, who will qualify and even who will finish bottom of the group).
In addition, on the smaller tabs, there is a Groups option that allows you to view all the bets available within a specific group in the tournament. This is useful if you enjoy betting, say on Home Nations teams taking part in the tournament this summer and want to focus your betting on these groups alone.
As always with Bet365, adding a selection to your bet slip is simply a case of tapping on the odds of the bet you wish to make to add it to your slip. You can then place the bet on your chosen selection quickly and easily by filling in your stake and then clicking the Place Bet button.
- In Play
IN addition to the wide range of pre-event markets available on Bet365 right now, when the tournament starts, you can expect Bet365 Sport to be running one of the most extensive In Play betting services out of any of the UK’s top bookmaking sites.
Bet365 will offer live in play betting on a wide range of markets for every game of the tournament from start to finish and with there being three games on some days, that means that there is a huge amount of scope for in play betting enthusiasts to get their fix.
Top Betting Tips for Euro 2016
So with Bet365 Sport now set up to offer the best betting this summer for Euro 2016, what are the most popular betting markets on offer at the moment?
- To Win Outright: Picking the winner of the tournament is always a popular bet and unsurprisingly the betting is dominated by three teams. Firstly hosts France, secondly World Cup Winners Germany and lastly, the Champions of the past two European Championships, Spain. France are currently the 3/1 favourites ahead of Germany on 7/2 with Spain 11/2. Outside this trio, England are 17/2 but I think the best bet could well be an Each Way punt on Belgium who at 11/1, certainly have one of the most talented squads in the tournament.
- Top Goalscorer – Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is tempting at 7/1, given his position for his country and the fact Portugal have a relatively easy group on paper. Antoine Griezmann at 8/1 is another good shout, while Harry Kane for England at 12/1 and Romelu Lukaku for Belgium at the same price are also worth a look. However the best bet here is Germany’s Thomas Muller (7/1), who has netted five goals in each of the last two World Cup competitions and who is likely to be Germany’s top scorer once again in France this summer.
