Europa League Betting
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Last Updated: June 13, 2022
The Europa League
The Europa League, once known as the UEFA Cup is the second biggest European club competition after the Champions League. European clubs qualify for the Europa League through their national leagues/cup competitions.
The competition started in 1971 (then know as the UEFA Cup) before the rebranding to the Europa League in the 09-10 football season.
Like most football competitions it is very popular and many people place Europa League bets.
Our featured matches are displayed below. If any Europa League matches are being played they will be included in the list.
History of the competition
The most successful teams in the history of the Europa League are Juventus, Inter Milan and Liverpool, each winning the tournament 3 times.
The teams who have won the competition over the last 10 years are shown below:
| Year | Team |
| 2010 | Atletico Madrid |
| 2009 | Shakhtar Donetsk |
| 2008 | FC Zenit |
| 2007 | Sevilla |
| 2006 | Sevilla |
| 2005 | CSKA Moscow |
| 2004 | Valencia |
| 2003 | Porto |
| 2002 | Feyenoord |
| 2001 | Liverpool |
| 2000 | Galatasaray |
Europa League rebranding
The UEFA Cup rebranding was brought about to try and raise the profile of the competition. It was done with the hope of increasing TV revenues and will probably increase Europa League bets as well.
The rebranding included expansion of the old competition format. The UEFA Intertoto Cup was merged at the beginning of the competition and there is also an expanded group stage.
Sixteen extra teams now qualify for the Europa League, making a total of 48 teams at the start of the event. There are now 12 groups of four teams, where each team in the group plays each other home and away. The best two teams in the groups then progress to the next round which is in the same as the old format UEFA Cup.
Europa League qualification
Teams are selected for the Europa league by UEFA coefficients. Each league in Europe is ranked on its teams performances. The points of the UEFA coefficient rank determines how many teams can qualify from each country.
The Europa League comprises of 3 qualifying rounds, a play-off round, a group stage and 5 knockout rounds.
Qualifying rounds
In the 3 qualifying rounds and play-offs each club plays a match, home and away. The winners on aggregate progress.
Group stage
38 qualifying winners join 10 losers from the Champions League play-offs. Here the 12 groups of four teams are formed. Each team plays the other at home and away between September and December. The best two teams from each group advance to the knockout phase along with 8 third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage. This makes a total of 32.
Knockout phase
From the last 32 until the semi-finals, each side is drawn to play against another side home and away. The winners progress to the last 16, quarter finals and then semi finals.
Final
The final is played in a pre-selected venue and is decided by a single match. Up until the 97-98 season the final was a 2 legged tie like the phases before.
Europa league betting
Europa league bets are quite difficult to place due to the unpredictability of the competition. Since the re-branding it has become even more difficult due to the number of matches and the difficulty of guessing who will win the competition.
However there are still lots of good Europa league bets that you can place. Betting on individual matches is always a good option. Because some teams may not have played each other very regularly you can get some good odds, and smaller teams beating larger rivals isn’t uncommon.
