Elsewhere on this site you can read about betting on a Top 2/4/6/8 Finish. This is a similar bet to that, but whereas that is more squarely aimed at being in league competitions, the To Reach the Final/Quarter-Final/Semi-Final bet is more aptly aimed at cup competitions. The nature of the bet remains very much the same, however.
You’re placing a bet on how far into a tournament you think a team will be able to go, winning your wager if they make it that far or further and losing it if they don’t. It is a simple enough bet to understand, but getting it right is an entirely different matter and one that requires thought and research.
What You’re Actually Betting On
There can be some confusion when it comes to placing a bet on the To Reach the Final/Semi-Final/Quarter-Final market. This is because some think that it means that they team they’re betting on has to exit the competition at that stage, but that isn’t the case. Let’s imagine that you’ve placed a wager on Liverpool making it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The Merseyside club manages to do exactly that, making it all the way to the final before winning the competition outright. The fact that your bet was on them making it to the quarter-finals doesn’t mean that it’s a losing wager because they won it.
Instead, it is worth thinking about the bet as being like a minimum requirement. The second they qualify for the quarter-finals, your bookmaker of choice will be obliged to pay out on the wager. It doesn’t matter if they then make it to the semi-finals or the final; that wouldn’t result in your bet being cancelled out. Provided they make it to that stage, you are onto a winner. If they get knocked out of the competition at the last 16 stage, however, then they won’t have fulfilled the criteria of the bet and it will therefore be a losing one. Equally, if you bet on Liverpool making the final and they got knocked out in the semis, you’ll have lost your bet.
Think About the Competition in Question
One of the most important things that you can do before you place your wager is to think about the competition that you’re betting on. Ahead of the 2024-2025 season, for example, changes were made to the format of the Champions League that saw a lot more games having something riding on them than in previous years. As a result, teams are a lot more likely to struggle to make it to the knockout stage than had been the case in the past, so a bet on a side making it to the quarter-finals was suddenly a lot harder to win than during the previous format of the competition. Your research is suddenly really important.
One of the main things that you’ll want to look at when betting on the To Reach the Final/Semi-Final/Quarter-Final market in the Champions League is strength of squad. There are more games to be played, meaning that teams will have to have more impressive squads in order to cope with the joint demands of European competition and their domestic league. In the likes of the World Cup, meanwhile, the presence of a greater number of teams actually makes it less likely that a team will be taking part in meaningful games, thereby increasing the chance of a strong team making it to the latter stages.
Each competition that you’ll be able to place the To Reach the Final/Semi-Final/Quarter-Final bet on will have its own foibles and traits that you should know about before you look to actually place the wager. In spite of the fact that they are knockout competitions featuring mini-leagues, the Champions League, Europa League, European Championship and World Cup are all very different from one another. Add in the likes of the FA Cup and the League Cup and you’ve got yet more matters of interest that mean that doing your research is vitally important if you’re hoping to be in a position where you could see some success.