Each competition has its own requirements for teams to have felt as though they’ve accomplished something. In the Premier League, for example, the sides that finish in the top four are normally guaranteed a place in the following season’s Champions League, whilst those that make it into the top eight will usually have a chance of playing in at least one of the European competitions.
Bookmakers tend to offer punters the opportunity to bet on teams finishing in the positions that are relevant for the competition that they are betting on. This is something that you can try to use to your advantage, if you know what you’re betting on.
Look at the Competition You’re Betting On
The first thing to think about when it comes to betting on the likes of a top 2, 4, 6 or 8 finish is which competition that it is that you’re betting on. Each tournament will have it’s own reasoning behind which places are offered, so consider them carefully before you place your bet. A wager on a Top 8 finish in the Premier League, for example, is different to what it means when you’re betting on the European Championships. In the Euros, a Top 8 finish will be written as ‘To Reach Quarter-Finals’, or similar. We look at Quarter-Final, Semi-Final and Final betting in more detail elsewhere on this site.
In the Premier League, the team that you’ve chosen would need to finish eighth or higher for your wager to be a successful one. Where making it to the quarter-finals of a knockout competition is relatively straightforward, it can be slightly more complicated if the competition that you’re betting on is in a league format. The team in eighth and ninth could finish on the same number of points, say, but would be decided according to various criteria such as goal difference. If your bet was on a team that finished ninth but had a worse goal difference, it would be a losing one even though it might feel as if that is unfair.
The other reason it’s important to think about the competition that you’re betting on in the Top 2/4/6/8 market is that there will be a reason why that figure has been chosen. In the Championship, as an example, it is the top six that have a chance to be promoted to the Premier League. The top two go up automatically, whilst the teams that finish between third and sixth go into the play-offs. As a result, bookies will offer odds on a team finishing in the Top 6, which would not make a lot of sense for the Premier League to offer. Knowing what the criteria is will help you to understand what chance a team has of fulfilling it.
Some bookmakers will also offer relatively straight-forward wagers such as ‘Top Half Finish’ or ‘Bottom Half Finish’, which are exactly what they sound like. If your chosen team finishes 10th or up you win a Top Half Finish bet, whilst if they finish 11th or lower you’d lose that bet but win a Bottom Half Finish one.
It is Normally a Win Only Bet
Whilst each bookmaker will have its own criteria in play when it comes to what bets they’ll offer, wagering on the Top 2/4/6/8 market is typically a Win Only bet. This means that your chosen team need to finish in the positions offered in order for your bet to be a winning one. There is no option to make it an Each-Way bet, which would give you a bit more wiggle room. Instead it is a binary situation in which you either win your bet or you don’t. In terms of a competition like the Premier League or the Championship, that means that your chosen team has to finish within the places that have been offered for your bet to win.
The Top 6 finish isn’t really relevant for major knockout tournaments, instead being relevant for some leagues. At the same time, those leagues would not see a Top 8 finish as being relevant in a lot of instances. The fact that it is a Win Only bet means that your selected team has to finish in the Top 8 of the league for your wager to be a winner, but it doesn’t mean that they have to finish eighth. In other words, they could win the entire league and your Top 8 bet would be successful, whilst if they ended up ninth in the league table, even if on the same points as the team that finished eighth, you will have lost your bet.