When it comes to competitions like the Champions League or Europa League, there are often numerous teams from the various nations that are able to take part in it each year. The Premier League has a set number of four that can qualify for the Champions League, for example, with the possibility of it growing to five depending on the European co-efficient each season. With this in mind, you might want to forgo the chance to place a bet on a specific team, instead focusing on which country the team that eventually wins it will come from. Obviously the odds here are lower, but it is arguably a slightly safer wager to place.
What the Winning Nation Bet Is About
Ahead of the 2023-2024 campaign, the Premier League saw four teams enter the Champions League. There were 78 teams that entered in total, with the following being how many entered from each nation when it was more than one:
- England – 4
- Spain – 4
- Italy – 4
- Germany – 4
- France – 3
- Portugal – 3
- Netherlands – 2
- Austria – 2
- Scotland – 2
- Serbia – 2
- Ukraine – 2
- Belgium – 2
- Switzerland – 2
- Greece – 2
In addition, the Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark, Croatia, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, Sweden, Bulgaria, Romania, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Finland, Luxembourg, Latvia, Kosovo, Republic of Ireland, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Albania, Faroe Islands, Estonia, Malta, Georgia, North Macedonia, Wales, Gibraltar, Iceland, Montenegro, Andorra and San Marino each had one team entered. Obviously the round of the competition that each team was entered into depended on numerous factors, with only 32 teams making it to the group stage.
You could have chosen to place a bet on one of the teams from England, Germany, Spain or Italy, for example, but in doing so you would have been limiting your options to just that team. If, on the other hand, you felt confident that one of the teams from England was going to win the Champions League but you just weren’t sure which one to bet on, you could’ve opted for the Winning Nation option. This would have meant that you’d have won your bet if any of Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United or Newcastle United, which were the four teams representing England, had gone on to lift the European Cup at the competition’s conclusion.
What to Think About
It goes without saying that there would be no point in placing a bet on any of the nations that only had one team qualify for the Champions League, given the fact that it would just be the same as betting on that team directly. Instead, what you would think about is which of the nations had the strongest teams all told. You would have been forgiven for thinking that England might be the answer on that front, although in the end the competition saw Manchester United and Newcastle United both finish bottom of their groups and drop out, whilst Arsenal and Manchester City were knocked out at the quarter-final stage by Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, respectively.
The bet itself wouldn’t have been a bad one, given Arsenal and Man City were both seen as potential favourites, but the odds you’d have got on it would have been lower than on each team individually, given you’d be increasing your chances of winning by effectively betting on four teams. What you want to do, therefore, is to have a look to see if there are any nations that are being undervalued by the bookmakers and look to place a bet on the Winning Nation market, rather than on the individual teams. Whilst the odds will be lower, you will have more of a chance to win if the nation in question has four, three or two teams playing in it.
Obviously this isn’t just a bet that is available on the Champions League. Any international cup competition will usually have more than one team playing in it from numerous nations, so you have the opportunity to place a wager on the Winning Nation market in any of those competitions. Working out which nation is not being given the due credit by the bookmakers is the key to this wager.