Spanish La Liga—The Spanish League Famous The World Over
La Liga or the highest division football league held in Spain is perhaps one of the oldest leagues which are still going strong even today. Established in 1929, it has 20 of the best Spanish football clubs competing for the title and of course a direct entry into the UEFA Champions League. This is reason enough for this Spanish national league to create waves in soccer betting. Punters bet heavily based on the Spanish La Liga Predictions that they receive from tipsters concentrating on this league.
Competition format
This national league, similar to the other first-tier football leagues taking place in Europe, too has its top 4 teams qualifying for the UEFA Champions League and the 5th getting a chance to redeem itself by playing the Europa League. In fact, the Europa League gets two teams from Spain to play in the qualifying round and this creates a double opportunity for bookies and punters who are heavily into Spanish soccer as well as tipster websites making Spanish la liga predictions. These Spanish teams which are sent to the Europa League are:
- The team placed 5th in the La Liga and
- The winner of the Copa del Rey,
It would be worthy to mention here that the Copa del Rey is the oldest Spanish soccer competition which is held annually. But while the La Liga is a round-robin league, the Copa del Rey is a knockout Spanish soccer competition. For the bookies and punters both the tournaments present ample opportunity to win money and hence the demand for both the Spanish la liga predictions and Copa del Rey predictions is particularly made from tipster websites.
The teams positioned from 18 to 20 of the Spanish La Liga tables are also relegated to the 2nd tier soccer tournament or Segunda Division, which is also held annually. Consequently, the top two teams of the Segunda Division points table get directly promoted to play in La Liga. Another club also gets entry into the La Liga but this is decided after play-offs between the clubs occupying the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th positions. These matches garner a lot of attention in soccer betting with punters betting heavily on favourites based on tipster predictions for the same. As with the Spanish la liga predictions these predictions also need to be done with a lot of accuracy and precision.
In instances of a tie in the positions of two or more teams in the La Liga table, there are certain rules that are followed like:
- Using the goal difference as the tie-breaker when two teams have tied for the same position,
- In case of a tie between three or more clubs, the tiebreaker is taken to be:
- Head to head points accumulated,
- Head to head difference in goals scored and
- The total difference between the goals scored.
- In case the above points fail, the factors which are further considered are:
- The total difference in goals and
- The total number of goals scored.
- If the tie is still not broken then the rules of Fairplay are taken into consideration and
- Lastly, if nothing solves the problem, a play-off is organised between the teams.
Neither the bookies who decide the odds of a bet nor the punters who place stakes based on Spanish la liga predictions like the occurrence of a tie. In some instances, they result in the punters getting back the money. But there have also been instances wherein bets have got cancelled and punters lose out on the money. Thus the occurrence of a tie is generally considered to be an unfavourable situation in soccer betting.
The La Liga starts off in the month of August and ends in May of the corresponding year. Thus a total of 38 matches are played throughout this period. Each team that wins gets 3 points and a draw results in 1 point each while for a defeat the team gets no points. The game strategy, the player psychology, the statistics involved, the home crowd advantage etc., all contribute to the performance of a team in a match and the results determine the points that are won. Thus Spanish la liga predictions that are made are also based on these factors along with taking into account the historical statistics and the performances of the past 1 year. This is what makes these predictions so important for punters and punters register with good tipster websites for getting the same.
Club domination in La Liga
Three Spanish football clubs have consistently dominated the La Liga since its inception. Of these Real Madrid, a favourite among global soccer fanatics has won the La Liga a whopping 33 times followed by Barcelona which has won 26 times and Atletico Madrid which has won it 10 times. It goes without saying that punters who had placed wagers based on Spanish la liga predictions favouring these teams have made big amounts of money on their winnings.
It would not be wrong to say that Real Madrid and Barcelona have achieved such dominance in Spanish Football that between the two of them they have won 60 trophies of the total of 89 La Liga tournaments held. Consequently, these two teams are also favourites in Spanish soccer betting and Spanish la liga predictions start and end with them.
Boasting of such global icons like Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Luis Figo, Francisco Gento, Alfredo di Stefano etc., as part of the Real Madrid Galaxy, this is one of the most famous and fan worthy football teams to exist globally. Barcelona is of course no less with such eminent football stars like Rivaldo, Carlos Puyol, Ronaldinho, Andres Iniesta, Xavi, Lionel Messi etc. In fact, the friendly rivalry evident between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi has the world divided over who the better player is. This fanaticism also exists in soccer betting with Barcelona and Real Madrid face-offs gaining the maximum publicity. Huge amounts of money are placed on these teams based on Spanish la liga predictions and punters look forward to winning good amounts of money.
Current status of La Liga
The current season which is underway has again proved the dominance of Real Madrid and Barcelona with both the teams tied at 40 points at the top of the league table. Atletico Madrid and Sevilla are also tied at 35 points each and occupying the 3rd and 4th positions respectively in the league table. Top goals scorers have expectedly been Lionel Messi who has scored 13 goals and Karim Benzema of Real Madrid with 12 goals.
With the current positions on the tables reflecting the Spanish la liga predictions made by tipsters, it remains to be seen if the remaining months will bring forth any major surprises.