How to Bet La Liga at a Sportsbook
With a major television (and stream) now in place for the United States, Spain’s La Liga is entering the mainstream betting market at sportsbooks across the United States. Let’s take a closer look at everything you need to know regarding how to bet La Liga.
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What is La Liga?
Also known as Primera Division, La Liga is the top professional league in Spain and, along with the English Premier League, the most elite level of professional soccer on the planet. Growing year after year in popularity, La Liga remains surprisingly lopsided, with two teams (Real Madrid and Barcelona) at the very top and 2-4 more (Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, and Villareal) who round out the top five seemingly every year.
Every year, 20 teams start the season in La Liga, with the top four qualifying for the Champions League and 5/6 qualifying for the UEFA Cup. As mentioned, Real Madrid and Barcelona are mainstays at the top, with Real Madrid getting the better of the rivalry as of late. Unlike other leagues, there is no championship game. Instead, the champion each season is decided by regular-season points, with wins being worth three points and draws being worth one point.
At the bottom of the table, the bottom three teams each season are relegated to the secondary league, meaning they will no longer be in La Liga (Primera Division) next season. In the 2021-22 season that wrapped last month, Granada, Levante, and Alaves all were relegated for the upcoming season.
With each of the 20 teams playing a total of 38 games, the final table standings can come down to the final week or be decided weeks in advance as they were this season, with Real Madrid finishing 13 points ahead of Barcelona.
How to Bet La Liga?
You have to go all the way back to 2006 to find the last season Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, or Real Madrid didn’t finish atop the table, so one way to bet La Liga is to track these three teams each week to find ample opportunity to win games. Like other soccer markets, bettors can bet on not just moneylines but total goals, goal spreads, and whether or not there will be goals scored in the first or second half.
Depending on the sportsbook, there are even more prop bets such as those based around individual players or things such as corner kicks, goal kicks, and penalties.
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Johnny is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Johnny, check out his archive and follow him @JohnnyCovers.