Best bookmakers for Champions League betting
Leading tipster site Betting Expert compares bookmakers’ Champions League offerings, analysing their odds, markets, commission levels and promotions to determine the best in the UK.
For this month’s bookmaker comparison, we’ve researched and analysed the Champions League odds and markets available from the UK’s top bookmakers.
The aim of our research was to determine which bookies offer the best Champions League betting experience.
To do this, we analysed the odds and markets that were available for the following matches:
- Manchester City versus Atalanta
- Tottenham Hotspur versus Red Star Belgrade
- Ajax versus Chelsea
- Genk versus Liverpool
Our research was conducted between 18 October and 23 October.
The table below displays all of the bookmakers we gathered our results from.
Best bookmakers for Champions League betting: our overall top five
We’re going to delve into more detail about the specific aspects we looked at shortly. Overall, however, our best bookmakers for Champions League betting were as follows:
- Marathonbet
- Unibet
- 888sport
- Premier Punt
- NetBet
The lack of ‘big’ names in our overall top five makes for some interesting reading. Our findings show that some of the lesser known operators are making a serious effort to compete with some of the UK’s larger brands.
Where did these bookmakers excel? Let’s start by discussing the bookmakers which finished at the top of our research, Marathonbet and Unibet.
Marathonbet, in particular, scored highly in terms of the average number of markets available (133) on each game studied, along with the competitive odds offered on 1×2, European handicap and both teams to score in our selected matches.
Unibets’ odds were also competitive in many of the areas we looked at, particularly for the markets of over/under 2.5 and draw no bet.
In addition, both bookmakers scored well in terms of the average commission taken, however, Marathonbet outperformed Unibet, with an average of 1.6% less commission taken on selected games.
Marathonbet was let down by a lack of Champions League betting promotions available on our selected games. This is an area where Unibet performed well, offering bonus options on these fixtures.
In third place was 888sport. Champions League promotions were available here, along with a good range of markets. 888sport also scored highly in terms of its competitive odds on certain markets and the average commission taken.
Premier Punt came in fourth. A relatively new bookmaker to the UK online betting scene, our research suggested that Premier Punt offers a good all-round CL betting experience. Though it featured rarely in our individual top five lists, overall its offerings placed it among our best bookmakers for Champions League betting.
Finally, Netbet took fifth place. Netbet’s overall CL betting service impressed in a similar way to Premier Punt.
Best Champions League market range
While betting on the match result market remains extremely popular, there are many other markets of interest to punters. For this part of our research, we analysed which operators offered the most markets on our selected games. These were our top five in this category.
- William Hill
- Marathonbet
- Sky Bet
- bet365
- EnergyBet
Some more familiar names feature on this list, with William Hill offering the highest number of markets on the games we researched. On average, William Hill offered 136 markets on each of the Champions League games we looked at.
Marathonbet was slightly behind, offering an average of 133 markets. Sky Bet had 130 markets available, with bet365 coming in fourth place with 128.
EnergyBet might be another surprising addition to our lists, but we were impressed by the number of markets available here. On average, EnergyBet offered 126 markets on our selected CL matches.
All of the above bookmakers offered odds on the particular markets we analysed, which were match result, total goals over/under 2.5, European handicap, both teams to score and draw no bet.
Best Champions League odds
There is often little difference in the odds available between bookmakers. However, small differences can be the determining factor for serious punters.
With this in mind, we considered the odds available from the above bookmakers to come up with a list of the most competitive bookmakers in terms of the odds on offer. Incorporated into this part of our research was the average commission charged by each operator.
We’ve separated odds and commission rates for each market we analysed, with our results listed below. The operators are listed in terms of the points scored for the best odds, with the commission percentage taken also listed.
Market: 1X2
Market: over/under 2.5
Market: European handicap
Market: both teams to score
Market: draw no bet
We also took into account in our overall ranking the promotions that bookmakers offered on our Champions League games. Those that offered promotions are listed below:
- bet365
- BetVictor
- Betfair
- Coral
- Paddy Power
- Betway
- Unibet
- 888sport
- Boylesports
- William Hill
- Sky Bet
- Genting Bet
- 10bet
We also expect many more promotions to be made available as the Champions League progresses.
Conclusion
Our research into the best bookmakers for Champions League betting has thrown up some interesting results. Our overall top five list is indicative of the UK online betting scene at the moment – while the biggest bookmakers offer a much bigger range of promotions, better odds and more extensive markets are often found at some of the less well-known operators.
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