The Champions League title is the largest prize in club soccer around the globe. Every year the highest place finishers from each of Europe’s top domestic leagues are entered into the Champions League tournament to battle it out for the title of the best club team in Europe, which generally translates to the best club team in the world.
The UEFA Champions League was established in 1955 with 16 of the most popular clubs in Europe being invited to participate in the tournament. The first five tournaments were won by Real Madrid, which gave them a huge head start in becoming the club to have won the most Champions League tournaments, a title they still hold to this day with 14 total victories. AC Milan is close behind with 7 wins, while Liverpool (6), Bayern Munich (6) and Barcelona (5) round out the top 5 most successful clubs in the competitions history.
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How to Bet on Champions League Games
The Champions League tournament is the biggest event in club soccer. Every game is extremely important as teams attempt to advance to the finals. Every game will offer money line, spread, over/under and of course prop betting on every aspect of the match. Check out our soccer betting section to learn more about the basics of betting on the most popular sport in the world.
Follow these three steps to bet on Champions League matches online:
Step 1. Join A Betting Site
The first step is to join an online betting site that takes bets on Champions League matches. I recommended some of our top rated betting sites above, but for the remainder of this guide I will be using BetOnline.ag because they are a top betting site that accepts players from everywhere in the world.
Click here to visit BetOnline.ag, select ‘Join Now’ and fill out the sign up form to open your account.
Step 2. Deposit
After logging into your new account click on the ‘Deposit’ button. Choose your preferred deposit method, enter your deposit amount, and follow the instructions to fund your account.
Step 3. Place Your Champions League Bets
- Click ‘Sports’ from the top menu bar.
- Open the ‘Soccer’ and ‘Tops Leagues’ drop down menus and select ‘UEFA Champions League’.
- Click on the odds of the bet you want to make to add the selection to your Bet Slip.
- Enter your risk amount on the Bet Slip and click ‘Place Bet’ to lock in your wager.
Ready to bet? Click here to visit BetOnline.ag.
Entry into the Tournament
The best finishers from every top domestic league in Europe have a shot at gaining entrance into the 32 team group stage of the tournament. 26 teams are automatically entered into the group stage of the tournament. The number of teams gaining automatic entry depends on each domestic leagues ranking according to past European success. The top four domestic leagues earn 4 automatic entries, with the fifth and sixth ranked leagues earning 2 entries and the seventh to tenth ranked leagues earning 1 entry. The Champions League and Europa League title holders from last year also receive an automatic entry into the tournament.
The final 6 spots are then filled by the clubs that successfully make it through the qualifying rounds. The qualifying routes are split into a Champions Path and a League Path.
Four teams qualify from the Champions Path which involves the champions from the 11th through 55th ranked domestic leagues. In the preliminary round of this route the champions of the 52nd to 55th ranked leagues playoff to enter the next round. In the first round the champions of the 18th to 51st ranked leagues join in and the winners of those 17 ties advance to the second qualifying round. At this stage the 15th to 17th ranked league champions join and the winners of those ten ties then battle it out in a third qualifying round (along with the champions of the 13th and 14th ranked league champions). Those 6 winners then join the champions from the 11th and 12th ranked leagues in the playoff-round to find the 4 winners who advance to the Group Stage.
Another two teams qualify from the League Route which consists of three rounds. In the first round the second place teams from the 10th through 15th ranked domestic leagues compete, and those 3 winners move on and join the 3 runners-up from the 7th to 9th ranked leagues and the 2 third-placed finishers from the 5th and 6th ranked leagues. These 8 teams then play two rounds of matches in order to find the two teams that advance to the Champions League Group Stage.