French league betting

With a list of names that sound like a roll call of must-visit towns and cities, the French League is without doubt one of the world’s most attractive, its appeal explaining why a bet on the French football league has become de rigueur.

Encompassing fixtures involving teams from Paris to Nice via Monaco and Bordeaux, one of the highlights of French football league betting is conjuring up an image of where the match is being played.

Monaco’s Stade Louis II has to be one of the world’s most valuable pieces of real estate, while those of Nice, Marseille, Montpellier and PSG are worth visiting just to get to look around the cities each side notionally ‘represents’. Of course, French league betting odds do not represent such romanticism, being much more concerned about results. This is not to say that French league betting is a mechanical affair with little room for the flamboyant wager – far from it. Live French league betting in particular offers punters the opportunity to follow their predictions by the minute – and as games ebb and flow, so the odds change, sometimes dramatically, thus turning betting on the French football league into another form of Gallic art.

Placing a French League bet at the start of a new football season has become an essential part of the campaign for most punters, particularly as enjoying a wager via the internet makes such matters so simple. Not surprisingly, Online bookmakers recognise this, hence their French league betting odds are designed to appeal to the widest number of punters.

In the UK, the popularity of French league betting is growing, partly due to our love of everything Gallic. However, it’s also attributable to the quality of players on display and a marked lack of histrionics seen elsewhere which accounts for a rise in the number of French league bets. Moreover, in addition to their romantic appeal, French league fixtures pitch some of Europe’s best teams against each other on a regular basis, enabling the well-prepared predictor of football outcomes to profit from French football league betting.

After being crowned champions every year between 2001-08, Olympic Lyonnais’ domination of both the domestic football scene and of French ligue 1 betting came to an end in 2009 when Bordeaux took the title. This unexpected change added further appeal to French football league betting as the league became more competitive. Suddenly, the odds against ‘OL’ reclaiming their title lengthened and regular punters, who would often place a “no-lose” free bet on the seven-times champions began looking elsewhere. But Lyon’s results failed to improve last season and, as their status as French league betting favourites waned, so Marseilles moved to the top of the tree.

“French football league betting has changed over the past two seasons,” says one international football writer. “For most of the decade, French ligue 1 betting was only about who would come second, but with Lyon claiming their final title in 2007-08, a French league bet is now more likely to include Bordeaux, Marseilles, or even Nancy and St Etienne. This change has been one of the highlights of French football – something which has added to the appeal of French ligue 1 betting.”

As the new season is but a few games old, the lack of domination by one side is already evident and most French league bets take account of the league’s competitive nature.

The season is still young enough to take advantage of the free bets offered by more than one online bookmaker. Indeed, punters keen to follow the action in those exotic-sounding locations now have the added benefit of being able to participate in online French league betting as so many websites offer multi-lingual options to their visitors. Like the country itself, that’s hardly surprising.