Betting

Why do We Love the Euro Betting

Euro 2016, otherwise known as The 2016 UEFA European Championships was the 15th tournament for the UEFA Cup. The championships were held in France, and consisted of 24 teams. Up until 2016, only 16 teams had been allowed to enter. All teams were members of UEFA and came from a European country.

The new 24 team format meant that for the first time the games consisted of a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams. These games were followed by a knockout phase which included three rounds, cumulating in the final match.

Overall Winners

The final match was eventually between France and Portugal, with Portugal coming out as the overall winners. France, funnily enough, was the favourite, with punters all over the world placing so many bets on them that their odds skyrocketed just before the final match. France fielded a very strong team, with Paul Pogba, Antoinne Griezmann and Olivier Giroud in the final line up. The host team had no obvious weaknesses against Portugal as well as having the home ground advantage. The final odds before the match were France to win 3/1.

In the end, however, Portugal won out against their hosts with a one nil victory. Cristiano Ronaldo had to leave the game with an injured knee only twenty five minutes into it, which some say accounted for the low score from the winning team.

Highest Scoring Team

A popular bet on the entire Euro 2016 was which team would end up being the highest scorers. Spain was a popular option with odds of 6/1. Spain was also the reigning champions having won the Euro 2015. At the end of the tournament, France came in as the highest scorers with a total of 13 goals. At the other end of the scale was the Ukraine, with no goals at all during the tournament.

Really Weird Euro 2016 Bets

Aside from all the usual bets which could be placed on the Euro 2016, there were some really left field ones being offered by NZ betting sites all over the world. Something about the UEFA Cup Final makes even the non wagering public want to place a fun bet on one of the games, or one of the slightly odd prop bets that were offered.

Odds of 94/1 were offered for a player doing a Suarez. Suarez is a player from Uruguay who is known to bite other players during a soccer match. This has happened on a number of occasions.

95/1 bets were also offered on a member of the public invading the pitch and punching the referee during a game. As it turned out there was a pitch invader during the final, but instead of trying to punch anyone he attempted to kiss Ronaldo instead. Another pitch invader ran pants-less onto the field during the Portugal Poland match. He ran around for a while through clouds of moths which had also invaded the stadium due to the lights being left on. Eventually, stadium security managed to catch him and he was escorted off the field, still without pants. Punters betting on a streaker during either of those games would have been handsomely rewarded as the chances of it happening are always quite low, especially in France with their much ramped up security.