UEFA Champions League Odds

If Europe is the centre of the soccer world, then the UEFA Champions League is the tallest mountain to climb. This is by far the most important competition in club soccer, featuring the best teams from across the continent and delivering dream matchups like Real Madrid versus Liverpool, and Paris Saint-Germain taking on Manchester City.

There’s only one way to make this spectacle even bigger. UEFA Champions League odds are available right now at Bodog Sportsbook. In our latest guide, we’ll take you behind the curtain and show you how both UEFA and the Champions League came to be, how the Champions League odds work, and how easy it is to bet on the Beautiful Game.

A Brief History of the UEFA Champions League

They say soccer was born in Europe, although similar games were played in ancient Greece and China. What we know for sure is that modern “association football” is a purely British invention, with the first rules laid out in London, England in 1863. It took another 19 years before the founding of the English Football League; the Premier League was later formed out of the EFL in 1992, taking the best teams in Britain along with them.

As soccer turned from amateur to professional play, and as other leagues sprang up across Europe, the demand to see the top clubs from each country fight it out became too big to ignore. UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations, one of six FIFA confederations from around the world) was born in 1954 as the governing body for European soccer, organizing competitions at both the club and national levels.

To be exact, UEFA is more of a Eurasian entity than strictly European. The current list of 55 members (up from 31 at the founding) includes transcontinental countries like Georgia and Turkey, as well as Israel. And UEFA oversees futsal and beach soccer as well as association football. Plus, you don’t have to be an official country to join UEFA; Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands are both in the game.

Of all the competitions under the UEFA umbrella, the Champions League (a name shared by other FIFA confederations) is easily the most prestigious. First launched as the European Cup in 1955, this tournament has since doubled in size from 16 teams to 32 – not including all those competing in Champions League preliminary and qualifying rounds. There are multiple pathways into the tournament, but in the end, only the top few teams from each country will compete for the European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

Top UEFA Champions League Teams and Famous Players

It already takes a special team just to reach the top of the table in the Premier League, or any of the other leagues in Europe. Putting them on the same pitch and letting them compete has really drawn out the best of the best. Only 22 teams have ever won the Cup, and only 13 have claimed multiple Cups.

Real Madrid are head and shoulders above the rest. They’re the signature team from Spain’s Primera Division, aka La Liga, and not only did Real win the first European Cup in 1956, they’ve won 13 more since, the most recent at the end of the 2021-2022 campaign. Cristiano Ronaldo remains their all-time scoring leader, while Raul, Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas also made their names at Madrid.

AC Milan are next on the list with seven Cups, although none since 2007, as they’ve dealt with their fair share of Italy’s larger Serie A struggles. They’re still the best in the league, though, and they haven’t been relegated from the top flight in over 90 years – thanks to homegrown talents like Paolo Maldini, and Dutch imports like Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit.

Given how regularly Bayern Munich have won the German Bundesliga in recent years, it’s a bit surprising they have “only” six Cups to their name. But they’re consistently among the best teams in this tournament, which fits their approach to the game and speaks volumes to the quality of players like Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller.

Tied with Bayern at six Cups are Liverpool, who nearly made it seven before falling to Real Madrid in the 2022 Champions League Final – four short years after suffering the same fate against Real. The Reds did win the 2019 Cup in between, cementing the reputation of their brilliant manager, Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool will be tough to beat as long as Mohamed Salah is scoring goals for them; Salah joined their all-time Top 10 scoring list last season, and is now chasing down the likes of Steven Gerrard and Robbie Fowler.

Of course, you can’t talk Champions League soccer without mentioning Barcelona (five Cups), even if longtime star Lionel Messi is now with Paris-Saint Germain (zero Cups, but 2020 runners-up), part of a continuing push by France’s Ligue 1 to catch up with the other “Big 5” European leagues. And there have been other quality teams from the Netherlands (Ajax, four Cups) and Portugal (Benfica and Porto, two each) that deserve more time and attention. But we have to stop somewhere, because now it’s time to look at the Champions League betting odds.

How to Bet on UEFA Champions League

All of these amazing teams are battling for the UEFA championship, and league odds for who will win are available year-round at Bodog Sportsbook. Just look under the Futures menu when you visit our soccer odds page for a list of teams with their title odds next to their names, using the American odds format as a default – you can switch to fractional or decimal odds and back again anytime you want.

For those of you who are new to American format, let’s look at the first few teams from some recent Champions League winner odds at Bodog:

The simplest way to read these odds is to pretend you’re betting $100. If you bet on Manchester City and they win, you receive $275 in earnings, plus your original $100 back. A winning bet on Liverpool will pay $450, Paris Saint-Germain $550, and so on.

Things get slightly more complicated when you have one team favoured over the field. Then that positive sign you see above turns into a negative sign. It’s still easy to figure out, though. To show you how, let’s switch to the moneyline, where you’re much more likely to see a favourite like this. Here’s how the 2021 Champions League Final odds looked at Bodog:

Manchester City dominated the English Premiership that year, so they were naturally favoured over Chelsea, who finished fourth. As –115 favourites, the Sky Blues would have paid out $100 for every $115 wagered. Except it was Chelsea who took the Final 1-0 instead, paying out at a tasty +330.

You’ll also be dealing with those negative signs when you bet the soccer spreads at Bodog. Spreads take the Draw option off the board and let you bet on one side or the other, with the favourite getting a slight handicap. Here’s our 2021 Final again:

At these odds, Manchester City needed to win by more than 0.5 goals – meaning they needed to win outright – in order to pay out $100 for every $108 wagered. But it was Chelsea cashing instead, as they would have even if they’d drawn City after 90 minutes plus stoppage time.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t tell you about Champions League totals, where you bet on whether the two teams will combine to score Over or Under a certain number of goals. You’ll also find those increasingly popular Champions League props on the Bodog Sportsbook soccer odds board, along with parlays, teasers, specials and plenty of other goodies.

UEFA Champions League Odds FAQ

Q: What happens if I make a First Goal bet and the match gets abandoned?

A: If a goal has already been scored, all First Goal bets will stand – as will all No Goal bets. However, all Last Goal bets will be refunded.

Q: I made what I think is a winning Time of First Goal bet, but the official clock was wrong. What do I do?

A: All goal times for betting at Bodog are settled according to what’s posted at Flashscore.com.

Q: Do managers count for the Total Bookings prop?

A: No, only active players are included for this prop – no managers, inactive substitutes or anyone else who receives a yellow or red card.