How Champions League changes could impact betting

Positive in-play aspect of ECL changes

Football News

Changes are coming to the UEFA Champions League next season. UEFA announced on Thursday, March 1st the new plans that are afoot for the tournament next season, along with some being made for the Europa League as well. The changes that UEFA are implementing consists mainly of changes to the qualification process as well as changes to the kick off times in the group stage. There have been no changes made to the current format for the knockout stages of the competition.

The changes could well have a very positive impact on Champions League betting, but first of all, let’s take a look at the changes that UEFA are bringing in for the start of next season’s competition.

Champions League Changes

26 teams will automatically qualify for the group stage of the tournament from now on and Spain, Germany, England and Italy all get four of those automatic spots each as they are the top-ranked associations. Then France and Russia will put in two teams each, being the 5th and 6th ranked associations respectively, and then the champions of Portugal, Ukraine, Belgium and Turkey get automatic spots alongside the current Champions League and Europa League holders.

Champions and League routes

The extra six spots in the main draw will come from two different qualifying paths, a Champions route and a League route. The Champions qualifying route will be for all Champions of all the associations ranked 11th and lower and at the end of that qualification process, four teams will make their way to the group stage. The League route will contribute two teams for the Group Stage of the Champions League.

From the League route of qualification, that will consist of the two teams finishing third from the 5th and 6th ranked associations, along with the runners-up from the associations ranked 7th to 15th. The League route will produce two teams for the Champions League group stage. In both qualification routes, the entries of the teams will be staggered according to rankings.

A new feature is that any team eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers in the Champions route will get a place in the qualifiers of the Europa League, as will any teams eliminated from the second qualifying round of the League route. Any teams eliminated from the League route after that go directly to the Europa League group stage.

Kick Off Time Changes benefit punters

Another big change is that the kick offs in the group stage will go off at staggered start times, 17:55 GMT and 20:00 GMT. UEFA’s reasoning for this is that “The new kick-off times will offer more viewing opportunities for fans while maximising media value.” So the changes to match start times is being based on the reasoning that the different start times given people the chance to watch more games instead of having to choose between a bunch which all start at the same time.

Betting Opportunities

It is interesting to see just what this would do for things like accumulator betting because the appeal of the group stage matches all kicking off at the same time is that you can just build an acca and have it all completed within the 90 minutes of action (give or take stoppage time of course). But having to stagger selections over the legs to finish at different times may put off punters from placing accas.

However, everything will likely come into balance though because what the different kick off times of matches will do is actually open more in-play betting opportunities for punters to enjoy. It will increase the ability of punters to watch, follow and fully engage in the match that they are actually enjoying live in-play betting on. The change in new times will open up more of those matches to do just that on.