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French Ligue 1 Vegas Odds and Betting Guide

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Although many believe that France is a country of beautiful ladies, cheese, and wine, the truth is different.  It is a country of football.

Throughout history, we’ve seen various proofs for that claim. From Michel Platini, Olympique Marseille, through Zinedine Zidane and the first World Cup title, up until now, and the most recent win at the WC in Russia.

The success of the national team wouldn’t be possible without a strong national championship. French Ligue 1, is among the top five European domestic competitions. To be exact, they are fifth at the moments, but with solid chances of jumping over the Italian Serie A and German Bundesliga in the upcoming years.

The likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique Marseille, AS Moncao, who are among the top European clubs, are guaranteeing a bright future for this league.

French Ligue 1 Odds

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History

Ligue 1 exists like this since 1932 and is one of the oldest national competitions on the European soil. It was founded on September 11th, the same year, as the National League, before changing its name to Division 1 the next year. It was called that until 2002 when Ligue 1 became active.

The inaugural edition had 20 participants, and seven of them are in the top tier today. The format was different than today’s. There were two groups with 10 teams each, with the winners of each playing the finals at the neutral venue. Olympique Lillois were the first champions, the club which would later merge and form today’s OSC Lilles.

Trophies

Nineteen clubs managed to win the championship. Saint-Etienne has 10 titles and is the most successful club. Olympique Marseille has 9, but they have the European title won in 1993. PSG has 8, but six of them were won in the past seven years, AS Monaco and Nantes have 8 also.  Lyon has 7, Bordeaux, and Reims 6.

Format

Ligue 1 is played from August to May, when there are no international competitions. There are 20 clubs which play one against another twice during the season. The champion is, of course, the one with the most points.

Besides the first-place team, the runners-up are also heading directly to the Champions League, while third in the standings has to go through the UCL qualifiers. The fourth team goes to the Europa League.

When it comes to the relegation, two of the worst sides are automatically transferred to Ligue 2, while the 18th-placed team has a chance to survive. But to do so, he needs to beat the third-placed club from the lower rank in a two-game playoff. The first leg is always at the venue of the Ligue 2 team.

About the tiebreaker, the French national championship has a specific set of rules. Unlike other competitions in Europe, it involves a play-off match much sooner than anywhere else. If two teams have the same number of points, goal difference gives the advantage. After that comes, goals scored, and immediately following these two criteria, is the playoff matchup.

The Monaco Exception

AS Monaco is based in Monte Carlo, which is a different state, but the team is integrated into the French Football Associaton; therefore, it is able to represent the French Ligue on the international stage. Monaco, as a country, never applied to be a part of UEFA or FIFA, and it doesn’t have its competitions As Monaco is one of the most successful clubs in France with 8 national titles, 5 Cups and two European finals.

Betting on French Ligue 1

Almost all the bookmakers in the world offer Ligue 1 in their sportsbooks. Also, all of those contests are available for in-play betting, and there won’t be a problem finding a source for watching them too.

As the most popular betting markets, we will mention

  • Full-time result
  • Total goals Over/Under
  • Asian Handicap

About the outrights, there are several that stand above all others regarding this competition. Unlike many other national championships, Winner is not the most attractive in France. Simply, Paris Saint-Germain ruined all the fun with their domination.

Instead of that here are the most popular outright bets:

  • Relegation
  • Top goalscorer
  • Top 3 finish

After that comes Winner without PSG, and Direct Relegation.

Bits of Advice When Betting

We will supply you with some essential information if you want to bet on this particular competition. French Ligue 1 has several characteristics that make it entirely different than other national championships.

For example, PSG is the undisputed ruler here. The French champions have unlimited financial resources, and other clubs from this country simply can’t compete with them. Therefore, when Saints play at home, we often see fireworks of goals. By that, we mean five, six, or seven hits, so remember this. It could be of help to you for either in-play betting or a common one.

But apart from that, you won’t witness too many goals in Ligue 1 matches. This claim particularly refers to the teams from the middle, or the lower part of the standings. When you have some time, take a look at the goal difference of those sides. Their on-field approach is mainly defensive. All this is confirmed by experience throughout the years and backed up with stats. We suggest you to avoid betting on high-efficiency except in the cases when PSG plays.

Due to the above-mentioned fact, PSG provides the biggest favorites for winning the top goalscorer awards, and seven of the latest eight winners came from Paris.

Fun Facts

  • Mickael Laundreau played 618 games in the top tier and is a current record-holder.
  • Delio Onis scored 299 goals and is the No.1 goalscorer in history.
  • Marseille played 69 seasons in Ligue 1, the most of all teams.
  • In 1994/95 season, Nantes hadn’t lost for 32 straight games.
  • Sidney Govou, Grégory Coupet, Juninho all have seven titles won, with Lyon who was a champion for seven straight seasons
  • Gaetan Huard hasn’t allowed a goal for 1,176 straight minutes in 1992/93 championship, while playing for Bordeaux
  • Josip Skoblar scored 44 goals in one season.

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