Euro Cup 2012 Qualifiers – Betting on the European Championship

2012 European Championship qualifiers almost here

Some European fans might still be crying in their beer over their team’s showing in the World Cup this summer, but they’ll soon have something to take their minds off it as the qualifying games for the 2012 UEFA European Championships in Poland/Ukraine will be kicking off later this summer.

Some countries such as England, France, Portugal, and Italy will get a chance to redeem themselves after South Africa, while others such as Holland and Spain will be looking to keep the momentum and ball rolling up until the tournament gets underway in Poland and Ukraine. Spain will also be looking to retain their Euro championship, which they won in 2008. The first qualifying match actually kicks off on Aug. 11 as Estonia is home to the Faroe Islands in a Group C contest.

There are three stages to the 2012 Championship. These are the qualifying group stage, then the play-offs and finally the 16-team final tournament which takes place from June 8 to July 1, 2012. There are 51 teams taking place in the qualifiers and they’re drawn into nine groups. Six of them have six teams and three groups have five.

The qualifiers will consist of home-and-away games against each team in your group and will end on Oct. 11, 2011. The nine group winners will qualify as will the second-place team with the best record against the top countries in their pool. The other eight second-place teams will enter a two-legged playoff, which will be completed by Nov. 15. Poland and Ukraine don’t have to qualify as they’re the hosts.

The Euro 2012 tournament consists of 31 games and will be played in eight stadiums. Four of these will be in Poland and four in Ukraine. The Polish cities are Poznan, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Warsaw. The Ukrainian venues are Lviv, Donetsk, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. The event kicks off in Warsaw and the final takes place in Kyiv.

This will be the 14th edition of the tournament and the format will then change in 2016 as 24 teams will qualify instead of 16.

Euro 2012 Betting

As far as the favourites to hoist the trophy, William Hill lists the odds for the top 11 as: Spain 7/2, Germany 5/1, Netherlands 13/2, England 15/2, Italy 10/1, France 11/1, Portugal 14/1, Russia 16/1, Croatia 16/1, Ukraine 25/1, and Poland at 25/1.

The long shots to be crowned European champs are: Malta 7500/1, Armenia 7500/1, San Marino 10000/1, Faroe Islands 10000/1, Andorra 10000/1, Liechtenstein 10000/1, and Luxembourg at 10000/1.

The teams favoured to win their qualifying groups are: Group A-Germany 7/20, Group B-Russia 13/20, Group C-Italy 3/5, Group D-France 1/2, Group E-Netherlands 11/25, Group F-Croatia 18/25, Group G-England 2/5, Group H-Portugal 3/5, and Group I-Spain 3/25.

The current best online bookmakers to bet on the Euro 2012 tournament are William Hill and Oddsmaker.com (US friendly).