Euro 2008 Betting

Betting is already on for Euro 2008, the largest event in International football outside of the world cup. The 2008 championship is being hosted jointly by Austria and Switzerland and takinge place between the 7th and 29th June.

The qualifying groups for your Euro 2008 betting calendar are as follows:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Czech Republic	Austria	France	Greece
Portugal	Croatia	Italy	Russia
Switzerland	Germany	Holland	Spain
Turkey	Poland	Romania	Sweden

Plenty of excitement - even for England fans!

With British teams absent from Euro 2008 Football Betting fans might be thinking the competition holds no interest for them. It's true that, without the home team there to stir up the usual outpouring of naïve optimism only to dash it in a frenzy of farcical penalty misses, there is a dimension of exhilaration missing from the whole affair but it would be a mistake to think that there's nothing to get excited about.

Football is primarily a tribal thing with teams essentially used as clubs to beat up and defeat the other side. But, thankfully, there is more to it than that. It is, after all, the beautiful game and there is a degree of calm which comes from being a neutral that enables an appreciation of the finer points of the game as demonstrated by many of the teams playing in the competition. This, in turn, awakens the shrewd critic within and, before you know it, you'll be up there with Lawro and Gary on matters such as team selection, tactics and strategy.

Euro 2008 Betting contenders

These skills can then be used to great effect on the amazing range of betting opportunities available on online betting sites these days. Take Austria v. Croatia as an example. You can get 3/1 on Croatia leading at half and full-time and, given that your newly awakened inner critic will tell you that Austria will be comprehensively annihilated in both halves, you begin to get my gist.

Euro 2008 Golden Boot Betting

There are all kinds of other bets on offer like total goals, winning margins, who will score and clean sheets and many others.

My recently awakened inner critic has been looking at the contenders for the title and reached a few conclusions already. Portugal are looking good with Scolari in charge and Ronaldo showcasing his brilliance but the snag is, they don't actually have a goal scorer. Ronaldo is great on the flanks and from a distance but close in, well, he's no Torres. And what about Torres? Great with Liverpool but not really suited to his national team's pace, plus he doesn?t get on well with David Villa so it could be another tragic competition for Spain. And then there's the Czechs but they have no stars in their team. Looking at past winners, you need at least two to make it to the final. Holland and France are good teams with lots of class players but there are too many team options and the coaches keep messing about with different approaches leaving no time for anything to gel.

Italy, despite being rubbish for a while now, are showing signs of a recovery but it's mostly in the midfield and defensively they are volatile, lacking leadership and therefore weak. The Greeks qualified for Euro 2008 with the highest number of points and have a no-nonsense defensive team which cannot be discounted. Finally there are the Germans. They are the favourites by default. When you haven?t got a clue who will win, go for the Germans. Their coach is the most successful in German team history and sticks to team selection through thick and thin, thus attracting the loyalty of his players.

Get online betting for Euro 2008

So, grab the laptop and get stuck in. Spice up the games with a few choice wagers and follow the match using live-betting as a way to bet anew as the game progresses. Use websites that inform with inside stories, gossip, statistics and news. Check out the sites offering free bets to new customers and the sites that guide you to the best online betting site for you. After all, this is Euro 2008 and it's a great competition offering all kinds of entertainment to the intelligent football fan.

Euro 2008 Group Betting

As well as long term markets for an outright win, online bookmakers are offering qualification and group win markets. VCBet and Betfair offer group markets. Bet365 are also offering both qualification markets and odds for teams not to qualify. Paddy Power likewise have fixed odds for a number of qualification markets plus a range of Euro 2008 specials. Match betting is also available for individual qualifying matches.

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