La Liga Primera División (The League First Division) is the top professional football division in Spain. Also called the Spanish Premier League, it is run by the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional.
Since 2008, it has been known as Liga BBVA. BBVA stands for the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, a multinational Spanish banking group, which sponsors the league.
Since its inception in 1929, 59 clubs have competed in La Liga, only nine of which have been crowned champions. Athletic Bilbao won numerous championships in the 1930s.
However, since the 1950s, Real Madrid and Barcelona have dominated the championship. Real Madrid has won the title 31 times while Barcelona has won it on 21 occasions.
Other La Liga Champions include:
Barcelona has won the last three seasons of La Liga (2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11).
Today, La Liga is considered as one of the most popular professional sports leagues in the world. In the 2008-09 season alone, an average of 29,124 fans attended the matches. This is the third highest of any professional association football league and the eighth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world.
Twenty of the best Spanish Football clubs compete in the La Liga Primera División.
The League follows the double round-robin format where each club plays every other club twice, once at home and once away, for a total of 38 games.
A La Liga season starts every September and lasts until June of the following year.
There is a system of promotion and relegation between the Primera División and the Segunda División (Second Division).
At the end of each season, the three lowest ranked Primera División clubs are relegated to the Segunda División. Meanwhile, the top two clubs from the Segunda División are automatically promoted to the Primera Division.
The third club to be promoted to the Primera División is determined by a play-off between the third, fourth, fifth and sixth ranked Segunda División clubs. The third ranked club plays the sixth while the fourth ranked club plays the fifth. The winners play each other to determine who gets promoted to the Primera División.
There are generally three ways to bet on La Liga, these are:
Outright La Liga (Spanish Premier League) Winner - a bet on which club will win the championship.
La Liga Matchup - a bet on the winner of individual La Liga matches (e.g. bet on the winner of the match between Barcelona and Real Zaragoza or Real Sociedad and Espanyol).
La Liga Specials - a bet made on the outcome of a particular La Liga match, but which is not a typical part of the in-game betting. Specials in La Liga matches may include betting on which player will score the first goal, how many goals a particular player will score, how many yellow cards will be given in the match, etc.
In a bet on the outright La Liga winner, sports betting sites list the participating teams and their respective odds, just like the following:
| Outright La Liga Winner | |
|---|---|
| Barcelona | 10/1 |
| Real Madrid | 10/1 |
| Valencia | 50/1 |
| Sevilla | 300/1 |
| Atletico Madrid | 300/1 |
| Malaga | 400/1 |
| Levante | 750/1 |
| Athletic Bilbao | 1000/1 |
You just have to bet on which team you think has the best chance of winning the La Liga championship. Or you can just bet on your favorite team!
Let's say you picked Barcelona and placed a €10.00 bet. At odds of 10/1, if Barcelona wins the championship, your €10.00 bet will win €100.00 for a total return of €110.00 (your original bet plus your winnings).
If you bet €10.00 on Athletic Bilbao, and Athletic Bilbao wins the championsip, at odds of 1000/1, you'll get €10,010.00 (€10.00 original bet plus €10,000.00 winnings).
Meanwhile, in a La Liga matchup bet, you just have to pick the winner of a particular La Liga match.
Sports betting sites usually list the matchup of the competing clubs and their corresponding odds plus the odds for the "Draw", like the following:
| Home | Draw | Away | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villarreal v Real Betis | evens | 23/10 | 13/5 |
| Barcelona v Real Zaragoza | 1/20 | 10/1 | 25/1 |
| Valencia v Real Madrid | 5/1 | 14/5 | 8/15 |
Let's say you picked Villarreal to win over Real Betis and placed a €10.00 bet. At even odds (1/1), if Villarreal wins the match, your €10.00 bet will win €10.00 for a total return of €20.00.
In the second matchup, let's say you picked Real Zaragoza to upset Barcelona and placed a €20.00 bet. At odds of 25/1, if Real Zaragoza wins the match, your €20.00 bet will win €500.00 for a total return of €520.00.
In the Valencia and Real Madrid matchup, let's say you picked the "Draw" and placed a €10.00. At odds of 14/5, if the match ends in a draw (tied score), your €10.00 bet will win €28.00 for a total return of €38.00.
Meanwhile, La Liga Specials are also called Propositions or Prop Bets. La Liga Specials include betting on which player will score the first goal, how many goals a particular player will score, how many yellow cards will be given in the match, how many goals will be scored in the match, etc.
Truly, there are lots of bets on La Liga. You just have to carefully pick which ones will make you a winner! Buena suerte!
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