La Liga betting guide
La Liga is one of the top leagues in all of Europe, with Barcelona and Real Madrid being two of the most successful European teams. Find out all the relevant info about the league, markets, and how to prepare your bets in our Spanish La Liga betting guide!
La Liga football in a nutshell
Like most of the big European leagues, La Liga has a double round-robin format. All 20 teams in the league play each other twice between August and May, although this can vary slightly during years that include international tournaments. Like most modern football leagues, three points are awarded for a win and one is awarded for a draw. The La Liga league is the main competition in Spanish football, but there are also other competitions, including the Copa Del Rey, that many of the same teams compete for.
In recent years, La Liga has been graced with some of the biggest stars in the history of world football, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo battling it out for title after title. Historically, famous teams include Real Madrid, and both Valencia and Atletico Madrid have had periods of dominance in the past. The league has been in operation for over 90 years, during which time the balance of control has swung many times. Those who finish in the bottom three of the league are relegated to the Segunda division.
In terms of European qualification, the top four teams in La Liga earn a place in the Champions League for the next season.
The Copa del Rey winner and the fifth-place team will play in the Europa League, and the Europa Conference League place goes to the sixth-place team. If the sixth-place team has already qualified, then the team in seventh gets the place.
Top all-time La Liga winners
As you can see from the list below, a few teams have dominated the history of La Liga titles. The majority of the league wins are shared by Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid, and to a lesser extent Valencia and Athletic Bilbao.
- Real Madrid: 35
- Barcelona: 26
- Atletico Madris: 11
- Athletic Bilbao: 8
- Valencia: 6
La Liga top all-time goalscorers
Let’s take a look at the top scorers in the history of the competition. This table shows the incredible achievements of Messi and Ronaldo, both of whom averaged roughly a goal every 90 minutes in their La Liga careers. Sporting legends such as Raul and Alfredo Di Stefano are also on the list of top goalscorers for the league.
- Lionel Messi : 474
- Cristiano Ronaldo: 311
- Telmo Zarra:
- Hugo Sanchez: 234
- Karim Benzema: 230
- Raul Gonzalez: 228
How to prepare your La Liga bets
It is a good idea to do some research before deciding to wager on La Liga. Whether you are just looking to bet on which team is going to win or want to delve into some of the player markets or bet builders.
When preparing your online bets, it is a good idea to check the statistics from the current season, or even the last couple of months, to see which players are in top form, as well as their averages and stats for the current and previous seasons.
As with betting on any league or any fixture, the more items that you combine within your bet, the higher the odds are likely to be. The biggest teams in the league, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, tend to have relatively short odds to win their matches due to the fact they have had such a dominant past. This means that a lot of people add additional La Liga betting markets, such as goalscorer markets, corners, and handicaps, or combine multiple bets into accumulators.
Home field advantage in La Liga
In the 2021/22 season, 43% of all La Liga matches resulted in home wins in comparison to 29% that ended in away wins. This is a relatively high percentage of home wins and shows what an important factor playing at home is within the league.
With the domination of teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona, certain teams will often win a high percentage of their away fixtures too. Spain is a relatively large country in comparison to some of the other leagues in the world, meaning there is a fair amount of travel involved. Teams would always rather play at home. When Celta Vigo plays an away game in La Liga, their average travel distance is around 700 miles, which can take a toll on the players, not to mention the home supporters, who can give their team a helping hand.
The statistics back up the fact that home advantage is very important in La Liga.
Average number of goals per game in La Liga
The average number of goals per game in La Liga varies depending on the season. If there is one team dominating, they may also push the figures up somewhat. Numerous markets for La Liga betting include the number of goals scored in the game. For instance, it is possible to bet on a team to win plus a certain number of goals in the game. Other markets include:
Both teams score: The percentage of games where both teams score also varies depending on the season but tends to end up at around the 50% mark. In the 2021/22 season, both teams scored in 49% of games.
Over 2.5 goals: Fewer than half of the games tend to have over 2.5 goals in them. Interestingly, in the 2021/22 season, the average number of goals in each game came to 2.5. The previous season had an average goal of 2.51.
Over 1.5 goals: Most of the games in La Liga have over 1.5 goals, with the percentages hovering around 65% and 70% each season, but of course, this varies from one year to the next.
Matches drawn at half time: Fewer than half of the games tend to be drawn at half time, but 33% of the games in the 2021/22 season were 0-0 at half time. In that same season, around 44% of games were level at half-time.
Corners in La Liga
Our La Liga betting guide also covers corners, another popular market for those who are betting on La Liga. In recent years, most La Liga games have averaged over eight corners per game, and teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid both average over five corners in each game. Corners can certainly be unpredictable from one game to the next, but La Liga has more corners on average than a lot of the other leagues in Europe or the rest of the world.
The corners market in La Liga betting is good for including in some bet builders. Bet builders may allow you to add the number of corners in the match or the corners per team. If you feel like one team will dominate and spend a lot of time in the final third, then there is a chance they will get a lot of corners.
Player form
In addition to team markets, such as who is going to win, our La Liga betting guide also includes some of the player markets. You may be looking to bet on player markets individually, such as first goalscorer markets or anytime goalscorer markets.
Player form plays a big part in the outcome of games, such as who is on a hot scoring streak. The goalscorer markets are just one of the options though. If you want to delve deeper, there are further markets for individual players, such as:
Shots on target: A shot on target within the game is one that the goalkeeper must save and prevent from going in. The shots on target markets are usually decided based on Opta statistics. A lot of players regularly have a shot on target even if they don’t score. Most matches have multiple shots on target every game which provides another opportunity to predict the outcome.
Shots: Some matches also have the shots market included, which means that if you think a player is going to have a shot you may be able to include it in a bet builder. This market may only appear in the bigger games.
Assists: Many players base their game more on assisting goals rather than scoring goals. It is possible to bet on an assist in a game too, and this is another statistic that is tracked throughout the season. You can easily check how many assists a player has during a season.
Player card: If you think a player is likely to get a yellow card by doing something that is against the rules of the game, then you may want to bet on the card market. You can also check the referee’s history of giving out yellow cards. Not many players get booked every game, so this is a bit more of a long-shot bet.
Spanish La Liga history
La Liga is officially known as Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División.
La Liga launched in 1929, which makes it one of the oldest football leagues in the world and arguably one of the very best. In fact, since European Coefficients were invented as a way to track the performance of leagues and teams, La Liga has provided the continent’s top-ranked club more often than any other league. Clubs from La Liga have also won the UEFA Champions League more than any other league. Barcelona and Real Madrid are arguably the most successful La Liga teams in European history, which means that Spain has a lot of bragging rights.
In the league’s history, the only teams that have played in every season are Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona, and Real Madrid. Some teams have only won the league once in the history of the league, including Real Betis and Sevilla. Real Sociedad has won the title on two different occasions.
The league’s players have also won the Ballon d’Or more than the players from any other division. This means that there have been some of the very best players we’ve ever seen playing in the league over the years.
There are some fascinating records in the history of La Liga, the most wins in a season stand at 32, and has happened on two separate occasions, with both Real Madrid and Barcelona managing it in different seasons. The team that has lost the most games overall in the history of the league is Espanyol.
The player with the most league appearances is Andoni Zubizarreta with 622. The most career league appearances for a single club was Raúl, the Real Madrid legend. One incredible record is for consecutive league appearances, as between 2016 and 2023, Iñaki Williams didn’t miss a game during that time. This is even more impressive when you consider the fact that he is a winger.
How to bet on La Liga at LeoVegas
To bet on La Liga at LeoVegas, first sign up for an account on the site, providing simple details such as your date of birth and address.
The next steps are:
- Make a deposit into your account using your bank account or an alternate payment method.
- Go to the Sports category on LeoVegas and check out the upcoming fixtures, including those from the Spanish leagues such as La Liga.
- Choose a fixture you wish to bet on.
- Check out the available markets and La Liga odds, including match goals, player goals, cards, and shot markets.
- Choose your markets and place your bets.
There are many different markets for the top La Liga games, including team markets and player markets. SIGN UP
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