Who Are The Main Candidates To Win Laliga, According To Bookmakers?

LaLiga is close to reaching the halfway mark of the season and the standings already show which two teams are the favourites to end the 2019/20 campaign with the title in their hands. While there is a chance we could see one of the underdogs impress in the remaining 21 rounds and pass Barcelona and Real Madrid, the bookmakers seemingly have things figured out. Be it a “normal” bookmaker or bookmakers which accepts crypto betting, all seem to agree Barcelona and Real Madrid are by far the biggest favourites to win the league this year, however, we can’t completely disregard other teams who are as of now priced at a very generous odds. Now let’s check how the odds look like and which teams have a realistic chance to claim the title.

Favourites and Odds – LaLiga winner

It should not come off as a surprise Barcelona (1.43) are currently priced as heavy favourites to claim their 27th LaLiga title and their third in a row. As it stands now, Barcelona are leading the title race with an 11-1-3 record and 34 points to their name. While that ties them with Real Madrid who as well hold onto 34 points, Barcelona have a much better GD (41:18) compared to Real Madrid (32:11).

FC Barcelona

Looking at Barcelona and their performances this season, it’s safe to assume they are slightly better compared to Real Madrid, who went through hard times at the start of the season when they severely underperformed and have yet to fully recover from that. Barcelona on the other side are rapidly improving. That can be seen by the odds movement, which went from around 1.70 in October down to 1.40 two months later. Will they manage to keep up the tempo is anyone’s guess at this point, however, it’s safe to assume they are the favourites to become the LaLiga champion. That, however, can quickly change later this month, when they will face off with Real Madrid in a fixture, which was postponed due to ongoing protests in Barcelona.

Real Madrid

Talking about Real Madrid (3.00), Los Blancos have very generous odds offered on the outright market, which does make us question whether Los Blancos are severely underrated. While they failed to win LaLiga in the last two seasons, they are entering the 2019/20 season with an experienced head coach and a very solid team. It’s true they failed to show off their true potential thus far, but at 3.00, we can’t help but feel like bookmakers are overrating Barcelona a bit. As mentioned before, however, more we will get more answers on December 18, 2019, when Barcelona and Real Madrid clash for the first time this season.

Sevilla

Priced as third favourites to win LaLiga are Sevilla (49.40), who have very generous odds placed on them and rightfully so. While Los Palanganas played very well so far to reach the third spot in the league, they still lack the needed quality and results for us to compare them to Barcelona and Real Madrid. Sevilla are entering round 17 with 9-4-3 record and 31 points, which sits them three points behind the league leaders. There is theoretically a chance for Sevilla to claim the title, but we would not count on it.

Atletico Madrid

While we talk about underdogs, Atletico Madrid (62.10) are priced as fourth favourites to win LaLiga, which is slightly underwhelming for a team that had high hopes entering 2019/20 season. That being said, Simeone’s men severely underperformed and understandably deserve to be priced as high as 62.10 by bookmakers to win the title. As it stands now, Atletico Madrid are holding into a 6-8-2 record and only 26 points, which sets them eight points behind league leaders, who still have one game in hand. While there is a chance Atleti will wake up and start performing up to par, catching up to both Barcelona and Real Madrid will prove to be an almost impossible task, as we can’t expect both LaLiga titans to drop their lead.

Moving down from the mentioned four teams, the gap significantly increases. Teams like Valencia, Real Sociedad, Ath Bilbao and Villarreal all occupy a respectable spot in the league standings, yet their chances of winning the league are nearly non-existent, which can be seen from their odds which range from 240.00 – 290.00. Further below we have Granada, Getafe, Osasuna and the remainder of the league who are priced as high as 540.00-4100.00. Suffice to say those teams don’t have the needed quality to win the league.

In the end, it all seems like the 2019/20 LaLiga season will once more come down to Real Madrid versus Barcelona, while Sevilla and Atletico Madrid will have a hard time making something happen due to their lack of quality compared to two LaLiga titans or simply because they started the season too slow, which now sets them way too behind to catch up. Nonetheless, you never know what the remainder of the season will bring, is the charm of this sport we all love and enjoy to watch.