The 2024/25 season marked a new dawn for European football. UEFA replaced a well-established group stage format with an extended league table for its Champions League, Europa League and Conference League competitions.
On the latest episode of iGaming Daily, Joe Streeter, Editor of CasinoBeats, was joined by Jeevan Jeyaratnam, COO of Abelson Odds, to discuss the implications of the new format for sports betting operators.
Despite the revamped structure, Jeyaratnam revealed that betting activity has not changed compared to the old format.
He said: “I surveyed some of the [operators] and the feedback that came back was that total bets are almost identical for this stage [than last year]. There has been a small increase in total stakes and margins have increased but I think that’s probably more to do with a few friendly results and the fact bet builders continue to gather steam and the margins of bet builders are higher than singles.
“Stakes per fixture was slightly down but I think that’s to be expected given we’ve got an extra eight matches per week.”
He added that it has also been hard for punters to get “too excited” about clashes between teams such as Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain in the early weeks given that there is less at stake in those games compared to the previous group stage format.
Overall, Jeyaratnam was scathing of the “dilution” of the European competitions.
“The dilution, let’s be honest, it’s for greed, money, gate receipts and TV money,” he explained.
“UEFA aren’t interested in how it affects the betting operators or indeed our industry. It’s very hard to get too excited about key matches in early match days because it can easily turn around.
“Given the nature of the draw, there’s not an even bias to the fixtures that each team will play. So when you look at the league table right now, it’s not fair to say it’s a reflection of how it’s going to look at the end. Some teams have played better teams already and some teams will have those teams to come.”
Given that teams now play a range of opposition sides from across Europe, rather than just the three teams in their group, Jeyarantam did note that it has been easier for operators to set the odds for matches between teams from less well-known leagues.
He said: “Traders have found it easier to rate leagues and team against each other because of the format. It allows you to build up the rankings and the ratings are a bit easier. There are more examples to compare, [for example], this team played a team in Italy and now they’re going to play away here. It becomes a lot easier.”
Concluding the episode, Jeyarantam spoke about how the outright markets for the tournament haven’t changed despite the over-performance of teams – such as the Swiss side Brest, who currently sit fourth in the league table – which is indicative of the lack of “jeopardy” in the early stages.
He said: “For me the outrights are symptomatic of how the impact from even the first four matchdays isn’t necessarily registered through to the outright markets in a meaningful way. The top team may not be in the qualification sports at this point but are still strong favourites and that’s not likely to change until the final games weeks when they are really on the line.
“I think that’s the worry I have that there’s just not enough jeopardy within the games. I don’t want to use the NBA as an example because I think it’s unfair, but the NBA has so many games that some of the games lose their focus. The NBA introduced a mid-season tournament to try and give the teams some impetus to perform in a knock-out style event.
“For me, there are too many games, but it’s money, money talks. So, unfortunately, in my opinion, that’s where we are.”
