Why is it this way: the most attractive league in the world is also the most dangerous for bettors.
The Premier League is the most attractive league in the world.
It’s attractive, but dangerous. Bettors would do well to approach it with caution, with discernment. It’s a fact: in England, anyone can beat anyone at any time, by any score. There are no easy games, and the favourites are always only on paper. Why is this happening?
England is today what Italy was in the 1980s and 1990s: the championship with the most stars, the most money and the most followers. Football gradually became a commercial phenomenon towards the end of the 20th century, it lost its romance. In short, it became a business.
The resistance movement
However, it didn’t just become a business. Somewhere, deep down, the feelings remained. The love for a club. Belonging to a community. The pride of belonging. A resistance movement developed, a fierce resistance movement with the aim of showing that money can’t, however, do everything.
England was at the forefront of listing clubs on the stock exchange. It found itself with tons of money coming in from Russia, USA, Arabian Peninsula and other Asian countries as well as the United States. It was very hard for the Liverpool or Manchester teams to stay in Liverpool or Manchester, not to be swallowed up by the new owners. But, to a large extent, they stayed. Tradition, supporters, history were stronger than money for now. For the moment!
The same goes for the teams in London boroughs. Arsenal-Tottenham is a duel between the super-rich, at the same time it’s essentially the same rivalry between two north London sides.
That’s where the formidable strength of the English championship comes from. From the reality that, beyond the statistics, beyond the form, beyond the inspiration of great coaches, beyond the exceptional footballers paid imperial wages every week, there is something else at play: the past.
Whenever you want to bet on a match from England, you would do well to study very carefully the distant and very distant past of that match. Football in England has, more than anywhere else, roots.
At the same time, to this day, the battle for the title remains open. Tottenham are in freefall; Conte’s bags are at the door – the Luis Enrique era is brewing. The relegation battle is exciting, and any team from the middle of the table down can relegate. And as of the match between City and Arsenal, anyone who says they already know the winner is just taking a gamble.