La Liga

La Primera Liga of Spain is one of the most exciting and high quality leagues in the world. With players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká plying their trades in La Liga, Spain is arguably the best place to see attacking football and flair players. The standard of play throughout the league is very high and there is not such a big gap in quality between the best sides and those in the lower reaches of the table. This compares favourably to the English Premiership.

Betting on Spanish football is increasing in popularity in the UK due to matches being shown live every week on satellite television. People in Britain often follow a certain team in La Liga too, more often than not one of Real Madrid or Barcelona. La Liga is the third most popular premier football league to bet on in the UK after the English and Scottish premier leagues.

The high profile Champions League matches between British teams and Spanish giants has also increased the interest in La Liga in the UK.

In recent history the dominance of the big two has been challenged by some of the other less well known sides. Deportivo La Coruna finished in the top three on ten occasions between 1993 and 2004 and winning the championship in the 1999/2000 La Liga season. Valencia also challenged heavily in the early part of the 2000’s, winning the league in the 2001/02 and 2003/04 seasons. In the past few years the main challengers have been Sevilla, Valencia and Villareal. It does however seem that Barcelona and Real Madrid are now setting even higher standards and look likely to be challenging each other for the La Liga title until the other sides catch up with them.

FC Barcelona are the current holders of the La Liga title but will face a stern challenge from Real Madrid right until the end of this season. Barcelona are current favourites to retain the title at 4/11 with Real Madrid behind at best priced 13/5.

Best odds on Spanish La Liga

La Liga match betting previews