French Football Betting Tips
Most people that land on this website will be big fans of football but that doesn’t mean they follow every team in every league. That doesn’t matter for your changing room chatter or pub talks. When it comes to staking your hard earned money though, you want to do the most research you possibly can. That’s where we come in; this page is dedicated to bringing you the best French football betting tips out there.
Our French Football Betting Tips
Our tips for the latest week of French Football can be found below. Full explanations behind the predictions can be found further down the page.
- Lille to beat Bordeaux @ 1/2 (1.50)
- Strasbourg and Lens to share under 2.5 goals @ 18/25 (1.72)
- Marseille to win at St Etienne @ 1/1 (2.00)
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Odds were correct at the time of writing but are subject to change.
What is the structure of football in France?
France’s top division, Ligue 1, is one of the top rated leagues in the world. It contains 20 teams where each team plays one another twice (once at home and once away) during the season. The top five teams will qualify for some form of European football as detailed below:
1st & 2nd – Qualification to the Champions League group stages
3rd – Enter the Champions League qualifying rounds
4th – Qualification to the Europa League
5th – Enter the Europa Conference League qualifying rounds
At the other end of the table, there are three relegation spots to fill; it’s not a straight relegation drop like it is in the English Premier League though. Instead, the 19th and 20th placed teams are relegated to Ligue 2 (France’s second tier). The side that finishes third from bottom goes into a relegation playoff. In that relegation playoff, the Ligue 1 side will play one of three teams from Ligue 2.
The winner and runner up from Ligue 2 immediately win promotion. Third, fourth and fifth enter a playoff to secure the third and final promotion place. The side that finishes third gets a bye to the ‘final’ whilst fifth travel to the home ground of the fourth places side for a one off match. The winner of that match faces the side that finished third in the regular season.
That’s the only two fully professional leagues explained. There are deeper layers to the pyramid but tier three is semi-pro with everything under that seen as more akin to amateur football with regional splits.
Why does the league structure matter?
Whilst you might look at the structure of a footballing pyramid and dismiss it as being important, that’s actually a rather schoolboy error in the betting sense. In fact, if you follow a league religiously, you probably think about it without even realising.
When we offer up our French football betting tips, we’ll consider a range of factors. These will include – but not be limited to – recent form, head to head records, the condition of a particular squad and the emotional and situational lay of a game. Think about it, a team could be in worse form than an opponent they’re facing but if they’re locked in a battle to avoid relegation or to sneak into the European spot their players would hold greater motivation in the game compared to a side nailed on for a mid table finish. It’s one of the fundamental pillars of spotting value in betting odds.
Why bet on French football?
There are many reasons why a punter would want to bet on French football. Ligue 1 is one of the major leagues around the world with some of the best players taking to the pitch each week; for one thing, that makes following your bets much more enjoyable. More importantly though, it means there are plenty of bookmakers covering the fixtures with a great market depth available too. Ligue 2, whilst not as widely followed as the first tier, still gets plenty of coverage in betting terms.
In addition to being easy and fun to bet on, there are other perks too. If you’re serious about building up an income stream from betting you’ll want to bet across different days; this is because you’ll be able to stake more money and, if placing winning bets, gain profit more quickly. French football games are typically played on weekdays; this is different to a lot of other top leagues that schedule their games on weekends. It makes French football a good option for things like daily rolling accumulators and matches betting, in particular.
Of course, we like to think our French football betting tips is another tick in the box too!
What bookmakers are the best for French football?
As we’ve touched on, almost all major bookies will offer a reasonable coverage of French football. There are a couple worthy of a shout out though. Bet365 offer a streaming service of French football; that’s useful if you don’t have an alternative method of watching games. Our go to bookmaker, however, is STSBet. You can check out our in depth STSBet review here or sign up for up to £50 free using our affiliate link below:
How will our French football betting tips work?
You’ll find some websites out there that offer up French football betting tips for every single game, every single week. That’s not something we agree with. Our intention is to try and bring you winning tips whilst trying to identify value within the betting odds; that’s not something that can be done with every game, every week. Instead, we’ll bring you a selection of French football betting tips each week.
The latest French football betting tips
Lille vs Bordeaux: Lille to win @ 1/2 (1.50)
In a straight bet there is no such thing as a banker but Lille to beat Bordeaux can’t be far off that label. Lille are unbeaten in their last five Ligue 1 games having won three and drawn two. Bordeaux meanwhile are having a rather poor time of it; they’ve lost their last three matches and haven’t won a game in any competition since January. When you then see that Lille have won the last five meetings between the sides, it’s clear to see why we are calling this as a home win.
Strasbourg vs Lens: Under 2.5 goals @ 18/25 (1.72)
Here we back Strasbourg and Lens to share fewer than 2.5 goals when they clash on April 3rd. Strasbourg have seen each of their last four games fall short of the 2.5 mark with their average goals per game across their previous five matches sitting at just 1.4. Lens don’t see all that many goals either; three of their last five games have gone under 2.5 with a total of 10 goals seen in that period; that’s just 2.0 per match. Three of the last four head to head games have ended with fewer than three goals in them.
St Etienne vs Marseille: Marseille to win @ 1/1 (2.00)
Backing Marseille to win this game at evens is, in our eyes, fantastic value. Sure, St Etienne have shown a little bit of fight recently with a few draws but there is no getting away from the difference in quality between these sides. There is a reason Marseille are second whilst St Etienne sit third from bottom. On top of that, if St Etienne are in okay from then that must mean Marseille are in sparkling form because they’ve won four on the spin. Marseille have beaten St Etienne in the last two head to head meeting as well.
*The betting odds stated are as per STSBet and are accurate at the time of writing. Remember you can sign up with STSBet using our affiliated link below:
What outright markets can be bet on and what are they?
In addition to betting on matches, you can also explore longer term bets by wagering on ‘futures’; these are sometimes called ‘outrights’. Usually, these are bet types that will run for much longer in comparison to match bets. Common examples of these bets are predicting who will win the league or cup, who will top score in a given competition, who will finish in a European qualification spot and who may suffer relegation.
Outright bets can be placed at various times throughout the season and the timing of when you choose to place your punt will dictate what the odds look like. Take Ligue 1 for example. As we write, PSG sit 13 points clear of Nice in second; the odds on PSG to win Ligue 1 will be heavily odds on. Had you backed them at the start of the season then you would have received a better price – albeit with your probability of winning also less. Of course, there are instances when you can flip this on it’s head. Again, we speak hypothetically as an example but, if PSG started the season by losing a couple of games then the likelihood is that their outright odds to lift the title would increase from prior to game week one when everyone was on level pegging.
Who are the most decorated teams in France?
Whilst a look to the past won’t drastically alter the way you bet, it’s still interesting to understand who the ‘big boys’ are. Of course, at the top of the pyramid you have a French national side that have won it all; they’ve won two World Cups, two European Championships, a couple of Confederation Cups, a Nations League and Olympic Gold. Our focus is really at club level though.
Ligue 1
The most decorated club in Ligue 1 terms is Saint Etienne, who have 10 titles albeit their last win was in the early eighties. They’re closely followed by PSG and Marseille who both sit on nine titles. Monaco and Nantes are then a notch further back with eight titles apiece.
Coupe de France
With the French Cup, it’s a similar crowd of teams who hold the most trophies; the order is different though. PSG are clear with 14 wins to their name. Following them is Marseille with 10 and Saint Etienne are next with ‘just’ six cup wins. Lille also have six Coupe de France titles to their name.
Ligue 2
When it comes to the second tier, obviously you don’t want to be winning it every other year; you want stability in the top flight. That doesn’t happen for everyone though and Le Havre and Nancy know that more than anyone. Both sides have won the second division on five occasions.
There you have it, our French football betting tips – explained and predicted. Good luck and bet safe.