French Ligue 1 Betting Tips

First champions and streaking winners

The first-ever season of a professional topflight football league in France was played in 1932-33. It was won by Olympique Lillois, a club that later merged with SC Fives and is today known as Lille OSC.

First named Nacional but later renamed Division 1, the league had completed its first seven seasons when the World War 2 interrupted its flow. As a result, the league lost its status of a professional competition and its constituent clubs were forced to play in regional competitions, also known as “war championships”, which are not officially recognized.

The 20-club league got its current name of Ligue 1 in 2002 when the Division 1 moniker was ditched.

Over the 91 years of its existence, the French top division has been dominated in spurts by dynasties. The 1960s and 70s sides of Saint-Étienne won four and three straight titles respectively. Olympique Lyonnais of the early 2000s won seven straight (a national record) and now PSG won seven of the last nine, although they did concede the title to Lille last season.

The format

On the format front, Ligue 1 has been slightly more experimental than its other big-name peers a la the English Premier League or the Spanish La Liga.

The generally followed rule is for three of the lowest placed sides to be relegated down to the lower league. It’s done in England and Spain and Italy but not in France where Ligue 1 instantly demotes the 19th and 20th-placed sides but throws a lifeline to the one sitting in the 18th position.

A relegation play-off is held between the 18th-ranked side of Ligue 1 and third-placed side of Ligue 2. Whoever wins the two-legged tie gets to play next season the topflight, while the loser makes Ligue 2 their (new) home.

Standing among other European leagues

Of the big 5 leagues in Europe, Spain’s La Liga, England’s Premier League are quite clearly the top two, in no particular order, followed by Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A.

Ligue 1, though among the top five leagues on the continent, has some distance between itself and the four leagues above it. This has much to do with Ligue 1 clubs generally lagging behind in the race for finances. It has, thus, translated into less success in Europe and hence a lower profile for the league.

It is rather peculiar as France, placed in an important geographical position in Europe, is a large scale manufacturer of top football talent in the world. Some of its players are generational talents and genuine contenders for GOAT debates. It has also translated in team success for France at international level but the Ligue 1 has never been able to catch up to the success of the national team.

This is so because of French club’s perennial struggle to hold on their best talent when European giants come shopping with their deep pockets. Some prime examples of this will be Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry, both of whom were among the world’s best in their prime but only played a few seasons back in France.

That ransacking of talent by richer rivals has been somewhat controlled of late, with the emergence of Paris Saint Germain as a major played over the past few years. It would have been unimaginable for a French club to sign a talent of Kylian Mbappe’s level but PSG did pull it off in 2018 and continues to keep him away from prying eyes.

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Paris Saint-Germain have arguably had the greatest single transfer window ever in European football. They had a loaded squad already and now they’ve added to the roster Achraf Hakimi, Danilo Pereira, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Georginio Wijnaldum and Sergio Ramos.

There is every indication that Lionel Messi could be PSG-bound as well, which means that everyone else will be fighting for second position for the next few years.

It means that PSG winning the Ligue 1 this season at odds of 1.14 is arguably the biggest lock in Europe this year. Short odds also mean there is very little room to make money but that’s how it is. Number two, three and four contenders are Lille, Lyon and Monaco in no particular order.

One more thing to keep an eye on is top goalscorer in the league. With PSG’s goals divided between Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and possible even Messi, there is a good chance that someone else from another team gets more goals than any of them. Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder could be one such name.

League Standings

# Team Pl W D L GD Pts
1 Paris Saint-German 38 26 8 4 54 86
2 Marseille 38 21 8 9 25 71
3 Nice 38 20 7 11 16 66
4 Strasbourg 38 17 12 9 17 63
5 Rennes 38 20 6 12 42 66
6 Monaco 38 20 9 9 25 69
7 Montpellier 38 12 7 19 -12 43
8 Lyon 38 17 11 10 15 61
9 RC Lens 38 17 11 10 14 62
10 Nantes 38 15 10 13 7 55
11 Lille 38 14 13 11 0 55
12 Angers 38 10 11 17 -11 41
13 Brest 38 13 9 16 -8 48
14 Reims 38 11 13 14 -1 46
15 Clermont 38 9 9 20 -31 36
16 Troyes 38 9 11 18 -16 38
17 Lorient 38 8 12 18 -28 36
18 Metz 38 6 13 19 -34 31
19 Bordeaux 38 6 13 19 -39 31
20 St Etienne 38 7 11 20 -35 32
# Team
1 Paris Saint-German
2 Marseille
3 Nice
4 Strasbourg
5 Rennes
6 Monaco
7 Montpellier
8 Lyon
9 RC Lens
10 Nantes
11 Lille
12 Angers
13 Brest
14 Reims
15 Clermont
16 Troyes
17 Lorient
18 Metz
19 Bordeaux
20 St Etienne
Pl W D L GD Pts
38 26 8 4 54 86
38 21 8 9 25 71
38 20 7 11 16 66
38 17 12 9 17 63
38 20 6 12 42 66
38 20 9 9 25 69
38 12 7 19 -12 43
38 17 11 10 15 61
38 17 11 10 14 62
38 15 10 13 7 55
38 14 13 11 0 55
38 10 11 17 -11 41
38 13 9 16 -8 48
38 11 13 14 -1 46
38 9 9 20 -31 36
38 9 11 18 -16 38
38 8 12 18 -28 36
38 6 13 19 -34 31
38 6 13 19 -39 31
38 7 11 20 -35 32