La Liga Betting
Like England's Premier League, Spain also boasts a top-tier professional football league known as the Liga de Fútbol Profesional, or more commonly as Spanish La Liga or just La Liga. And like the English Premier League, La Liga also boasts the country's top 20 football sides. Between September and June, each club plays each other twice in a round-robin format. And by the end of the season, the team with the most points is crowned the La Liga champions.
However, the bottom three teams are automatically relegated to the Segunda División, and replaced by the top three teams from the Segunda División. Since the 1950s, La Liga has been dominated by Real Madrid and Barcelona. Real Madrid has won the La Liga championship 31 times to Barcelona's 19 times. But in the last two decades, teams such as Real Betis, Real Sociedad, Deportivo, Sevilla, Valencia and Atlético Madrid have also won the La Liga championship.
Each year the top four teams in La Liga qualify for the UEFA Champions League. The first, second and third-ranked teams are ensured an automatic entry in the UEFA group stage, while the fourth-ranked team must go through a qualifying round. The UEFA Champions League commences with a round-robin group stage of the best 32 teams from all over Europe. Meanwhile, the fifth and sixth-ranked teams in La Liga qualify for the first round of the Europa League.
In the 2008-09 UEFA Champions League, La Liga's Barcelona proved victorious when it beat the English Premier League's Manchester United 2-0. While in the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League, Barcelona beat the English Premier League's Arsenal 2-1.
The current teams in the La Liga 2009/10 season comprise Barcelona, Real Madrid, Sevilla, Atlético Madrid, Villarreal, Valencia, Deportivo La Coruña, Málaga, Mallorca, Espanyol, Almería, Racing Santander, Athletic Bilbao, Sporting Gijón, Osasuna, Real Valladolid, Getafe, Xerez, Real Zaragoza and Tenerife.
Top Goal Scorer
Every year thousands of La Liga fans bet on who the La Liga top goal scorer will be. And while this may be hard to do at the beginning of the season, it's easier by the middle of the season and even easier towards the end of the season, provided no major injuries or events put the players out of contention.
In 2008, the La Liga top goal scorer was Atletico Madrid's Diego Forlan who scored a massive 32 goals, followed by Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o with 30 goals. While Samuel Eto'o decided to leave Spain for Italy, Forlan collected the coveted Pichichi Trophy, which is traditionally presented at the end of every season by Spanish sports newspaper Marca to the La Liga top goal scorer.
So now the big betting question is who will walk away the La Liga top goal scorer for the 2009/10 La Liga season? For many football fans, just one name comes up - Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese-born player with good looks, lightning fast reflexes and an eagle eye when it comes to finding the back of his rivals' nets on for Real Madrid. As such, many online sports betting sites have installed the midfielder as the favorite to bring home the Pichichi.
However, given his overwhelming talent, Ronaldo will undoubtedly be a marked man this season which begs the question of how long he can maintain his high scoring ratio and remain injury free? However, he is not the only La Liga player who has a shot at being named La Liga top goal scorer this season. You must also consider Ronaldo's talented teammate, Kaká (Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite), who is no slouch when it comes to chalking up goals.
Then there is Barcelona's Lionel Messi to consider along with his team mate Zlatan Ibrahimoviæ (who was hired at great expense to replace Eto'o). And while Diego Forlan may be struggling to become La Liga top goal scorer for the second consecutive year, he should not be ruled out. Neither should Valencia's David Villa or Sevilla's Luís Fabiano.