Champions League betting is back for another season. The Champions League format might be different but thankfully the betting hasn’t changed at Paddy Power!
From match bets to first goalscorers, Bet Builders, Power Prices and in-play betting – you can get it all with Paddy’s Champions League odds.
Manchester City and Real Madrid are, of course, favourites to win the trophy this season. It’s almost as though the new Champions League format is designed to help the very top clubs in Europe.
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This guide will explain what’s new in the Champions League this season, the dates you need to be aware of, and offer up some football tips for the campaign.
So, let’s get started!
The Champions League features 36 teams this season
HOW THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WORKS
The Champions League enters a fresh dawn in 2024/25 with an entirely new format. Instead of 32 teams split into eight groups of four, there are now 36 teams competing in one mega group.
Each team plays eight games against eight separate opponents. Their opponents are determined through seedings. So, Inter in Pot 1 face two teams per pot:
Leipzig and Manchester City from Pot 1, Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen from Pot 2, Red Star and Your Boys from Pot 3, and Monaco and Sparta Prague from Pot 4.
It’s a randomised draw as to who plays each fixture at home. In Inter’s case, their games against Leipzig, Arsenal, Red Star and Monaco will be played at the San Siro.
The group stage works as a league and the top eight teams will progress straight to the last-16 next spring. The ninth to 24th-placed teams will compete in a two-legged playoff in February to earn a spot in the last-16.
Should a team reach the final having finished 10th, for example, it would mean them playing 17 games in a single season.
The Champions League group stage features 36 teams
2024/25 Champions League Group Stage
Below are the teams that have qualified for the Champions League Group Stage this season, in pot order:
Pot 1
- Real Madrid 136.000 (coefficient)
- Manchester City 148.000
- Bayern Munich 144.000
- Paris Saint-Germain 116.000
- Liverpool 114.000
- Inter Milan 101.000
- Borussia Dortmund 97.000
- RB Leipzig 97.000
- Barcelona 91.000
Pot 2
- Bayer Leverkusen 90.000
- Atlético Madrid 89.000
- Atalanta 81.000
- Juventus 80.000
- Benfica 79.000
- Arsenal 72.000
- Club Brugge 64.000
- Shakhtar Donetsk 63.000
- Milan 59.000
Pot 3
- Feyenoord 57.000
- Sporting CP 54.500
- PSV Eindhoven 54.000
- Dinamo Zagreb [50.000
- Red Bull Salzburg 50.000
- Lille 47.000
- Red Star Belgrade 40.000
- Young Boys 34.500
- Celtic 32.000
Pot 4
- Slovan Bratislava 30.500
- Monaco 24.000
- Sparta Prague 22.500
- Aston Villa 20.860
- Bologna 18.056
- Girona 17.897
- VfB Stuttgart 17.324
- Sturm Graz 14.500
- Brest 13.366
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DATES
Champions League teams will play eight matches in the group stage from now on, instead of six. They will not play teams home and away, but instead will play eight individual opponents across the eight gameweeks.
The expanded format means the last two gameweeks will take place at the end of January.
Here are the following Champions League matchdays for the group stage in 2024/25:
- Gameweek 1: 17-19 September
- Gameweek 2: 1-2 October
- Gameweek 3: 22-23 October
- Gameweek 4: 5-6 November
- Gameweek 5: 26-27 November
- Gameweek 6: 10-11 December
- Gameweek 7: 21-22 January
- Gameweek 8: 29 January
Check out these Champions League betting offers and latest odds
Celtic games feature plenty of goals in the Champions League
PADDY POWER CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TIPS
Now you know how the 2024/25 Champions League works, it’s time to look at the football betting options available to Paddy Power players. We’re offering thousands of Champions League bets over the course of the season, with Power Prices every day and extensive live odds on each game.
Below are our Champions League tips for 2024/25, including a few underdog picks!
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WINNER
Let’s get this over with. Manchester City are the 3.75 favourites to win the Champions League, with Real Madrid 4.50 to defend their crown. Shall we just assume one of them win it, and leave it at that?
One of City and Real have been in each of the last four Champions League finals. Together they’ve won the last three. They each boast a glut of talent in their squads and have enough elite players to continually rotate, meaning they can also compete for their league titles at the same time.
Arsenal are the third favourites to win the Champions League for the first time in their history at 9.00. That feels a bit of a stretch, especially if they have eyes on the Premier League title.
The smarter option is to back Bayern at 13.00. We don’t often see the German giants priced so wide and, with Harry Kane up front, they’re sure to make the semis at least.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINALIST
Manchester City are as low as 2.00 to reach the Champions League final this year. That’s a very low price and highlights the sheer confidence in Guardiola to push his team all the way. It’s not the smartest bet, though.
Even City have to ride their luck over a mammoth campaign like this. There will be moments when they’re priced higher than 2.00 just to win a match or progress, and still do it.
Instead, the Champions League finalist odds should focus on a few close outsiders. Liverpool are 7.50 to get there under Arne Slot, while Atletico are a great price at 13.00.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GOLDEN BOOT
All eyes are on Erling Haaland again this year after he started the 2023/24 Champions League campaign at Evens to top score. And yet he didn’t manage it last term. Haaland scored six UCL goals, while Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe bagged eight each.
Haaland is 3.60 to win the Golden Boot for the second time in his career but the smarter odds seem to be on Kane at 7.00. He is the goal-getter in this Bayern team – much more so than Mbappe (6.50) at Madrid.
If you’re looking for an outside Champions League Golden Boot bet then Vinicius Junior at 15.00 is well placed, considering he managed six goals last season.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GROUP WINNERS
Only one team can win the league stage of the 2024/25 Champions League, and topping the table doesn’t really mean anything. After all, teams are just trying to ensure they get into the top eight and don’t have to deal with a playoff round.
So, who will top the league? It’s actually a little hard to say. If we assume City, Madrid and Munich get off to a fast pace then they might have their top-eight status secured by Christmas.
What with the amount of games taking place over the winter, would you risk your elite players for two dead-rubbers at the end of the league stage? Probably not.
It’s a real lottery as to who tops the 36-team group. City are favourites at 4.00, with Madrid behind at 6.00. The better option may be to go with a team like Liverpool (11.00), Atletico or Dortmund (both 17.00). They might end up running full-steam into January and pick up the points needed to not only secure a top-eight spot but also push for first.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE UNDERDOGS
The new Champions League format means we should see some competition from among the lower seeds in their battle to secure a top-24 finish. Hopefully a couple also threaten the top-eight in this new format that favours the bigger boys.
Betting on football underdogs isn’t always easy but we’ve unearthed three options that might prove profitable over the course of the league stage.
Celtic goals – We tipped goal-heavy matches for Celtic last season and they didn’t disappoint. Their campaign last season featured 20 goals (5 for, 15 against), 19 the year before (4-15), 23 in the 2017/18 campaign (5-18) and 21 in 2016/17 (5-16). Celtic leak goals when games run away from them and their average goals conceded per game in the Champions League since 2016 is 2.66. That’s too much. No wonder punters back them to concede so easily in Europe.
Spartan spirit – Sparta Prague are already deep into their 2024/25 campaign, with the Czech league kicking off in July. They started the season with a near-perfect record and had to come through three qualifying rounds to make the Champions League group stage. They are a good shout to win their home matches against RB Salzburg and Brest, even though they’re in Pot 4. Don’t be surprised if they upset Inter at home too.
Villa heights – Aston Villa are well priced at 4.33 to finish in the top eight and progress to the last-16 of the Champions League. Villa won three of their opening four Premier League games, have strengthened over the summer, and look like a solid unit. Injecting more matches into their calendar will be difficult but they have favourable European fixtures against Celtic, Club Brugge, Leipzig and Juventus. The only game they’ll head into as serious underdogs will be at home to Bayern on 2 October.
*all odds correct as of 17/9/24
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