It’s certainly a sporting summer, with multiple events to get excited about, such as the Olympics, which will take place in Paris in late July, but one of the biggest highlights of 2024’s summer of sport is undoubtedly the European Championships, which will take place in Germany.
In just a few weeks time, the 24 best footballing nations on the continent, as the qualification campaign determined, will descend on German soil and do battle.
They will fight for the right to be crowned champions of Europe, a title which the winner will hold proudly for the next four years.
Let’s take a look at which team the early betting says will most likely win Euro 2024 below.
Euro 2024 betting odds
Here is how the top of the betting market currently stands for Euro 2024:
Continue reading below for a full breakdown of the Euro 2024 betting odds.
Who is favourite to win Euro 2024?
Right now, in the UK betting market, England are the favourites to win the European Championships, which may seem a little laughable given their lack of major silverware in the last 60 odd years, but such is the perceived strength of the current Three Lions’ team.
There can be no denying that Gareth Southgate has a squad stacked with top-quality talent ahead of Euro 2024.
The likes of Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Phil Foden are all hotly fancied to win ‘Player of The Tournament’, at least they’re in the first five in the betting for that particular award, while there will be a large number of players on the plane to Germany who’re coming off the back of fantastic seasons at the highest level of domestic football, such as Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice, all of whom were outstanding throughout the recently finished Premier League campaign.
What do the betting odds mean?
It’s good to have a general understanding of what the betting odds ahead of a tournament such as Euro 2024 mean.
Do the betting odds reflect how likely teams are to win Euro 2024? Well, yes, sort of, but only in the opinion of those who form the odds.
In general, betting odds reflect the chance of something occurring (or not) according to the people setting the odds.
The Euro 2024 betting market is created by those compiling the odds, the bookmakers, and then the prices are driven up or down according to the weight of money - supply and demand.
However, it’s worth remembering that just because a team is heavily fancied in the outright betting, it does not mean that they will do well.
What happens on the pitch is a different matter, and despite being popular in the betting market, favourites sometimes falter, while outsiders sometimes prosper.
Full Euro 2024 betting odds
Where will the winner come from?
To be honest, if we’re looking at betting on a team to win Euro 2024, most of us aren’t looking anywhere near the bottom of the list, and recent history would suggest that we’re right in giving teams towards the foot of the market little to no chance of emerging from the tournament victorious.
The question is, where will the winner come from in the betting? Predicting the winner of a big tournament isn’t always easy even though many teams can be dismissed, there’s always a good handful of teams that merit plenty of respect.
This year is no different, though we can probably narrow down the search a little by looking at the trend of recent winners.
At Euro 2020, played in 2021, Italy emerged victorious, which wasn’t a huge upset as they went into the tournament as sixth favourites at 9/1.
At Euro 2016, there was a minor upset as the winner did not come from the top five in the betting. The Portuguese, who lifted the trophy in Paris, entered the tournament as 16/1 sixth favourites.
Four years earlier the Spanish rounded off their trio of big tournament wins, winning Euro 2012 as the favourites.
Interestingly, two of the last four European Championships have been won by one of the first three in the outright betting, with the outliers being Portugal and Italy, who were both far from huge outsiders at sixth in the pre-tournament betting market.
This means that each of the last four winners of this prestigious competition has come from the first six in the betting.
Of course, outsiders have won before, with Greece causing a huge upset at Euro 2024, as mentioned in our Euro 2024 predictions article, but in the very recent history (last 16 years), it’s paid to follow those near the top of the market.
