With each passing day, we get nearer to 2024’s showpiece footballing event, at least for those situated in Europe.
Starting June 14th, it’s the European Championships, better known this time around as Euro 2024, which will take place in Germany.
Big international tournaments such as Euro 2024 represent an opportunity for football fans and bettors to place some exciting bets, including a variety of pre-tournament bets, such as Euro 2024 top scorer bets, but there's also multiple bets to consider, which are always popular ahead of events like this.
In this article, we’re looking at how potential group winners can come together to form some juicy-looking accumulators.
Euro 2024 group winner accumulator tips
I’m going to throw two darts at this, one in the form of a four-fold, and the other, a more speculative six-fold.
Firstly, the Germans, the Spanish, the French and the Three Lions (kiss of death, I know) are all strong favourites, and rightly so if you ask me.
If anything, I’d have both Spain and England priced a little shorter than current quotes of 4/5 and 2/5 respectively.
Given the competition each of those four big-hitters face in the group stages, I’d be mildly surprised if any of them failed to enter the knockouts as group winners, so taking odds of just over 4/1 probably isn’t the worst bet in the world.
More ambitiously, I’m going to chuck in Turkey and Ukraine to form a very audacious six-fold, paying a little over 166/1.
We’ll start with the Turks, who alongside Georgia, Portugal and the Czech Republic, are in Group F.
As you’d expect, Euro 2016 winners Portugal are quite heavy favourites to progress as group winners. However, they’ve not won their group at the European Championships since Euro 2008, finishing third both when going on to win the tournament in 2016 and in 2020.
And if any of the favourites are going to falter slightly during the early stages, I’d have them up there as one of the more likely types.
I’m also going to say the same about Belgium, who are in Group E with Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine.
For my money, we’re looking at the worst Belgium squad in several years, so I really wouldn’t be surprised if they come unstuck.
After all, the Red Devils have a rather unwanted history of failing to meet expectations at big tournaments, and again, one or two of the bigger teams are likely to slip up and I make the Belgians more likely to do so than most.
Who are the group favourites?
Of course, thanks to the way teams are seeded at the European Championships, most of the big nations avoid each other during the group stages, leaving it highly likely that most progress.
Typically, big teams progress as group winners, so it’s far from uncommon for pre-tournament bettors to combine the big favourites to win each group.
Ahead of the 2024 renewal of this tournament, let’s take a look at which teams currently lead the market in terms of group betting.
If you are of the opinion that each of the above favourites will get the job done and enter the knockouts having topped their group, then you’ll be looking at odds of around 9/1 for the six-fold acca.
Who can make it out of the groups?
In addition to betting on group winners, as most will already know, you can bet on teams to progress from the groups, regardless of where they finish, which also allows for some interesting accumulator-betting opportunities.
You could play it safe and just take all of the big teams to qualify, which is obviously the high-percentage play, but you’ll be short in terms of value for money as the bookmakers aren’t in the habit of pricing such bets generously.
If we look beyond the obvious ever so slightly and leave the big teams alone in this market, then we may just uncover a nice little bet. For example, at odds of 4.23/1, I like the look of Scotland, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey all to qualify from the groups.
This is almost certainly the best Scottish team since the one that featured at Euro 96, while the Ukrainians, now ranked 22nd in the world according to FIFA, are no mugs, reaching the quarter-finals at Euro 2020, and they have several players plying their trade in Europe’s best domestic leagues.
Similar can be said for both Serbia and Turkey too. Both teams will contain lots of players playing near the height of European club football, so don’t be surprised to see them feature in the knockouts.
To be honest, as touched on above, I would be far from surprised if the Turks won Group F.
With the likes of Salih Özcan and exciting Real Madrid youngster Arda Güler, they've got players who've experienced relative success at club level recently, while in Hakan Calhanoglu, who enjoyed a fantastic season with Serie A winners Internazionale, they’ve got sheer quality in the final third. They've also lost just one of their last eight competitive fixtures.
Nowadays, with 24 teams in the tournament instead of just 16, four of the best third-place finishers make it beyond the group stages, leaving more margin for error, making things far less clear-cut.
Gone are the days when some of seemingly smaller footballing nations have little chance of making the knockouts at the European Championships.
Recap - group winner accumulator tips
Ahead of Euro 2024, we’ll be betting on the following group accumulators:
Germany, England, Spain and France all to win their groups @ 4.15/1 (Bet now with bet365)
Germany, England, Spain, France, Turkey and Ukraine all to win their groups @ 166.44/1 (Bet now with bet365)
Scotland, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey all to qualify for the knockouts @ 4.23/1 (Bet now with bet365)
