Learn more about Argentine Primera Divisin betting

Learn more about Argentine Primera Divisin betting

By Charlie Rowing Jul 10, 2013

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Often revered as one of the elite soccer nations, Argentina is home to one of the world’s most intriguing domestic soccer leagues. Read on to learn why betting on the Primera Divisin could be for you.

The world’s greatest?

When you think of Argentina you immediately think of Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi, both of whom arguably have claim to being the greatest player ever. However, despite both players starting their careers in Argentina, it’s their exploits in Europe for which they are best known.

The Argentine Primera Divisin shouldn’t languish in the shadows of these icons, however, as it’s home to some of the biggest clubs in the world, including Boca Juniors and River Plate. Many well-known stars such as Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria built their reputation in their homeland before moving abroad to sign for big European clubs.

One way to get an edge in the Primera Divisin is to identify the current crop of key players. The current status of these players – injury, suspension, form etc. – should influence the way you bet on their team.

Understanding the complex Argentine Primera Divisin format 

The league is made up of 20 teams; which is split up into two tournaments – The Torneo Inicial and the Torneo Final. Both competitions last 19 games, with the conclusion culminating in  the Torneo Inicial and Torneo Final winners playing in the Superfinal, to determine the Super Champions.

Perhaps the most complicated aspect of the Primera Divisin is relegation, as it is based on an averaging system. At the end of each season, the three teams with the worst three-year averages are relegated to the Primera B.

For example at the end of the 2012-13 season, Independiente were relegated even though they finished 18th in the Torneo Inical and 12th in the Torneo Final.   This is because they had accumulated a total of 129 points from 114 games played in the past three seasons, which gave them an average of 1.132, which was the second-worst in the league.

This means that bettors may need to do more extensive research on fixtures, to find out which teams are battling relegation during the season. As it may not be abundantly clear just by looking at the table.

The threat of relegation for a team can greatly influence betting with regards to a team’s motivation and form, for example teams often go on good runs towards the latter stages of seasons when fighting the drop.

There are 5 places up for grabs in the Copa Libertadores (the South American equivalent of the Champions League). The Primera Divisin super champion joins the losing finalist, as well as the Copa Argentina champion in the second stage. The final place goes to the best Argentinian placed team in the Copa Sudamericana.

The league runs from August until the following June. Teams involved in the latter stages of the Copa Libertadores, which ends in July and teams playing in the early stages of the Copa Sudamerica, which starts in July, play outside their domestic season.

Betting on the Argentine Primera Divisin

Argentine Primera Divisin markets include the basic soccer bet types: 1x2s, handicaps and totals.

1x2s

This is the most common bet type.  You simply bet on whether a team will win, lose or draw a match.

For example, imagine these are the odds for a Primera Divisin match between Velez Sarsfield (2.800) and Newell’s Old Boys (2.960) with the draw at 3.030.

If Velez won the match and you staked 10 on them to win, you would have won 28 – although that would include your initial 10 stake. Therefore your profit would be 18. You would win nothing if the result ended in a defeat or draw for Velez.

If the outcome had been a draw then a 10 bet would have returned you 30.30 (20.30 profit and your 10 stake).

Handicaps

Handicaps are useful when one team is heavily favoured over the other team, as you can bet on who will win a match, with a set number of goals taken off the favourite’s score.

Let’s say the handicap for Velez Sarsfield is -1 (2.020) and Newell’s Old Boys is + 1 (1.901).

If the result was 2-0 to Velez, then a bet on them would win as 2-0 covers the -1 handicap.

If the result was a draw, or a loss for Velez then a bet on Newell’s would win as they would cover their +1 handicap.

If the result was a 1-0 win for Velez then bets for both Velez and Newell’s would see money returned, as both sides would have drawn 0-0 with handicaps applied.

Totals

The Totals market sees the bettor predict whether the total number of goals for a match will be over or under a set amount.

Imagine the total goal mark for Velez Sarsfield vs Newell’s Old Boys is set at Over 2 and 2.5 (1.893) and Under 2 and 2.5 (2.010).

If you bet 10 on the game to be Over 2 and 2.5 goals – and the result was 2-1 (a total of three goals) you would have a return of 18.93 (10.93 profit), while you would have won nothing if you had bet on the goals total to be Under 2 and 2.5

Click here to read more about Basic Bet Types.

Argentine Primera Divisin betting tip – draw frequency

It is worth noting that draw occurrence in this league is extremely high, the 2012-13 Argentine Primera Divisin season saw 34% of games in the Torneo Inicial finish in a draw, and 35% in the Torneo Final. A possible reason for such a high number of draws is due to the league’s relegation system, with teams potentially becoming cagier due to the three-year averages that are in place.

There were a higher percentage of draws in the Primera Divisin (total 35%) than in every major European League in the 2012/13 season – La Liga (22%), Serie A (25%), Bundesliga (25%), Premier League (28%) and Ligue 1 (28%).

In fact, over a four-year average the amount of draws in the Primera Divisin was 31% and the four-year average for the European leagues were – La Liga (23%), Serie A (27%), Bundesliga (25%), Premier League (27%) and Ligue 1 (29%).

If you were to bet 10 on every Primera Divisin game finishing in a draw in 2012-13 season you would have made 424 profit.

*Odds subject to change

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