The Dutch Eredivisie is the top football league in The Netherlands, organised by KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Association). The Association's badge is recognisable from the great Dutch shirts of tournaments past.
The league was founded in 1963, the same year as Germany’s Bundesliga. It is relatively new, although, of course, it’s had a few overhauls across the decades.
Dutch Eredivisie betting
Dutch teams of the past were synonymous with attacking, free-flowing, entertaining football. That's still the case to this day where the domestic league is concerned. Almost every player that comes through the Eredivisie is encouraged to play this way. This makes it a great watch and an even better betting proposition as we’ll discover!
How do things work in the Dutch Eredivisie?
Every year 18 teams take part in the Eredivisie. They play each other once at home and once away for a 34-game regular season.
Games are often spread from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon for television purposes. There are plenty of opportunities across the weekend to study the Dutch action. And its usually entertaining action too!
Eredivisie – the top and bottom of It
The league here is recognised officially as one of the top ten in Europe by UEFA and as such it gets two Champions League places. These are settled automatically with the champions and the runner-up claiming those. While the third-placed team goes into the Europa League.
One more Europa place remains. This is fought out by those finishing in positions 4-7 who play-off at the end of the season. The bottom two teams are relegated to the Eerste Divisie, essentially the second division.
While the third-bottom side must meet the play-off winner from the full six sides who compete in the Eerste for the privilege. The winner of that game eventually deciding the final place in the Eredivisie for the following campaign.
Star teams of the Eredivisie
A number of European leagues have teams who, despite momentary historical lapses, have dominated overall and it’s no different here. Ajax is by far and away the biggest club in The Netherlands, notching 34 Eredivisie titles over the years. PSV Eindhoven is the next biggest challengers, followed by Feyenoord.
All three of these major sides have lifted numerous domestic trophies but also made their mark in Europe.
Ajax has won the European Cup/Champions League 4 times along with a European Cup Winners’ Cup, a UEFA Cup and two UEFA Super Cups. PSV have won one European Cup and one UEFA Cup while Feyenoord has also taken a European Cup and two UEFA Cup trophies.
Eredivisie betting markets
From Ruud van Nistelrooy to Luis Suarez, many great strikers have come through this league over the years and the attacking and often open nature of football in The Netherlands has led to it being among the most high-scoring divisions in Europe.
Right about now the Eredivisie is averaging around 3.25 goals per game which is a terrific figure so, putting that together with it’s very healthy home win ratio of almost dot-on 50%, this is a great league for backing home favourites in accumulators as they tend to be more reliable and find enough early goals to settle your nerves.
Naturally, these figures could have been labelled as skewed had the traditional three big boys still been dominating here, however with Feyenoord and PSV struggling relative to their reputations of late and with the likes of AZ Alkmaar having essentially replaced them as chief rivals to Ajax for the time being, you can guarantee this league as a whole is big-scoring and reliable.
With these things in mind, here are the main betting markets to concentrate on in the Eredivisie:
- Match Betting – 1X2, or home/draw/away. The total goals in this league and the high ratio of home wins means outsiders tend to get less sneaky 0-0 draws, so backing the favourite on their patch is OK here.
- Total Goals Betting – another obvious tactic is to back ‘over’ on certain games, especially when a high-scoring team is playing at home.
- Both Teams to Score – not only do these high-scoring teams know how to attack competently, but they leave gaps at the back meaning your BTTS bet could be over and paid out before the half-time whistle has even blown.
Placing bets on the top Dutch League
Dutch Eredivisie betting: high-scoring games and both teams attacking more often than not. Does this sound like your kind of football? If so, then betting on the Dutch Eredivisie with one of our recommended online betting firms is definitely the way to go.
