2019-20 French Ligue 1 Early Betting Odds and Preview

The Ligue 1 is the top tier professional football league for men’s association football in France. Currently composed of 20 clubs including one from Monaco, Ligue 1 operates with a system of promotion and relegation and is governed by the Ligue de Football Professionnel. It was founded 87 years ago in 1932 under the name National before being renamed to Ligue 1 in 2002.

Marseille is the most successful club in the French League with a total of 12 titles and 10 runner-up finishes. But they have not won since 2010 and the closest they have been was finishing as runner-up in 2013. Saint-Etienne also has 10 titles but none after 1981. Paris Saint-Germain is third with 8 Ligue 1 titles. Olympique Lyonnais ( Lyon for short ) holds the Ligue 1 record for most consecutive titles with seven in a row from 2002-2008.

Last year, Paris Saint-Germain won the title and was 16 points clear of their closest pursuers. The win was PSG’s second in a row and sixth in the last seven years. For next season, the defending champions are once again favored to win Ligue 1 and they are very heavy favorites to do so at -700.

Here are the odds to win the 2019-20 French Ligue 1. Odds were taken from MyBookie.ag as of 7/4/19:

Who Are The Favorites?

Paris Saint-Germain has been the dominant team in the last seven years as PSG has won six French titles during that period. That alone justifies their billing as heavy soccer betting favorites to win Ligue 1 again in 2019-20.

Since the State of Qatar took over the French team in 2011 via its holding organization the Qatar Sports Investment or the QSI, Paris Saint-Germain have ruled over French football. And given the massive financial backing of QSI, they have been able to buy more than enough talent to make the team as dominant as it has been in the last seven years.

With QSI at the helm, the main problem for PSG has been keeping with the Financial Fair Play rules. Sure, finances will never be a problem with Qatar backing them but there are guidelines to follow and this is something they have struggled with in the last couple of seasons.

There are also rumors this summer that their top two stars in Neymar and Kylian Mbappe are eyeing to depart Paris. The loss of one or both could deal a big blow to PSG winning the French title in 2019-20. If there is any truth to these, then we may be seeing the first signs of the PSG bubble bursting soon.

Lyon is next in the odds board but the question for them isn’t really who they could get this summer but it’s in keeping their stars. There are talks that Nabil Fekir has been offered a £30m deal by Arsenal. But recently appointed Director of Football Juninho is saying that he wants Fekir to stay. Although that is not fixed yet, it’s a sigh of relief, especially since Lyon has already lost Tanguy Ndombele to Tottenham. Juninho also appointed his former teammate Sylvinho as new head coach, so we’ll have to see what that does.

PSG rival Marseille and Monaco are third and fourth on the list but I’m interested in Lille who only had two more losses than Paris Saint-Germain last season and was a surprise second-place finisher in the French League. While PSG outscored them badly 105-68 in total goals scored, Lille gave up two fewer goals than the champions. Likewise, Lille defeated PSG 5-1 last April so they may be capable of pulling off a surprise at +4000.

Who Wins?

As we mentioned earlier, PSG’s armory of cash will always make them favorites to win the French title in 2019-20. But there may be key summer moves that could make those odds move significantly. We talked about the rumors of Neymar and Mbappe possibly on the move this summer. Let’s talk about those.

Neymar Jr., who arrived in 2017, has reportedly been looking for a house in Barcelona and that triggered Rumors of a possible transfer. Very recently, Barcelona is reportedly willing to send Philippe Coutinho, Ivan Rakitic, Samuel Umtiti, and Ousmane Dembele are rumored to be involved in an extraordinary £152m deal that would send Neymar Jr. back to Camp Nou.

Meanwhile, Kylian Mbappe shut down rumors of a summer transfer. The 20-year old phenom scored 33 goals in 29 matches last season and was rumored to be leaving for Liverpool or Real Madrid. But the French youngster’s recent tweet may have silenced those rumors.

Losing Neymar will always be a big thing. But if the Catalan outfit is going to give the four noted superstars in exchange for Neymar Jr. I believe that would be just compensation. With Mbappe choosing to stay put, I’d still say that PSG is going to be the team to beat. At what odds though, I don’t know.

If there’s a team which I think is capable of beating PSG, it could be Lille. But then again I’m not sure if Les Dogues will have enough to cover what was a 16 point- deficit the last time out. But yeah, if you’re willing to take on a longshot, take Lille. The sure bet though is PSG, with or without Neymar Jr. But you might want to wait for all the transfer business to get completed as the odds could shorten for the champs in a month or so. Prediction: Paris Saint-Germain.

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