Champions League betting: the format, the markets and how bets settle

The Champions League is the biggest tournament in European club football, and every matchweek Latvian sportsbooks offer hundreds of bets on each match. To make sense of them you need to know three things: how the format decides a team's fate in the table, that a bet on the match result and a bet on reaching the next round settle under different rules, and that outright bets carry a margin several times larger than bets on single matches. We read the Latvian sportsbooks' rules, and on 9 October we measured the margin on all 18 second-round matches at three sportsbooks licensed in Latvia.

How the Champions League works

Thirty-six teams take part: first they all play in one shared league table, then come the knockout rounds.

UEFA's 2026/27 regulations set out the format:

• League phase. Each team plays eight matches against eight different opponents, four at home and four away.
• Places 1 to 8. These teams go straight into the round of 16.
• Places 9 to 24. These teams play a two-legged knockout play-off: 9th and 10th against 23rd and 24th, 11th and 12th against 21st and 22nd, and so on.
• Places 25 to 36. These teams are out and do not drop into the Europa League (UEFA).
• Knockout rounds. The round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals are played over two legs, the final as a single match at a neutral venue.

If teams finish level on points, goal difference decides first, then goals scored. Head-to-head results are not used in this format.

The 2026/27 season calendar

The league phase runs until 27 January, and the final is on 5 June 2027 in Madrid.

According to UEFA's calendar:

• League phase: 8-10 September, 13/14 October, 20/21 October, 3/4 November, 24/25 November, 8/9 December, 19/20 January and 27 January, when all 18 matches kick off at the same time.
• Knockout play-offs: 16/17 and 23/24 February.
• Round of 16: 9/10 and 16/17 March.
• Quarter-finals: 6/7 and 13/14 April.
• Semi-finals: 27/28 April and 4/5 May.
• Final: Saturday 5 June, Estadio Metropolitano, Madrid (UEFA).

Matches usually kick off at 22:00 Latvian time, some at 19:45.

Regular time or the next round: how match bets settle

A bet on the match result (1X2) covers regular time only, while a bet on which team reaches the next round also includes extra time and penalties.

Latvian sportsbooks' rules say this directly:

• Optibet, Laimz and Klondaika share the same rules: football bets are taken on 90 minutes plus stoppage time unless stated otherwise. The exception is bets on which team goes through to the next round or wins the competition (Optibet rules, 4.4.1.1.1; the same at Laimz and Klondaika).
• OlyBet settles football bets on regular time, and extra time and the penalty shoot-out are not counted unless stated otherwise (43.1). Its "Spēles rezultāts" (match result) market has three outcomes, while the "Uzvarētājs" (winner) market includes extra time and penalties and has only two (OlyBet rules, 12.7 and 12.8).
• 11.lv explains on its help page that full time in football is 90 minutes including stoppage time, and extra time and penalties do not count unless the bet description says otherwise.

Last season's final shows the difference. PSG and Arsenal drew 1-1, and PSG won 4-3 on penalties (UEFA). A 1X2 bet on PSG lost, a bet on the draw won, and a bet on PSG as tournament winner won.

In two-legged knockout ties, a bet on one match's result covers that match only, while a bet on reaching the next round is settled after both legs, once it is clear which team goes through (OlyBet rules, 43.19.18). The same regular-time principle applies to handicaps and totals; how they settle is explained in our article on handicap betting.

Outright bets: the winner, the top 8 and the top scorer

Outright bets are bets on how the tournament ends, and their rules differ between sportsbooks more than match bets do.

On 9 October, without signing in, we saw these markets at Latvian sportsbooks:

• Tournament winner - at all three sportsbooks we checked: 11.lv, OlyBet and Optibet.
• To reach the final - OlyBet and Optibet.
• Top 8 in the league phase - all three.
• League phase winner and top scorer - 11.lv and OlyBet.

What happens if your team is knocked out? Then a bet on it as tournament winner loses at every sportsbook. The difference lies in the rare case where the team does not take part at all: Optibet then refunds the bet at odds of 1.00 (4.4.2.1.10), while OlyBet treats it as lost (43.19.20). If several players share first place in the scoring chart, the odds are divided between them (Optibet 4.2.5, OlyBet 43.19.76), so the payout is smaller than the slip promised. If you pick an each-way bet on the winner at 11.lv, it is two bets: one on the win and one on a place in the final, which pays at half the odds even if the team loses the final.

What each market costs: our measurement

In our measurement the margin on match bets was about 5%, and on the tournament winner 23% to 26%.

On 9 October we recorded the 1X2 odds for all 18 second-round matches at 11.lv, OlyBet and Optibet and calculated the margin. Example: Man City v PSG at 2.25 / 4.00 / 2.75. The implied probabilities are 44.44% + 25.00% + 36.36% = 105.81%, so the margin is 5.81%. Averaged over all 18 matches, each sportsbook's margin was between 5.1% and 5.6%, but taking the best price of the three on every outcome it was only 3.16%. That is why comparing odds is one of the few things that really lowers the cost of betting; read more in our article on sports betting strategies.

Outright markets carry a much larger margin:

• Tournament winner: 23% to 26%.
• League phase winner: 36% to 37%.
• To reach the final: 15% to 17%.
• Top 8 in the league phase: 11% to 12%.

On the day we measured, the favourite was Barcelona at 5.00 at all three sportsbooks. That implies a 20% chance, or about 16% once the margin is removed. In other words, even by the market's own estimate the favourite would fail to win the tournament in roughly five seasons out of six. Over the last ten seasons the trophy went to six different clubs (UEFA), and before the 2025/26 season the Opta model's favourite was Liverpool at 20.4%, but PSG won (The Analyst).

Odds change every day, so these figures are a snapshot of one moment, not a comparison of sportsbooks. How to turn odds into a probability is covered in our sports betting basics, and why an accumulator multiplies the margin in our lesson on single, accumulator and system bets.

Latvian clubs in Europe

There is no Latvian club in the Champions League or the Europa League this season, but Riga FC plays in the Conference League's league phase.

Riga FC lost to Ararat-Armenia in Champions League qualifying but reached the Conference League's league phase by beating Klaksvík. Its first match is on 15 October in Riga against Kairat Almaty (UEFA). RFS and Liepāja went out in Conference League qualifying. The same regular-time rules apply to Conference League matches.

Where to bet on the Champions League

In Latvia you may only bet with operators licensed by the State Revenue Service.

Since 1 April 2026 gambling has been supervised by the State Revenue Service (VID), which publishes the list of licensed operators and has access to unlicensed sites blocked. Sportsbooks licensed in Latvia include Optibet, Klondaika, Laimz, LVBET, Betsafe and Tonybet. We cover football betting markets and our recommended sportsbooks for football on the football betting page, and sportsbooks' risk-free bet offers on the risk-free bets page. If you bet during the match, our guide to live betting will help.

Play within your means

A Champions League matchweek has two evenings with 18 matches, and each match has hundreds of markets, so it is easy to stake more than you planned. Set a budget for the whole matchweek and stop when it is spent. Our responsible gambling page gathers the tools that help, and how to join the self-exclusion register kept by the State Revenue Service is explained in a separate article. The addiction support line of the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 67037333, is anonymous (in Latvian). Betting is for people aged 18 and over only.