Despite its obvious inferiority to the Champions League, the UEFA Cup shouldn’t be overlooked as a betting contest. Indeed, with bookmaker attention regularly focusing on Europe’s premier competition, there is plenty of value available on this competition. Sevilla have won this contest in the past two seasons but there’ll definitely be a new name on the trophy next term as the Spanish team will be playing in the Champions League.

It’s important to remember that the full line-up of teams in the UEFA Cup won’t be realised until the Champions League group stages have finished. Therefore, unless you see a stick-out price, it’s worth holding back from a bet until the eight third-placed teams from the CL are placed into the competition in December.

In the UEFA Cup, it regularly pays to oppose the so-called big names, even more so than in the Champions League. For example, while every firm under the sun will make Bayern Munich hot favourites in season 2007/8, it’s worth remembering why they’re here in the first place, ie they only finished fourth in last season’s Bundesliga. Similarly, Tottenham are a short-price simply because they’re an English team (so it follows English bookies will overrate them) when it’s clear that they’re shaky defensively.

Teams that enter the UEFA Cup after finishing third in their Champions League group don’t have a great record, while it’s also important to establish how seriously every team is taking the tournament. While one would assume it would be a great honour to win this European competition, teams will forego their chance of glory if it means they qualify for the riches of the Champions League the following season.