Euro 2020 Favourites
World Cup winners France lead the betting market at 5/1, with Didier Deschamps’ side potentially boosted by the return of Karim Benzema to the national team squad. England are not far behind at 11/2, while Belgium’s golden generation of players can be backed at 6/1. Reigning champions Portugal are 9/1.
If you want a more extensive rundown of all of the favourites – as well as some of the dark horses – to win Euro 2020, check out the article below before heading back here to read all of our Euro 2020 tips and selections:
Euro 2020 Outright Odds: Can England end their agonising wait for silverware?
Euro 2020 Outright Selections
France @ 5/1
The reigning World Cup champions will not only be hoping to add to their trophy cabinet here; they’ll be expecting to. Having lost in the final of Euro 2016 to Portugal on home turf, Les Bleus will no doubt feel they have unfinished business in this competition after bouncing back to win the World Cup in 2018. The year’s delay may actually have proven to be helpful for manager Didier Deschamps, too, as key players such as Paul Pogba, Antoine Griezmann and Ousmane Dembele have remained healthier and displayed better form for their clubs this season compared to last.
Moreover, Deschamps’ relationship with Karim Benzema appears to be on the mend after the Real Madrid striker was announced in his 26-man squad. Olivier Giroud does a good job for the team, but he infamously failed to even register a shot on target in the entirety of France’s triumphant World Cup 2018 campaign. The Chelsea man had previously been Deschamps’ best option as a target man, so the only real weakness in his squad may have evaporated via the inclusion of Benzema.
Les Blues’ strength in depth in every position is unquestionable, particularly in defence, where they are generally resolute. What’s more, they arguably possess the most talented player in the tournament in Kylian Mbappe; three years after he lit up the World Cup as a teenager in Russia, he’ll surely be even more deadly this time around. As such, it’s no surprise to see them ranked as short as 5/1, and they’d be a worthy bet for anyone willing back the favourites.
Portugal @ 9/1
Despite only winning one match in normal time at Euro 2016, Portugal are the holders of this competition. Jose Fonte, Pepe, Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Moutinho were all key players back then and are still a big part of this squad, but their squad has seen plenty of transition following that success in France, with the likes of Manchester City’s Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, Liverpool’s Diogo Jota and Eintracht Frankfurt’s Andre Silva all now integrated and expected to help their nation achieve further success.
In Dias and Andre Silva, Fernando Santos arguably has two players who can go some way to fixing Portugal’s major issues of recent years in terms of possessing quality central defenders and central strikers. Ronaldo is now 36-year-old and while he continues to score goals for fun both for club and country, he can no longer be expected to carry that burden alone, with Silva and Jota representing worthy foils to the legendary forward.
Portugal’s squad is packed with a tremendous blend of experience and youth, but more importantly they possess genuine quality all over the pitch, making them very interesting dark horses – if they can indeed still be considered that – at odds of 9/1.
Euro 2020 Golden Boot Selections
You can find our full rundown of the potential Euro 2020 Golden Boot winners and their odds at the time of writing here. In the meantime, we’ve got a couple of selections for you below.
Best Bet: Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) @ 8/1
England’s Harry Kane leads the betting (best priced 8/1 at Unibet), but we believe Romelu Lukaku provides better value at the same odds.
Belgium, who lead the FIFA World Rankings heading into Euro 2020, have been handed a relatively straightforward passage through to the knockout stages from Group B, having been placed alongside Denmark, Russia and Finland. Should they win Group B as expected, the highest ranked nation they would face prior to the semi-final would likely be Italy.
As such, with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Eden Hazard supplying him under an attack-minded manager in Roberto Martinez, Lukaku should receive plenty of opportunities to add to his astonishing tally of 59 goals in 91 caps for his country. The former Manchester United forward struck 24 times in Serie A this season on the way to helping Inter Milan win their first domestic title since 2010, so the 28-year-old will be full of confidence.
Longshot: Diogo Jota (Portugal) @ 50/1
Given that we expect Portugal to go far in the competition, Diogo Jota looks a real value pick after enjoying a superb debut season at Liverpool.
Only Gareth Bale and Kelechi Iheanacho scored more goals per minute than Jota (nine at a rate of every 124 minutes) managed in the Premier League this season, with the Portugal forward shining for the Reds either side of the serious knee injury he sustained in December.
He has bagged six goals in only 12 caps for his country, too, but may not be a guaranteed starter given that he is competing against the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Joao Felix, Andre Silva and Bernardo Silva for one of three spots in Portugal’s attack.
However, even if Jota does not start, he has proved a superb substitute for Liverpool, scoring four goals in seven appearances from the bench this season. Moreover, midfielders such as Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden, Dani Olmo and Georginio Wijnaldum have been priced at the same odds as Jota, so as a top-class forward he’s a clear value selection.
Euro 2020 Best Player of the Tournament Selections
Best Bet: Kylian Mbappe (France) @ 10/1
No player has won the European Championships Player of the Tournament award without reaching the final, so it is probably best to play it fairly safe when it comes to this market.
With this in mind, we are picking France’s best and most famous player in the shape of Kylian Mbappe. The Paris Saint-Germain forward lit up the 2018 World Cup as a teenager in Russia, and has shown his character and ability on the biggest occasions with superb braces against Barcelona and Bayern Munich in this season’s Champions League.
While France are blessed with several other world-class attackers in the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Karim Benzema, Mbappe is the one with the X-factor and is widely regarded as the man to replace Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s legacy as the best player in the world. This could be the tournament which he officially takes that mantle for the coming years.
Longshot: N'Golo Kante (France) @ 66/1
Everyone loves N’Golo Kante. He’s humble, unassuming, and a really fun player to watch considering he’s rarely likely to trouble the opposition’s goal in terms of directly scoring or assisting himself.
More importantly, though, he’s one of the best players in the world in terms of breaking up play in front of a defence and providing a platform for more talented attackers to shine. This was evident throughout France’s successful World Cup 2018 campaign, when Kante’s industry in midfield afforded Paul Pogba the space in midfield to hit his trademark long passes for the likes of Mbappe and Griezmann to latch onto. Didier Deschamps is unlikely to waiver from his preferred 4-4-2 system this summer, making Kante arguably his most important player in the middle of the pitch.
Moreover, journalists tend to have a huge voting share when it comes to these types of awards, and they’ve shown in recent years a tendency to pick a more alternative choice, for example Jordan Henderson and Ruben Dias winning the most recent Football Writers’ Player of the Year awards ahead of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Virgil van Dijk. As such, 66/1 looks a huge price for an integral player who could play every single minute of the tournament providing he stays fit and his side go as far as they are expected to.
Euro 2020 Best Young Player of the Tournament Selections
The Young Player of the Tournament is awarded to the best player in the tournament who is at most 22-years-old, so the likes of Phil Foden, Mason Mount, Jadon Sancho, Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham will all be eligible from an England perspective. Renato Sanches of Portugal was the inaugural winner of this award at Euro 2016.
Best Bet: Phil Foden (England) @ 9/2
Phil Foden has enjoyed a break-out season with Manchester City this season, with the 21-year-old starring in his boyhood club’s treble winning campaign.
Having been frustrated in the past by a lack of game-time under Pep Guardiola, Foden has finally received the amount a star of his precocious talent deserves, often drifting in from a wider starting position. His combination of acceleration, quick feet and powerful shooting ability is a scary proposition for any full-back to deal with.
Gareth Southgate clearly views him as an important part of his side having started Foden in England’s most recent two World Cup qualifying matches, so he should receive plenty of opportunities to showcase his talent.
Longshot: Declan Rice (England) @ 20/1
Likewise, with Jordan Henderson and Kalvin Phillips both heading into Euro 2020 with injury concerns, Declan Rice looks set to be a mainstay at the base of England’s midfield.
In all honesty, it’s crazy that the West Ham midfielder is still only 22-years-old. Rice has already racked up 131 Premier League appearances for the Hammers alongside 15 England caps since making his debut in 2019, displaying real authority and maturity in the engine room of midfield for club and country.
Like Kante, Rice’s driving runs from deep are sure to catch the eye of neutrals on top of his diligent dirty work, which is as good as the majority of players around in his position as he reads the game extremely well, Ultimately, he looks a decent value pick in this category at 20/1 should the more attacking players of his age group fail to make a real impact in the competition.
Euro 2020 Miscellaneous Selections
Highest Scoring Team
Best Bet: Belgium @ 11/2
As we have already mentioned with our selection of Lukaku to win the Golden Boot, we fancy Belgium to score plenty of goals in what is a fairly favourable group.
Roberto Martinez’s side were the top goalscorers on their way to qualifying for the Euros, scoring 40 goals in 10 matches. They are always likely to play an attractive brand of football under the Spaniard, and possess goals all across the pitch.
Their tally of 16 at the World Cup in 2018 was also more than any other nation, and they look well set to earn that accolade once again this summer.
Lowest Scoring Team
Best Bet: Hungary @ 13/2
No nation which qualified for Euro 2020 scored fewer goals during qualifying than Hungary’s tally of eight, although it should be noted that they played two fewer matches than some nations and did not have a sixth seed to potentially rack up a few easier goals against.
Marco Rossi’s side stunned Iceland in the play-offs to reach their second successive European Championships, after topping Group F in 2016 before losing 4-0 to Belgium in the second round.
However, they will have a much tougher job of progressing past the group stage this time around, having been placed in the ‘Group of Death’ alongside France, Germany and Portugal. In normal circumstances there are other nations – such as North Macedonia and Finland – we would select ahead of Hungary in this category, but it is hard to see where the goals are coming from against nations of that calibre, albeit Germany are not as watertight defensively as in previous years.
Winner/Top Goalscorer Double
Best Bet: France/Romelu Lukaku @ 66/1
Given that these are our two strongest selections for their respective markets, 66/1 is a superb price, as it’s actually better than doubling the best prices available on the respective markets (5/1 for France is 6 in decimal terms, and 8/1 for Lukaku is 9; multiplying the two together gives you 54, which would be 53/1).
Should things pan out as expected, which is far from guaranteed of course, then France and Belgium could meet each other in the semi-finals for the second successive major tournament. That match would be very close to call, but France would almost certainly be the marginal favourites with the bookmakers to prevail once again, and we’d agree with that.
As such, this bet is better value than selecting Belgium/Lukaku at less than half of the odds given that France would only have one more match to play in than Lukaku, who we hope would have already cemented himself in a very strong position to earn the Golden Boot.
Longshot: France/Diogo Jota @ 300/1
Each-Way Betting Explained
Some of our Euro 2020 selections – for example the Outright and Golden Boot markets – are available to back on an each-way basis with most bookmakers. Remember: an each-way bet is multiplied by two, so a £5 each-way bet is a £10 stake.
With regards to the Outright market, most bookmakers are paying half of the stipulated odds should your selected nation finish as runner-up at Euro 2020.
So if you successfully bet £5 each-way on Belgium at 6/1, for example, you would be returned with £35 for the win part of the bet, plus £20 for the each-way part of the bet (making a £55 return in total). Should they lose in the final, you would only receive £20 in return, as the win part of the bet would be a loser.
With regards to the Golden Boot market, most bookmakers are paying a quarter of the stipulated odds should your selected player finish as the second, third or fourth top goalscorer at Euro 2020.
So if you successfully bet £5 each-way on Romelu Lukaku at 8/1, for example, you would be returned with £45 for the win part of the bet, plus £15 for the each-way part of the bet (making a £60 return in total). Should Lukaku finish second, third or fourth in the Golden Boot race, you would only receive £15 in total, as the win part of the bet would be a loser.
The each-way terms should be noted in the betting slip of your selection, but it’s always worth checking for any notes at the top of the market for further explanation, or indeed the terms and conditions on site.
Please note that dead heat rules can apply in certain markets, potentially reducing your each-way return depending on the amount of teams/players involved.
All of our Euro 2020 bookmaker offers and FAQ can be found here.