The one metric you should always ignore when placing your Euro 2024 bets

Belgium have been one of the top ranked sides in the world for a number of years now, with the Red Devils moving back up to third on Monday following their Euro 2024 opener.

This comes despite the fact they lost to Slovakia 1-0 in this game, with the Red Devils result showing exactly why it’s always wise to side with other metrics and stats when placing your bet instead of focusing on world rankings.

A lot is made of world rankings heading into tournaments, with analysts using these rankings to determine who has the harder group, as well as who should be progressing out of their group.

For example, ahead of the 2022 World Cup, a lot was made of the fact that all of the teams in group B were ranked inside the top 20, with this then suggesting that England has the hardest group.

Despite this, the Three Lions scored the joint-highest amount of goals in the group stage, as well as being one of three teams to manage more than six points from their three games, putting to shame the idea that their group was particularly harder than anyone else’s.

Odds, form and injuries are all better metrics to use when deciding which teams to bet on with the Euros.

Odds courtesy of Sky Bet. Correct at time of publication and subject to change.

As per the table above, Belgium are the highest ranked team in teams of the FIFA world rankings, however they boast by far and away the highest odds out of any of the selected teams to win the Euros.

This only highlights the fact that the world rankings are a metric to always avoid when placing your bets.

The likes of form and injuries/suspensions are just two of the ways to guide your betting when staking on the Euros, with the odds themselves also a quick and easy way to tell which team are favoured and which team are underdogs.