By Betmaker Team
The top club competition in the world is the UEFA Champions League. This event brings together the best club teams from all over Europe, and they take part in a months-long tournament to determine the top team on the continent.
There are multiple play-in rounds in addition to automatic qualification spots, but the tournament proper gets underway in the 32-team Group Stage. Those teams are split into eight groups of four, and the top two teams in every group advance to the knockout rounds after a double round-robin. From there, the 16 remaining teams are placed into a single-elimination bracket and play home and homes until the final at a neutral site.
Betting on the UEFA Champions League
You can bet on the Champions League essentially year-round at online sportsbooks. There are futures available the moment teams lock in their spots to this competition, and you can wager on every match along the way. Before the tournament proper begins, there will also be prop odds on how far certain teams will advance and head-to-head matchups on which club will advance further in the competition.
UEFA Champions League History
UEFA Champions League Winners Since 2000
| Year | Club |
| 2019-20 | Bayern Munich |
| 2018-19 | Liverpool |
| 2017-18 | Real Madrid |
| 2016-17 | Real Madrid |
| 2015-16 | Real Madrid |
| 2014-15 | Barcelona |
| 2013-14 | Real Madrid |
| 2012-13 | Bayern Munich |
| 2011-12 | Chelsea |
| 2010-11 | Barcelona |
| 2009-10 | Inter Milan |
| 2008-09 | Barcelona |
| 2007-08 | Manchester United |
| 2006-07 | AC Milan |
| 2005-06 | Barcelona |
| 2004-05 | Liverpool |
| 2003-04 | Porto |
| 2002-03 | AC Milan |
| 2001-02 | Real Madrid |
| 2000-01 | Bayern Munich |
Real Madrid is the greatest team in the history of the Champions League. The Spanish juggernauts asserted their dominance in this competition early by winning the first five Champions League tournaments. Only a handful of teams have that many Champions League titles, but they didn’t stop there.
The club won three titles in five seasons at the turn of the century, and they won another four titles in five years during the 2010s. Their 13 Champions League titles are double that of every other team aside from AC Milan, and they are unlikely to be caught for a long time.
AC Milan haven’t won the Champions League since 2007, but the Italian club has seven titles in this competition and won five of those trophies between 1989 and 2007. We haven’t seen them in the Champions League much in recent years as they have fell behind Juventus and city rivals Inter Milan in domestic play though.
Bayern Munich and Liverpool are next on the list in terms of successful teams. Both clubs have won six Champions League titles after their most recent victories.
The German giants won three straight Champions League titles between 1974 and 1976, and they were unstoppable throughout their 2020 Champions League run. Bayern Munich went 6-0 in the Group Stage with a +19 goal differential, and then they beat Chelsea 7-1 on aggregate in the Round of 16. They proceeded to beat Barcelona 8-2 in the quarterfinals and Lyon 3-0 in the semifinals before they “only” beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in the final. Bayern Munich are the only team in Champions League history to win every game in the competition.
Liverpool won four of their Champions League titles between 1977 and 1984. That was the golden age of the club, but the Heysel Stadium disaster in their loss to Juventus in 1985 led to the Reds being banned from this competition for six years. They overcame a 3-0 deficit in seven minutes to win the 2005 Champions League Final in penalties, and they knocked off Tottenham Hotspur in the second all-England Champions League Final in 2019.
Barcelona won five Champions League titles between 1992 and 2015. The Blaugrana failed to win a Champions League before that, but Lionel Messi brought Barca a ton of success in this competition. Messi led the club to four of those championships from 2006 to 2015, enshrining himself as a generational talent.
The unluckiest team in the history of this competition is Juventus. Juventus have won more Serie A titles than anyone else in Italy by a wide margin, but they have a history of coming up short in the Champions League. They have finished runner-up a record seven times in this tournament.
