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Betting on reigning champions: The most important things to consider

Reigning champs are always a viable choice for an outright bet in a competition or tournament and in many cases they are very attractive options for punters indeed, particularly as online sportsbooks such as those in Swiss betting, present them with many enticing bet markets. Overall, previous winners are an easy choice for bettors and this is especially true, when reigning champions are top athletes or top teams, which generally have strong potentials for winning again and retaining their title. 

But this is not always the case and if you like to bet on reigning champions then there are some very important things to consider before you make up your mind or make any final choices. 

The most significant issue to take into account is that history has taught us that defending a title is much more difficult than claiming a title and not everyone can do it effectively. But why should retaining the championship be more difficult than contending for the trophy? 

1. There is much pressure on retaining the title, repeating the success and proving that they are worth it. 

Reigning champions are under pressure not only to defend their crown, but to repeat what they have already done in order to reaffirm their value and verify that they are indeed capable of doing it. 

Title defenses have lately been a hot topic of interest for football fans, especially as top clubs have been struggling to remain on the top once they have reached the top. Sustaining the triumph for a second season or for two or more consecutive years, becomes quite a challenge, which mounts as a club goes deeper and deeper and comes into the finals for defending it. 

The challenge brings stress and the stress brings pressure. And when in pressure, squads can make poor decisions and eventually lose their title. 

No wonder why, successful title defenses don’t happen very often in football.  In the history of the FIFA World Cup, there have only been two teams retaining their title: Italy back in 1934 and 1938 and Brazil in 1958 and 1962. Of course both teams have won the World Cup in other years as well, but they only managed to successfully defend their crown one time. 

In national leagues things are different. In EPL for example, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have been basically repeating their success in two or in some cases in three years. Manchester United has managed to defend its trophy three times for three consecutive seasons! 

In the UEFA Champions League we see Real Madrid retaining its title for three consecutive years from 2015 to 2018, while many years earlier this had been done by Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. 

It seems that title defenses can’t be easily accomplished successfully by everyone. Some clubs can do it and have proven that they can do it again, while for other clubs the pressure is strong and they find it hard to rise up to the expectations. 

So, when you want to bet on the reigning champion, you need to do some research initially to see their past and evaluate how they’ve behaved in other similar situations. Also consider how much pressure is placed upon them and how much there is at stake. 

2. Once getting the title, they are loosened up. This is especially true for clubs and teams that have not managed to win a lot of titles in the course of their campaigns. When they actually lift the trophy, they lose motive. 

There are many cases where getting the crown functions as the primary motive for everything and once attaining the goal, they have a waning motivation to do it again. This has been made rather explicit in several cases both in world competitions and in smaller, national leagues. We have seen reigning champions be less motivated and less intrigued by the idea of getting it again, which is clearly reflected in their performance and overall behavior in the field. 

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