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Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the European Football Championship had to be moved from 2020 to 2021, but the name of the event was not changed. This summer's tournament will commemorate the 60th anniversary of European football and precisely for this reason, last year's name will be retained. The upcoming championship is the first in the history of European football tournaments where matches will be organized in 11 different cities: London, Munich, Rome, Baku, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Seville, Budapest, Glasgow, Copenhagen, and Budapest. The number 11 is special for this championship: not only will there be 11 cities participating in the tournament, but the event itself will start on June 11th and end on July 11th. The semi-final and final matches will take place in London, at the famous Wembley Stadium, which can accommodate up to 90,000 spectators and is the second largest football stadium in Europe. A special championship logo was created to commemorate this occasion - a symbol that connects all participating countries and their residents: the logo creators presented a metaphor of a football bridge. Also, the championship ball created by Adidas spreads the same idea - named "Uniforia", this ball reminds of unity and the euphoria experienced during the game, while the blank brush strokes on the ball symbolize the disappearance of boundaries. Twenty-four teams will participate in the upcoming tournament: the title of the championship will be defended by the Portuguese national team, the winner of the 2016 championship. England, France, and Belgium are among the favorites this year, with betting companies offering the lowest odds for their victory. After them, the Germans and the Spaniards are ranked, who, by the way, are the only team to have won two European Championship titles in a row and always able to surprise their fans. European and World football championships are the sports events that attract the most enthusiastic betting enthusiasts: thousands of sports fans bet on various amounts of money for their supported team's victories. In addition, betting on the most productive player of the championship is also one of the most active: this is any player from a team participating in the tournament who scores the highest number of goals. Since many top-class football professionals are participating in this championship, predicting the most productive player is not easy and the odds for these bets can be quite high. The main favorites to win the Golden Boot this year are K. Benzema, Ch. Ronaldo, M. Depay, and A. Griezmann. Ch. Ronaldo is the only player to have scored in four European championships and achieved a result of 9 goals in 21 matches. Interestingly, three of the tournament favorites will face each other in the first stage of the championship, in the so-called "Group of Death": Portugal, Germany, and France, whose matches will take place in Budapest. According to the betting organizers, France and Germany have the best chances to win in this group, while Hungary, whose capital will host the matches, has the least chance of reaching the quarter-finals. Although making bets may seem relatively simple when reviewing the odds, it is worth examining betting strategies and exploring ways to control your betting budget. The choice of betting strategy depends on the sport branch, the betting organizer, and the player's experience: it is important to understand how betting works before starting to make bets. During the last European Championship in 2016, Portugal was not among the tournament favorites and had odds of 16/1, which resulted in significant winnings for those who believed in this team. Additionally, the high odds were influenced by the fact that Portugal had never won the European Champions title before. The 2016 championship stood out with a larger prize fund than ever before: a total of 301 million euros was distributed among the participating teams, while the previous largest budget was 196 million euros. This year's tournament boasts its generosity: the participating teams will each receive up to 10 million euros, which is 20% more than in the previous European Championship. The European countries affected by the coronavirus will be revitalized with the help of the European Football Championship: it is estimated that organizing 4 matches in each city will generate at least 106 million euros in revenue. There was consideration of not limiting the number of fans in the London Wembley Stadium, but in order to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus, only about 25% of the tickets were sold. VIP tickets did not receive much interest, which is also explained by the existing travel restrictions. It is reported that unsold VIP tickets will provide an opportunity to sell additional seats to local fans. The only city willing to accept all fans is the capital of Hungary, Budapest: a stadium accommodating 61,000 spectators will become the venue for matches of the Austrian, Ukrainian, and Macedonian national teams. Fans with match tickets will be offered free use of public transport on match days in Hungary. The large number of spectators is also due to the fact that entry to the stadium will only be possible with a vaccine or a negative PCR test result. In addition, many fans plan to host matches in the second largest city of Russia, St. Petersburg - almost 50% (30,000) of the possible seats have been allowed to be sold. Also, those wishing to see the matches in Baku will have to provide a negative coronavirus test result, but the number of seats is not small - up to 31,000 out of a possible 68,000, while the stadiums in other cities will be limited to 11,000-15,000 spectators. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Vilnius will not give up the tradition of the fan zone - the European Football Championship will be able to be watched directly from the meadow near the White Bridge. UEFA announced that despite the coronavirus pandemic, this year's championship is expected to generate around 2.5 billion euros in revenue.
