Football in Norway is slow but surely getting more popular throughout Europe and this Norwegian football guide has been designed to help any punters looking to wager on Norwegian football online.
The first thing the guide will do is show you what the best Norwegian football betting sites are by comparing the best online services with one another specifically looking at what they offer to Norwegian football punters. Then I’ll cover how their league system works, who the best teams are historically and where you can find up to date match previews, tables, fixtures and results for the league.
Best Bookmakers For Norwegian (Eliteserien) Football
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*Detailed reviews of each site listed above can be found in the reviews section of Cheekypunter.com.
Latest Eliteserien Odds
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How Does the Norwegian League Work?
So we’ve established what the best Norwegian football bookmakers but how does the league work?
The top tier of the Norwegian League – known to residents of the country as the Eliteserien – is not regarded to be one of the stronger leagues in Europe, or even in Scandinavia, but the competition is still fierce and a reasonably high standard of play can be observed.
The league is comprised of 16 different teams, who all play each other twice in the season; once at home and once away. Most of the clubs are located in the south of the country, meaning travelling is not a problem, however Tromso are located inside the Arctic Circle, which leads to a gruelling trip for every side once a year!
Promotion & Relegation
Promotion and relegation to and from this league takes a simple format, with the bottom two teams in the Eliteserien being relegated and the top two teams from the Adeccoligaen – the tier below the first division – replacing them. The 14th placed team used to enter a playoff with the third placed team from the second tier, but this was scrapped at the beginning of the 2011 season.
When it comes to European qualification, Norway does not get a huge amount of representation. Only the champions of the league get to enter the Champions League (into the second qualifying round) and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams are entered into the Europa League. Another team will gain entry to the UEFA Europa League through winning the cup competition, however if they have already qualified through league position, the 4th placed league team will get the Europa League place.
Who are the Top Teams in the Norwegian League?
Throughout the history of the top tier of Norwegian football, there has been one team that has dominated proceedings, and that team is Rosenborg. They have won 26 league titles – including every title from 1995-2006 and are still considered to be the biggest club in the country.
Recently their dominance has been challenged by Molde, who won the league for the first time in their history in the 2011 season. They were managed by former Manchester United player Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and are seen as being a team who will continue to perform well into the future.
Other teams who are consistently near the top of the league and should be looked out for when you bet on Norwegian football include Valerenga and Tromso, although the second most successful team in the history of the league – Fredrikstad – has waned somewhat in power over recent years. They are still in a rebuilding process though, as they were only promoted back to the top flight in 2003 after 18 years in the lower leagues.
Most of the better players from the league tend to move to larger clubs throughout Europe, although there are still a few well-known names plying their trade in the Norwegian League.
Norwegian Football – Match Previews & News
As you would expect from a league of this size, finding information about upcoming fixtures can be tough. Although major sites such as the BBC will provide the basic results, they will only do this and won’t give any analysis of the games. This means that you will have to look at other sites to find any decent information, such as the official site of the league at www.fotball.no, which can be translated into English using the button at the top of the page.
Aside from the official website there’s few Norwegian football resources which actually provide detailed info on the matches and teams in the league.
For gambling purposes, most bookies – such as Unibet – will provide odds for the games taking place. They will also usually incorporate these games into their live streaming schedule, although gambling on the league is not massively popular by people outside of the country.
