As the shortlist for this year’s Ballon d’Or suggests, Spain’s La Liga – or Primera Division – is arguably the most exciting league in the world ahead of the English Premier League.

La Liga has also grown in popularity in regards to betting in recent years, with Spreadex now offering in-play fixed odds and spread betting on every game from the Spanish top flight every weekend.

So how does football betting on La Liga compare to betting on the Premier League?

Betting on Total Goals
Headlines of free-scoring romps from Barcelona and Real Madrid seem like a regular occurrence, but when you compare the stats of goals scored so far in total this season in La Liga and the Premier League, it’s the English league that is leading the way.

The average goals per game in La Liga so far this term is 2.68 compared to 2.88 in the Premier League.

In total, 57% of all games in the Premier League so far have featured three or more goals compared to 49% in Spain’s top division.

So this could be something to bear in mind when you take a look at Spreadex’s Total Goals spread betting quotes or Total Goals Over/Under fixed odds bands this coming weekend.

Betting on Bookings and Red Cards
When it comes to foul play and indiscipline, it’s fair to say La Liga is far dirtier than the Premier League.

After nine rounds of matches in both leagues, La Liga had recorded 462 yellows and 17 reds from 90 matches while the Premier League had seen 342 yellows and 14 reds.

Based on Spreadex’s Bookings spread betting market (10 points per yellow and 25 points per red, with maximum 35 points per player in a match), La Liga’s average Bookings make-up per game is 57.1 and the Premier League’s average Bookings make-up per game is 42.6.

In the Premier League, there are eight referees who currently average at least four yellow cards per match, while in La Liga 18 referees average at least four bookings per match.

Again, this could be something to bear in mind when betting on yellow and red cards in either league this coming weekend.

Betting on Corners
For punters who like to bet on corners when watching the footie, it’s La Liga where there is more flag-kick action. But only just.

For the season so far, the average number of corners per game in La Liga is 10.6 compared to 10.3 in the Premier League.

Barcelona have taken the most so far in La Liga (68) and conceded the fewest (23) while Real Sociedad’s matches have heralded an average of 13 corners per game so far.

In the Premier League, West Ham lead the way so far when it comes to corners. The Hammers have taken the most corners of all the teams so far (64) and matches involving Big Sam’s men average 13 corners per game.

Conversely, Swansea are the most corner-shy team in the English top flight having taken just 19 so far with the Swans’ games averaging a measly 6.67 corners per game so far.

Manchester City have conceded the fewest corners so far this term (27).

Betting on Match Odds or Supremacy
As most punters will testify this season, Chelsea aside it’s not been all plain sailing when betting on favourites on the match odds so far this term.

Many an acca has been ruined by some surprising results such as Stoke winning at Manchester City or Villa downing Liverpool at Anfield.

In La Liga, the favourites have been generally more reliable with soccervista.com’s Betting Index, based on the return from betting on favourites, at 22 compared to just 2.6 for the Premier League.

In La Liga home team advantage is slightly greater than in the Premier League with Spanish top flight sides averaging 1.53 points per game so far compared to 1.51 in the Premier League.

When it comes to betting on draws, 27% of games have finished in a draw in La Liga so far this season compared to 31% in the Premier League.

Betting on Shirt Numbers
For those who like their more unusual spread bets such as Shirt Numbers (the number of the goalscorers’ shirts in a match, aggregated), then the Premier League probably just edges La Liga so far.

Looking at the league goals scored by the top 10 goalscorers in each league and multiplying by their shirt number, La Liga has a Shirt Number average of 10.1 per goal scored while the Premier League has a Shirt Number average of 17.1 per goal scored.

This is largely due to Premier League leading scorers Sergio Aguero, Diego Costa and Saido Berahino wearing 16, 19 and 18 respectively compared to La Liga leading scorers Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Lionel Messi wearing 7, 11 and 10 respectively.

Again something to ponder for those who like to play on Spreadex’s Shirt Numbers markets in both leagues.

Conclusion
So the overview is that, nine matches into the season in both leagues, the Premier League so far has the edge when it comes to betting long on goals, corners and shirts while La Liga comes out on top for those looking to buy on bookings or red cards or to back favourites.

Either way, with Spreadex now offering in-play fixed odds and spread betting on every La Liga game as well as on every Premier League game, there are more than enough betting markets to keep even the most choosy of punter content across both leagues.