The start of the new Premier League season is a highly anticipated moment. As managers look to shape and build a team that can compete for trophies, with players being put through their paces in pre-season friendlies.
And the fans, perhaps this is the moment the fans cherish the most. As they can enjoy the transfer circus which seems to revolve around every club, as they can debate and build their hopes for a great campaign. And for a lucky few, being able to win some money through an every growing betting scene.
The Premier League, especially in more recent times has been very unpredictable, no-one predicted that Leicester would ever be anything more than relegation contenders. Let alone being able to win the league. The likes of Tottenham are starting to cement themselves as a consistent top four team.
This is why the Premier League is considered to be the best league in the world, the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich may be better teams. But nothing can compete with the spectacle of the Premier League, where anything can happen, and anyone has a chance of winning. No one or two teams have been able to dominate since perhaps the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal from the early 90's to the mid 2000's.
So considering all of this, who would be favourite to take the league this season? Well that is certainly not an easy question to answer, although Chelsea are the champions, they had the benefits of no European football to worry about last season. Which perhaps helped them focus purely on the league, would they be able to juggle the extra competition this season whilst still being able to challenge for the league?
They most certainly have a great chance, but for me, the imminent loss of top goalscorer Diego Costa could be huge. And although they look set to bring Alvaro Morata in from Real Madrid, he is still rather untested and may not be able to fill the void of Costa's goals.
The likes of Tottenham and Liverpool, who have certainly emerged out of the shadows of the bigger clubs are really starting to make their mark, and perhaps with the right signings could look to win the league. And of course you can never rule out the likes of Manchester United, Manchester City or Arsenal. All three clubs had disappointing league finishes by their standards last season. And all three clubs have already signalled their intentions with big money signings.
So for the average punter the Premier League certainly is a hard league to be able to win any money from, being able to predict who will outright win the league is something that is hard to do. Because as previous seasons have shown, anything can happen. And another problem with this is just betting on whoever is a strong contender to win the league may not always be the most money efficient bet you can make. Because obviously if a team is favourite to win the league, then they are going to have shorter odds. Thus giving you a smaller return on the money you put it.
Compare this to Leicester for example in their title winning season, they started out with odds of 5000/1 to win the league. So anyone who was lucky enough to place a bet on that would have ended up with a huge return.
Also the betting industry has evolved a lot over the years, there's a lot more you can bet on than simply who will win a match or who will win the league. There's so many options available, the biggest problem however is being able to discern what the best option is. Of course it is mostly guesswork, but there are certainly ways of being able to make the smarter bet.
Being able to understand how odds work is an important step, there are also many sites out there now which have become dedicated to helping people figure out what the best bet is.
So all in all, this should prove to be another exciting season, with the top clubs continuing to spend big on the best talent around Europe. The quality of the league is just going to keep getting better, and never discount the lower teams. Because you never know what will happen, perhaps this could be Everton's time to shine? This is what the Premier League the best in the world, and with people now being able to interact and immerse themselves in every game, the opportunities are certainly endless.