The bet is Betis lose on the road again

Fourteenth-placed Elche is inexplicably big at odds of 2.38 with BetVictor to defeat bottom-of-the-table Betis in the 28th round of matches in the Spanish Primera Division.

One was expecting to see bookmakers quote Elche, who won the reverse Spanish Primera Division fixture 2-1, at a shade of odds on so BetVictor’s offer is far too good to refuse.

Just saying that Elche beat Betis 2-1 in Seville five months ago does not do justice to the triumphant team’s excellent effort. Elche played all bar two minutes of the second half with 10 men but it was still too good for Betis, holding on to the 2-1 lead that it had taken into the half-time break.

Elche is six positions and 11 points ahead of Betis on the Spanish Primera Division ladder and that alone should be sufficient for the home side to be trading at odds shorter than 2.00. Factor in the league-worst road record of Betis – zero wins, three draws, 10 losses and a goal difference of minus 26 – and there is no logical reason for BetVictor offering odds of 2.38 about Elche beating Betis again.

The Spanish Primera Division match game featuring Elche and Betis is sandwiched between the UEFA Europa League matches featuring Betis and Sevilla. That has to be a distraction to Betis given the derby nature of its European assignments.

Sociedad defeated Valencia 2-1 on the road in October when it was not travelling particularly well. Now sixth on the Spanish Primera Division ladder – two places and seven points in front of Valencia – Sociedad is attractively priced at odds of 2.20 with Coral to do the double.

Actually, Sociedad is bidding to do more than beat Valencia for the second time in a row. Sociedad has won each of the last five Spanish Primera Division games between the sides, including last season’s matches by 4-2 and 5-2 margins. So the head-to-head results are firmly in Sociedad’s favour.

Sociedad did lose 2-3 to 19th-placed Rayo Vallecano in its last Spanish Primera Division home game but Valencia’s most recent domestic away match resulted in a 0-1 loss to the same struggling team. Valencia has been one of the Spanish Primera Division’s least accomplished road sides for several terms and its preparations for its game versus Sociedad will be interrupted by the small matter of an UEFA Europa League away match against Ludogorets in Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.

Like Elche, Sociedad deserves to be a fair few rolls shorter than the available odds, with the San Sebastian-based team worthy of being quoted at around the even-money mark.

Finally, bet on the Spanish Primera Division game between Levante and Celta going under two and a half goals. Levante is the equal least entertaining Spanish Primera Division side, with its 27 top-flight matches producing 60 goals at an average of 2.22. Sixteen of Levante’s 27 Spanish Primera Division games have gone under two and a half goals, which is a tally that only Getafe (18 out of 27) and Malaga (17 out of 27) can top. And Celta is not a barrel of laughs, either, with the Vigo-based team’s 27 Spanish Primera Division matches having a relatively low mean of 2.63 goals and 14 of those games going under two and a half goals.

It took 89 minutes for Papakouli Diop to break the deadlock when Celta hosted Levante in the ninth round of Spanish Primera Division matches. Under two and a half goals in Levante’s home game is available at odds of 1.62 with BetVictor and Stan James and it is a play.