South Korea K-League Bitcoin Sports Betting
The K League is South Korea’s football association. Under this association, we’ve got the K League Classic (1st Division) and the K League Challenge (2nd Division). The league was founded in 1983 and has a total of 22 active teams. For the next K League events, please refer to our betting odds below.
Best Bitcoin South Korea K-League Betting Websites:
Sportsbet.io Crypto Sport Betting
- x3 Welcome Bonus!
- 24/7 Live Chat
Con´s:
- Not US Friendly
Onehash Bitcoin Sportsbook
-100% Deposit Match Bonus
- US Friendly!
Con´s:
- Pretty new site
CloudBet Bitcoin Casino and Sportsbook
- 100% Cash Bonus
- Great Odds
- Established Sportsbook
Con´s:
- Not US Friendly
[get_bit_html id=’31’ name=’South Korea K-League Sportsbook Odds’ date=’648000′ hide_empty=’1′ event=’South Korea K-League’ hide_match_empty=’1′]
The K League 1, formerly known as the K League, is the highest professional football category in South Korea, attached to the Asian Football Confederation. It involves 12 clubs, which play between March and October.
The tournament was created in 1983 under the name of Korean Super League, the first professional football competition in Asia. Many of the teams are directly controlled by chaebol or organisations, although in recent years new participants have emerged without business links.
In the 2013 season, a system of promotions and relegations was established with the creation of a second category, K League 2. The top division adopted its current name
Competition system
The South Korean league runs from March to the end of October, with 12 teams participating. The highest ranked team at the end of the league becomes the champion of South Korea. The top three also qualify for the AFC Champions League.
The 2014 season consists of two phases. Following a league system, the clubs face each other on three occasions – at least one on home turf and one on the other – for a total of thirty-three rounds. The order of the matches is decided by drawing lots before the competition begins. When this phase ends, the teams are divided into two groups: one by title (from first to sixth place) and another by permanence (from seventh to twelfth), keeping the points they won in the regular league. In this round, the clubs only face each other once. By the end of the league, all will have played thirty-eight rounds.
There is a system of promotions and relegations with the K League Challenge, the second professional division. The last K League Classic qualifier is relegated and replaced by the Challenge champion. The second-to-last ranked player competes in a two-way promotion with the runner-up of the lower category.
In order to participate in the K League, a closed registration system is maintained, where members must comply with requirements imposed by the league organisation.2 Most clubs are controlled by the country’s main business conglomerates (chaebol), something that has been maintained since the creation of the championship. For years there has also been a balance between the different regions of the country, which even led to the transfer of some franchises to other zones without clubs (such as Seoul in 2004 or the island of Jeju in 2006).
The league’s points system is similar to that of other European and international competitions: three points for victory, one for draw and none for defeat.
Prior to the creation of this system, South Korea held only business and university football championships. To develop this sport and its national team, the Korean Football Association created in 1983 a strictly professional competition, the first of its kind in Asia, which it called the Korean Super League.
To establish the first participants, both strictly professional franchises and clubs from the business leagues were taken into account. The South Korean conglomerates (chaebol) maintained their sponsorship in the name of their teams, in the same way as the Korean Baseball Organization. In addition, each club represented an area of the country, rather than focusing on a specific city. In total, five members were admitted: two fully professional (Hallelujah FC and Yukong Kokkiri) and three from the corporate football leagues (Daewoo, Kookmin Bank FC and POSCO).
The first season was held from 8 May to 25 September 1983 in a regular league format with 16 rounds. Instead of playing them at home and at home, series were played in the most populated cities, with the intention of expanding the sport throughout the country. The champion was Hallelujah FC and the most valuable player was Park Sung-wha.
Development of the championship
In its first year, the K-League had a good attendance at the stadiums, with an average of 20,000 spectators, which led to the incorporation of new clubs the following year with the arrival of Hyundai Horang-i, Hanil Bank FC and Lucky-Goldstar, all professional and controlled by major national companies. A system of opening and closing phases was developed, with series in the most important cities, where the champions of each phase would face each other in a two-way final. At that time there was also the arrival of the first international players, such as Thai star Piyapong Pue-on or Dutchman Rob Landsbergen.
Although the series system was maintained in the early seasons, attendance on the pitches declined and even some clubs, such as Hallelujah or Hanil Bank, gave up professional competition. As a result, a small number of participants were kept in the following seasons and other competition systems were developed to attract the public. From 1987 franchises were established where each club would be established in a stadium, instead of the series in cities.
On a sporting level, the league was a success because the results in international competitions were improved. The South Korean national team certified its qualification for the 1986 World Cup and became a powerhouse of Asian football. In terms of clubs, Daewoo Royals became the first South Korean team to win an international tournament, the 1985 Asian Club Championship. Within the Asian Football Confederation, countries such as Japan and China looked to the South Korean model to create their own professional tournaments.
K-League Reconversion
South Korea maintained a small number of participants until 1996, when, along with Japan, it hosted the 2002 World Cup. The championship grew to 10 teams in 1997, allowed up to three foreign players to be signed, and established a regular league system with play-offs for the title. In order to increase the number of supporters, links with the host cities and provinces were strengthened. And in 1997 the league changed its trade name to K-League.
South Korea’s success in its own World Cup, where the country reached the semi-finals and finished fourth, was a boost to the popularity of football and the domestic league. The organisation allowed the incorporation of new clubs; in order to prevent the development of footballers from being hindered by compulsory military service, it admitted the South Korean army team in 2003, under a series of conditions. In other cases, such as the maintenance of the World Cup stadiums in 2002, it led to the transfer of franchises to cities with a larger population, as in the case of FC Seoul in 2004. In addition, teams with no relationship with companies such as Daejeon Citizen, the first club of members, began to appear. The objective of the organization was that each province of the country had its own franchise in the top division.
With its consolidation in South Korean sport, the K-League had to face new challenges. In the middle of the 2011 season, it was involved in a corruption scandal over betting rigging, which ended with 31 people convicted among players, bookmakers and administrative staff.56 With 16 teams participating in 2012, the league implemented a system of promotions and relegations to a newly created second division (K League Challenge) from the 2013 season onwards.
International relevance
The K-League is one of the most powerful leagues in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was the first professional football championship to exist on the Asian continent and served as a model for other countries to adopt a professional model. For example, the Japanese J. League took references from the South Korean league for its creation in 1992, such as the formation of franchises from corporate teams. In South Korea, however, the dependence on the sponsor is greater.
In the FIFA ranking, South Korea ranks third among the AFC countries, behind Japan and Australia, and ranked first in 2000, 2003 and 2004. Since the creation of the K-League, the Korean national team has been present at every FIFA World Cup since Mexico 1986.
The K-League maintains restrictions on hiring foreigners to support the Korean athlete. All players on the Korean peninsula are nationals, which also includes North Korea, which is not recognized as a state by the South. Currently, three foreign players are allowed per team, plus one extra place that must belong to an Asian Confederation country. All clubs can sign them except Sangju Sangmu Phoenix, the Republic of Korea Armed Forces team.
No foreign goalkeepers have been allowed since 1999
Of all the players who played in the first season of 1983, there were only two foreign players from Brazil. However, the number increased with the passage of time, attracted by the economic offers. For more than 10 years only two were allowed per team, until in 1994 it was increased to three. The restrictions have been maintained with the exception of 2001 and 2002, when the league allowed up to seven foreigners per team to promote the country during the 2002 World Cup that organized together with Japan.
The majority of foreigners come from South America and Eastern Europe, though the Korean championship has had more trouble attracting international figures than other countries like Japan. The first international star was Piyapong Pue-on, Thailand’s striker who was top scorer in 1985. Also noteworthy were Rade Bogdanović, who made a career with Pohang Steelers before moving to Europe, and Valeri Sarychev, a Tajik goalkeeper who became a Korean national in 2000 and was one of the most important figures in the 1990s.
Scoring system
The league’s points system is similar to that of other European and international competitions: three points for victory, one for draw and none for defeat.
However, throughout its history it has had other ways of rewarding victories:
- 1983: Three points for victory, one for draw (in most countries, victory was then rewarded with two points).
- 1984: Three points for victory, two for a goal draw, one for a goalless draw.
- 1985 to 1992: Two points for victory, one for draw.
- 1993: Four points for victory, two for victory on penalties, one for defeat on penalties. There are no ties.
- Since 1994: Three points for victory, one for draw.