France Pro D2 Bitcoin Sports Betting
The second division of domestic Rugby Club in France was founded in 2000 and has 16 active teams under its division. People are now able to bet on teams like Aviron Bayonnais, Biarritz Olympique, US Carcassonne, Colomiers Rugby, and a whole lot more using Bitcoins. We have provided the upcoming betting odds for the next France Pro D2 games below.
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The French Rugby XV Championship of 2nd Division also called Pro D2 since 2001 is the second level of national rugby XV competitions in France. It is a competition that constitutes the antechamber of the elite, the Top 14. Initially competed between amateur clubs, it became professional in 2000, undergoing several successive restructurings to reach a narrower format of sixteen clubs.
History
With the advent of professionalism in 1995, the French First Division Championship was restructured and gave way for the 1997-1998 season to two separate competitions of 20 clubs called Group A1 and A2. Group A2 will become the following season the French Elite 2 Championship, still amateur.
On 11 November 1999, the second professional division was created under the aegis of the National Rugby League: it was simply called the second division and would consist of 12 clubs at the first edition in 2000-2001. From its second edition, in 2001-2002, it was called Pro D21.
Evolution
Since 2000, the professionalism and tightening of the first division (21 clubs in 2001, 16 in 2002 and 14 since 2005) have contributed to raising the level of the Pro D2 championship. Clubs with an impressive list of successes can be found there such as AS Béziers (11 times French champion including 10 between 1971 and 1984), Racing Métro 92 (successor of Racing club de France, 5 times French champion including the last time in 1990), RC Toulon (three times champion including the last time in 1992) or SU Agen (eight times French champion). Eleven of the sixteen participants in the 2007-2008 championship have won the French first division championship at least once.
The resources deployed are increasingly important and many of the teams include former French internationals such as Jean-Jacques Crenca or Yann Delaigue in Toulon, Gérald Merceron in La Rochelle, Alain Penaud and Cédric Desbrosse in Lyon or Arnaud Costes in Gaillac. In 2006, Mourad Boudjellal, president of RC Toulon, made the news by bringing in Tana Umaga, former All Blacks captain, for an eight-game contract. This transfer was the most spectacular in France.
The following season, 2007-2008, promises to be particularly challenging. Several teams have a prestigious workforce: Agen and her team ranked 5th in the Top 14 in 2006 (with François Gelez, Rupeni Caucaunibuca, Pépito Elhorga), Toulon managed by Tana Umaga and with Tri-nation stars (George Gregan, Andrew Mehrtens, Victor Matfield, Anton Oliver, Lawrence Sephaka) or Racing Métro 92 with international recruitment (David Auradou, Carlo Festuccia, Andrea Lo Cicero, Thomas Lombard, Simon Raiwalui, Franck Tournaire). The start of the season shows that the public is very enthusiastic about this competition, with attendance at the stadium being 30% higher than in previous years.
The overall level of the competition is increasing, driven upwards by these prestigious recruits and by the presence of many foreigners. For some observers, such as Jean-François Beltran, AS Béziers coach, “the five or six best teams in the competition have the same level as those in the Top 16 (…) in 2004″3. As a sign of this rise in the level, 5 Pro D2 players were selected in May 2009 to join the France A team, the antechamber of the national team (Lyon’s Aliki Fakate and Rémy Grosso, Agenais Yoann Huget and Romain Sola and Narbonne’s Romain Martial).
Current formula
The championship is composed of two phases:
- a 16 team pool phase played in round-trip matches.
- a knockout phase played by 6 teams.
At the end of the group phase, the teams ranked 1st and 2nd qualify for the semi-finals at home. Teams ranked 3rd to 6th play play-off matches among themselves to reach the semi-finals. The winner of the final is declared Champion and is promoted to the Top 14. The finalist plays an accession match against the 13th of the Top 14 whose winner is promoted (or maintained).
Finally, the last two of the group phase are relegated to Federal 1.
Evolution of the formula: professional era
- The championship always consists of two phases: a group phase and a direct elimination phase.
- In 2000-2001 and from 2002 to 2004, the first four teams of the first phase qualified for the play-off phase. The winner of this final phase is declared champion and is promoted. The best team in the first phase (or the finalist in the final phase if a team wins both phases) is also promoted.
- In 2001-2002, the first two teams in the group phase are promoted and there is no final phase. In addition, the first edition in 2000-2001 had only 12 teams against 16 since the following season.
- From 2004-2005 to 2016-2017, the best team in the first phase is promoted and declared Pro D2 Champion. Teams ranked 2nd to 5th compete for second place in the Top 14 in knockout matches. In 2004-2005 and since the 2017-2018 season, the winner of the final must play a play-off match against the 13th in the Top 14.
- Teams ranked in the last two places are still relegated to the lower division (3 teams were relegated in 2005-2006).
Television
Sport+ broadcasts 1 match live on each day of the regular phase, while France 3 Régions broadcasts between 9 and 12 of these matches in parallel. As of the 2011-12 season, Eurosport also broadcasts 1 match live each day and can broadcast a second match over 15 days. Sport+/France 3 Regions and Eurosport have the choice of match broadcast every other day in an alternative way. One semi-final is broadcast by Eurosport while the other is co-broadcast by Sport+ and the regional channels of France 3. The final is broadcast by the three channelsNote 4. In total, retransmission rights for the period 2011-2015 amount to €1.1 million per season compared to €100,000 per year between 2007 and 2011.