LONDON, June 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --



According to bwin, the Spanish team is the favourites to win this summer's EURO 2012 soccer tournament with odds of 14/5 to lift the Henri Delaunay trophy. The tournament gets underway in Poland and Ukraine on June 8th.

However, new analysis by bwin has revealed that the Polish and Spanish squads will provide their countries with the best value for money at the tournament, while the same analysis suggests that England and Republic of Ireland's players will offer the worst value.

bwin has published the results in the newly launched 'bwin Player Value Index' to show which teams their customers think offer the best value for money for their countries. The research was compiled by looking at individual player salaries for each EURO 2012 team, then calculating the index by ranking salaries and comparing against the odds for each team.

According to the analysis, the best value for money lays with Poland, with Polish players receiving the second lowest salaries out of all sixteen EURO 2012 [https://www.bwin.com/epage.aspx?aid=38816 ] countries, but great odds at 33/1. The England team however, have the highest player salaries, earning a total of EUR2,176,480 or approximately EUR95k per week for each player, which combined with their odds of 14/1, puts them firmly at the foot of the table alongside Ireland with 100/1.

Portugal are the only team in the index earning a salary reflective of the performance the fans expect, whilst England it seems, are paid considerably more for often below average performances. bwin's research also suggests that Sweden, Ireland, France, Italy, Croatia and Czech Republic are all teams which earn wages higher than their performances are likely to be worth. On the other hand, the bwin Player Value Index reveals that Russia, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Ukraine, Spain and Poland are likely to over-perform from a value for money perspective.

As far as wages go, the public would automatically assume the best earners would be the top performers - but as the bwin Player Value Index shows, although England players are EURO 2012's biggest earners, their relatively poor results on the pitch mean the market just doesn't think they are worth six times the wages of the Polish squad.

bwin will be monitoring performance of the teams throughout the tournament and updating the bwin player value index which can be found at http://www.bwin.com.

The BWIN Player Value Index (updated 07/06/12)

                 Wage Ranking      Team      Average weekly wage EUR  Wage Bill EUR    Odds  Index              15          Poland          EUR 15,464.83       EUR 355,691.00  34.00    6              5           Spain           EUR 66,768.48     EUR 1,535,675.00   3.80    4              6        Netherlands        EUR 44,235.61     EUR 1,017,419.00   7.00    3              10          Russia          EUR 30,568.96       EUR 703,086.00  17.00    3              13         Ukraine          EUR 17,806.70       EUR 409,554.00  51.00    3              4          Germany          EUR 68,757.61     EUR 1,581,425.00   4.00    2              16         Denmark          EUR 15,032.52       EUR 345,748.00  81.00    2              7          Portugal         EUR 41,663.00       EUR 958,249.00  17.00    0              14          Greece          EUR 17,605.13       EUR 404,918.00  81.00    0              9           Sweden          EUR 34,679.83       EUR 797,636.00  51.00   -1              12      Czech Republic      EUR 20,671.04       EUR 475,434.00  67.00   -1              2           France          EUR 84,922.61     EUR 1,953,220.00  10.00   -2              3           Italy           EUR 73,717.17     EUR 1,695,495.00  15.00   -2              8          Croatia          EUR 36,268.48       EUR 834,175.00  51.00   -2              1          England          EUR 94,629.57     EUR 2,176,480.00  15.00   -4              11         Ireland          EUR 29,333.04       EUR 674,660.00 101.00   -5 

Notes to editor:

http://www.bwin.com

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