Euro 2012 Odds: Best Wagers for Wide-Open Tournament

Spain enters the 2012 European Championship as the defending champions, the world's No. 1 ranked team, and the easy choice as favorite, but they are not the best bet. 

For starters, history is going against them. No country has ever repeated as champions at this event. Secondly, they are going to face some stiff competition. 

This is a hard tournament to predict the winner. That makes staying away from the favorite a good play—go with a team that offers a little more reward for your betting dollar. With that in mind, here are three strong plays for this event. 

*Odds found on Euro Odds on June 5

Germany, plus-400

The Germans are a young side that is in the process of turning potential into dynamic results. They are currently No. 2 in the world, and looked as dominant as any team qualifying for this event as they went 10-0 in those matches with a goal differential of plus-27. 

They could easily make a case to be the favorites here. This is a complete squad with a stiff defense and dynamic offense. 

In 2008, they were runner-ups here, and they will be hungry and eager to improve on that narrow miss of hardware. 

France, plus-1200

France is a wild-card bet here. They have been terrible in the past few years in major competitions, but that was more a function of their dysfunction than it was of talent—or lack thereof. 

This team is loaded with talent, and the switch in coaches to Laurent Blanc is playing huge dividends. They have gone 17 straight without a loss. 

France is bubbling with new confidence, and they will be eager to turn around their recent trend of terrible performances in major competitions. 

Portugal, plus-2100

Portugal's long odds belies their talent and recent success. This is a talented and experienced side. They are frighteningly thin, and will need some luck of health, and lack of suspensions, but if this occurs they could make a run to the title. 

They have the luxury of fielding the tournament's best player in Cristiano Ronaldo. He does not need to be a one-man team either. 

He has players like Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Nani and Joao Moutinho joining him on this squad. 

If Portugal gets a little bit of luck, they can be the surprise winner of this event, and will handsomely reward anyone bold enough to bet on them.