The 14th edition of the European Championships will be the last in the current format. This is because it’s the last time the event will feature the 16 top teams in Europe. Starting in 2016, there will be a total of 24 teams competing for Europe’s ultimate soccer prize.

Poland and Ukraine will be hosting Euro 2012 from June 8th to July 1st and that means both teams will automatically qualify. The rest of the nations, and there are 51 o f them, are currently engaged in qualifying rounds to seal their places in the event. The qualifying rounds kicked off last August and will wrap up in November.

The championships were launched in 1960 and are held every four years with Spain taking the last title back in 2008. They’ll be one of the favourites again in 2012 as they also added the World Cup to their collection in 2010, making them the current champions of both Europe and the world.

The matches will be held at four different venues in Poland and four in Ukraine. In Poland, the games will take place at the National Stadium in Warsaw, the Municipal Stadium in Poznan, the PGE Arena in Gdansk, and the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw.

In Ukraine, the games will be hosted at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk, the Metalist Stadium in Kharkiv, the Olympic NSC Stadium in Kiev, and the New Stadium in Lviv.

The group stages will feature four groups of four teams. Each team plays the others in the group once and the top two teams in the group will advance to the knockout round, where you’re eliminated if you lose.

When it comes to the early favourites among our Euro 2012 predictions, consider that Germany has won the championship three times with France and Spain winning it twice each. When it comes to qualifying rounds, Germany, Slovakia, Italy, France, Holland, Greece, England, Norway, and Spain are all currently leading their groups. Other teams with good shots at making it or knocking off group leaders include Belgium, Turkey, Russia, Ireland, Sweden, Croatia, Israel, Montenegro, Portugal, and Denmark.

You can bet on a wide an assortment of Euro 2012 and qualifying activities. For example you can make online bets during the qualifying rounds on the half-time and final scores, the winning margin, leading scorers, scorers in games, the times of goals, penalty kick misses and goals, who will receive a yellow or red card, and so on.

Live in-play betting is also available. You can also bet on which teams will make the tournament and which ones won’t, as well as who will win it etc. Once the tournament starts, the wagering will be on the individual games and the competition itself. In fact, you can place an online wager on just about anything related to the individual games and the Euro 2012 tournament, including live betting on games that are in progress.

Predict the top goalscorer

When it comes to top goalscorers, there are many excellent choices, such as Wayne Rooney of England, Fernando Torres of Spain, Arjen Robben of Holland, and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. So far in the qualifying stages, these players have been hitting the back of the net quite regularly: Germany’s Miroslav Klose, Holland’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Finland’s Mikael Forssell, Spain’s David Villa, Holland’s Dirk Kuyt, and Croatia’s Niko Kranjcar.

Like all sports, soccer players can get hot and cold, so it’s a good idea to see who’s in form heading into the Euro 2012 tournament.