It seems more like five minutes, rather than five years, since the COVID pandemic changed our lives forever. And on the fifth anniversary of the UK’s first lockdown, here’s a look back at how the Belarusian Premier League took over a continent.

Also, did that unprecedented prominence stand the test of time, and is it worth reviving our interest in Belarusian games when betting online?

How it began

In March 2020, football was temporarily put into perspective for what it really is – a game.

The vast majority of professional leagues worldwide ceased, with the 2019/20 Ligue 1 and First Division seasons (in France and Belgium respectively) amongst the more notable cancellations. The Premier League went on hiatus on 13th March 2020, and with a nationwide lockdown coming 10 days later, we wouldn’t see a ball kicked again until 17th June.

In that three-month interim, Belarus became the centre of the footballing world in strict terms of on-field action. Unlike so many other nations, the country’s top flight was alone in its defiance of world events, and clubs we didn’t even know existed suddenly became adopted teams.

What happened?

The 2020 Belarusian Premier League campaign started on 19th March – six days after the English Premier League’s hiatus began, and just four days before the UK went into total lockdown.

For those delving into the outright markets, BATE Borisov were a popular pick to lift the title. They were, of course, already a familiar name to many European football fans, having been in the Champions League group stage five times between 2008 and 2015, with more recent appearances in the Europa League proper, in 2017 and 2018.

Ultimately, BATE fell just short, but they did at least have the accolade of a golden boot winner. The man in question was Maksim Skavysh, but he wouldn’t catch the eye of any teams in more esteemed leagues. Far from becoming the next Alexander Hleb, he has stayed in Belarus ever since.

His heroics would, however, grant him a move to Shakhtyor Soligorsk, who lifted their first title in 15 years at BATE’s expense. But after his club won two more titles, they would soon be embroiled in a match fixing scandal, causing them to be stripped of the 2022 crown.

Points deductions also followed, with Shakhtyor being the most severely punished via a 35-point deduction. They duly ended the 2023 campaign on just nine points, but were saved by the punishments of co-conspirators Energetik-BGU Minsk and Belshina Bobruisk, who were relegated after deductions of 23 and 11 points respectively.

It was only a temporary reprieve, though, as a further deduction of 20 points had been imposed for the 2024 season. With Shakhtyor now alone in having a negative tally to start the campaign, they would receive no such reprieve again, finishing rock-bottom on two points after taking a measly 22 – a tally that would have seen them relegated regardless.

Is the Belarusian Premier League worth following again?

While some of us with longer memories may still have a soft spot for one or two teams on a personal level, there’s no firm answer from a betting perspective.

Like any other league, it promises twists and turns, but given that it isn’t widely followed, some bookmakers may have a more limited range of markets for Belarus’ top-flight compared to more esteemed leagues.

The lack of familiar player names may be off-putting too, especially as they can be a key part of bet builders and accumulators.

Meanwhile, the match fixing scandal of the early 2020s can only put people off making outright bets, but as it stands, 2025 is the first season of the current decade where no team has yet suffered either a points deduction, a disqualification or a withdrawal from the league.

So with that in mind, it may be time to rediscover what remains some relatively uncharted territory…

Key stats

Here are some potentially useful components if you ever get the chance to make bet builders or construct accumulators for the Belarusian Premier League. You can also see how these figures compare to the stats produced by the current editions of each league in Europe’s ‘big five’.

Over 2.5 Total Goals

• German Bundesliga: 59.0%
• English PL: 58.5%
• French Ligue 1: 53.6%
• Italian Serie A: 50.7%
• Spanish LaLiga: 48.9%
• 2024 Belarusian PL: 40.4%

This is quite a sizable gap from the five biggest European leagues, and one that doesn’t come as a particular surprise, given the gulf in quality…

Average corners per-game

• English PL: 10.4
• German Bundesliga: 9.7
• Italian Serie A: 9.7
• French Ligue 1: 9.3
• Spanish LaLiga: 9.3
• 2025 Belarusian PL: 8.3

…And that has somewhat translated over to the new season. While it’s still only one round old, the total corners-per-match average is significantly lower than that produced by the elite domestic leagues of Europe.

Over 9.5 corners

• English PL: 62%
• German Bundesliga: 52%
• Italian Serie A: 46%
• Spanish LaLiga: 46%
• French Ligue 1: 44%
• 2025 Belarusian PL: 15%

Making a call for the corner count to hit double figures in any bet builder is always a brave move – more especially when the 1X2 odds have little to separate the two sides.

Just one game in the new Belarusian Premier League season’s opening round cleared that particular threshold – Arsenal Dzyarzhynsk v Dynamo Brest, and that number isn’t expected to threaten the ‘big five’ much in the coming campaign.

That said, only one game of the opening weekend failed to produce over 6.5 corners, so any spread bettors out there may see the ‘sell’ on a spread of 8-9 total corners as an attractive prospect.

BTTS: Yes

• English PL: 58%
• German Bundesliga: 57%
• Spanish LaLiga: 56%
• French Ligue 1: 56%
• 2024 Belarusian PL: 56%
• Italian Serie A: 53%

Given what has already been gleaned, one might expect a much lower rate of positive BTTS results (or ‘BTTS: Yes’).

However, the 2024 Belarusian top-flight stands equal with its Spanish and French counterparts – though there is, of course, still plenty of time for that to change.

On the basis of last season’s results, it’s safe to assume that the usual practices when making BTTS picks will suffice if delving into this league.

Average cards per game

• Spanish LaLiga: 4.8
• English PL: 4.2
• German Bundesliga: 4.0
• French Ligue 1: 3.9
• Italian Serie A: 3.8
• 2025 Belarusian PL: 3.1

It’s somewhat natural to think that a relatively less skillful league will compensate for lower levels of goalmouth action with more battles in the middle of the park – and hence more bookings.

However, the opening round of this season’s Belarusian Premier League didn’t meet such expectations. Just 3.1 bookings per match puts that league far behind the numbers seen across the ‘big five’, though that isn’t necessarily down to fair play.

Of course, it could just as easily be down to more lenience amongst officials compared to Europe’s ‘big five’, though only time will tell as the season progresses.

Conclusion

In terms of common bet builder components, the somewhat lower number of total goals per game in 2024 and the low corner average in the opening round of 2025 are the most notable takeaways, though the latter metric should be treated with caution, given how early it is in the current season.