How to Bet on River Plate

River Plate trace their founding to 25 May 1901, near the La Boca neighborhood, a district that Boca Juniors, the fierce rivals, would later call home. The club joined the Argentine Football Association in 1905 and opened in the third division with a match against Facultad de Medicina. Promotion to the first division came on 13 December 1908, after a 2–1 win over Racing Club. River's first domestic title came in 1914 with the Copa de Competencia Jockey Club, and the Copa de Competencia Chevallier Boutell the same year gave them an international title for the first time. The nickname Los Millonarios followed big-money buys: the winger Carlos Peucelle cost $10,000 in 1931 and Bernabé Ferreyra $35,000 in 1932, sums that were large for the period. Those transfers, a year apart, are the origin of the label that still follows the club.

The two biggest football clubs in Argentina are River Plate and Boca Juniors, and between them they take more than half of the country's supporters. That scale is what turns the Superclásico into something bigger than a derby: the BBC has ranked it among the best-known derbies anywhere. There is hardly a street in the country where the fixture does not divide a family or a workplace, and the build-up lasts for days. Nobody looks away when the two meet.