How to Bet on West Ham

West Ham began in 1895 as Thames Ironworks, the side of what was the biggest and final surviving shipyard on the Thames. They turned pro in 1898 by joining the Southern League Second Division, and an instant rise to the First Division followed. In June 1900 the club was wound up and reborn as West Ham United, a name that tied it to the district it still represents. The Football League Second Division welcomed them in 1919, and promotion to the First Division followed in 1923. The 1966 World Cup showed how far the club's reach had grown: captain Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst were all West Ham players in the England side that won the tournament. After promotion in 1981 they ended up third in 1985–86, the best league placing in their history. In the 2005 playoff final Preston North End lost 1–0 to a Zamora goal, and in the 2005–06 FA Cup final Liverpool, the favourites, were pushed all the way, a 3–3 draw ending in a penalty shootout. In November 2006 the club passed to Icelandic owners, a consortium headed by Eggert Magnússon.

West Ham play at the London Stadium in Stratford, a ground with a capacity of 62,500 that opened in 2012. Home until 2016 was Upton Park, the Boleyn Ground in Newham. The move was chased for years. Eggert Magnússon, then chairman, wanted the Olympic Stadium once the 2012 Summer Olympics were over, and current chairmen Gold and Sullivan echoed it when they took control, arguing it was a logical move because the stadium sat in the borough of Newham. The bid went in formally on 30 September 2010, delivered as a presentation at 10 Downing Street. Tottenham and Leyton Orient mounted a legal challenge, and on 25 August 2011 the High Court granted them a judicial review of the bidding process. Mayor of London Boris Johnson still called it overwhelmingly likely that West Ham would be the tenants.

Millwall are the club's oldest and fiercest rivalry, and the roots go back to the earliest days. The two clubs grew up tangled together, and West Ham came out on top more often in their early meetings, winning promotion at Millwall's expense. Millwall stayed out of the fledgling Football League, while West Ham climbed to the top division and reached an FA Cup final. The relationship has never softened. Elsewhere the hatred is geographic. Tottenham Hotspur are the East versus North London rivals, and Michael Carrick, Martin Peters, Paul Allen, Jermain Defoe and Scott Parker all crossing from the Hammers to Tottenham keeps the feud alive. It deepened further when former Hammers manager Harry Redknapp took charge there. Chelsea supply the East versus West London version. A strong rivalry with Sheffield United dates from 2006–07, when Carlos Tevez's contested transfer kept West Ham up and left the Yorkshire side to pay the price.