The Eredivisie consists of 18 clubs.
Each club faces each club twice during the season: once at home and once away.
At the end of each season, the two clubs at the bottom are relegated to the second level of the Dutch league, the Eerste Divisie, while the champion and runner-up of the Eerste Divisie are automatically promoted to the Eredivisie.
The third-placed club from the bottom of the Eredivisie enters separate promotion/relegation play-offs with the six highest-placed clubs from the Eerste Divisie.
The winner of the Eredivisie qualifies for the Dutch national championship.
Ajax has won the most titles with 36. PSV Eindhoven is next with 24, followed by Feyenoord with 16. Since 1965, these three clubs have won all but three Eredivisie titles.
Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord are known as the "big three" or "traditional top three" of Dutch football.
They are the only clubs in their current form that have never been relegated from the Eredivisie.
The fourth club, FC Utrecht, arose from the merger of three city clubs in 1970, one of which, BB DOS, had also never been relegated from the Eredivisie.
From 1990 to 1999, the league's official name was PTT Telecompetitie, which was changed to KPN Telecompetitie in 1999 and to KPN Eredivisie in 2000.
From 2002 to 2005 the league was called the Holland Casino Eredivisie.
Since the 2005–06 season, the league has been sponsored by Vriendenloterij, but for legal reasons its name cannot be attached to the league.
In August 2012, it was revealed that tycoon Rupert Murdoch had acquired the rights to the Eredivisie for 12 years for one billion euros, starting with the 2013–14 season.
As part of this deal, the five largest Eredivisie clubs were to receive five million euros per year.
The Eredivisie was closed in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.