Betway > Soccer
Football seldom needs any sort of introduction. It is the world’s most popular sport to bet on, with many hundreds of millions of people having a punt every year. Of course, while it is all too easy to slap a bet down on a home or away side to win, there is more to football betting than that. If you want to make serious money wagering on football, you need to be a touch more creative. With that in mind, allow us to walk you through the steps of betting on football at top bookmakers.
The World’s Most Popular Sports Betting Market
One of the perks of football being the world’s most popular sports betting market is that you are literally inundated with options. It is convenient to slap a bet down on Man City or Real Madrid to win, but you will often get short odds and small payouts. Instead, it is worth looking at the other competitions you can choose to bet on and what you can win.
Unsurprisingly, people in countries where football is popular but where the domestic game is relatively weak, such as India, tend to look to foreign competitions for their action. With so many of those options open to you, though, you can be spoilt for choice. So, what is worth having a crack on? Let us find out…
Key Competitions Popular with Fans
Ultimately, which football competition you bet on does not really matter. What matters is that you know a thing or two (ideally more) about the teams you are staking money on. Unless you are a football anorak, you are most likely going to be familiar with the major leagues and tournaments, so they make a great place to start.
It is always worth having a look at leading domestic competitions that include:
- English Premier League, Championship, FA Cup and League Cup
- Spanish La Liga, Copa del Rey
- Italian Serie A
- German Bundesliga
- and French Ligue 1
Cup competitions can make for an exciting way to bet, especially in England, where the FA Cup regularly throws up a few surprises in David vs Goliath matches. The underdog has a nasty habit of laying a banana peel down for favourites in these matches. Of course, all cups and tournaments have the potential for upsets to happen, and this can present you with a unique chance to pocket vast winnings from generally unfancied and improbable bets. This applies to major tournaments such as these…
- UEFA Champions League
- Europa League
- European Championships
- FIFA World Cup
While betting on a team may be the most logical thing to do, there are plenty of other football bets that you can make, so let us look at those next.
Popular Football Bets to Wager
The most common type of football bet you will see made by players worldwide is a money line, known as a straight-up bet or match bet. This involves wagering on one team to be triumphant over another over 90 minutes. Do not expect extra time and penalties to be included in these bets. You have got 90 minutes plus injury/added time, nothing more. If a game goes into extra time or penalties, your bet will be deemed a draw.
If you only want to bet on conventional match bets like those described above, then you can probably get started doing tat straight away. However, if you want to learn about other possibilities when football betting, look at these options:
- Futures: This is a stake on something happening in the future, as its name suggests. When we choose to wager money on one team, being a tournament, league, or cup winner, it is called an Outright Bet. Naturally, you will often get the longest odds for favourites at the beginning of the season before too many results have come in.
- Props: These types of bets are a wager on something specific happening, like in-game occurrences. For instance, prop bets might see you wager on the number of goals in a half, the top goalscorer, the first player to score, the number of goals in total and so on. When numbers are involved, these may be called totals.
- Overs/Unders: These bets involve wagering on the number of times something happens in a match. For instance, if the bookmaker says that there will be 12 corners in a game, you can decide to wager that there will be more (over) or less (under) than that.
- Accumulators: In America, they may use the term Parlay; in the UK, Australia, and India, we tend to call them accumulators. These are a series of bets on different matches or different things occurring. Ultimately, these bets are all on the same ticket. You must win the first bet for the rest to be in play. The winnings from that first bet will then be used as the stake for the rest. In this manner, you can win huge sums of money. However, just one slip-up can ruin your entire accumulator unless you take out Acca Insurance.
- Handicap/Spread Bets: It is rare to see it included in football but spread betting and handicaps do occur. Here, you are trying to balance out the discrepancies between a favourite and an underdog. For instance, you are saying that the favourite must win by X goals or that the underdog must not lose by more than X goals.
There are plenty of other football bets that you may wish to consider. For instance, you could have a punt on Player X being Man of the Match. Alternatively, you might fancy wagering that both teams will score in each half or in both halves. You could also wager on correct scores, half-time scores, full-time scores and more.
Ultimately, the general rule when betting on football is this: the more difficult to predict and less likely the event is to occur, the longer the odds are going to be, and the greater the winnings.
In-Play Football Betting Explained
In-play football is one of the most popular ways that you can choose to wager. An in-play bet does not have to be wagered before kick-off, like conventional bets. Instead, you can choose to wager after the whistle has gone for the start of the first and second half, or any time really, assuming the match has not ended.
The main reason you might choose to do this is to get better odds. For instance, the odds of a favourite winning will get longer if they go behind. Most major football matches can be wagered on as live bets. Some bookies will even permit you the option of cashing out early. While you will receive less winnings for doing so, this can be a lifesaver if you do it right before the opposing team scores a dodgy equaliser from the penalty spot and ruins your bet.
Live Stream Major Football Events
While live, in-play bets are exciting, many top sportsbooks go the extra mile to add even more tension and excitement into the mix. They do this by allowing you to watch the match you have bet on live. Internet live-streamed matches are the ideal way to bet. What you end up with here is the ability to see your chosen matches played out in real-time, and if you have got an in-play bet with an early cash-out option in play, you can be sure to cash out at the ideal time before things go pear-shaped. In most cases, the only thing you need to do to watch live-streamed football matches is to have a bet placed on the game in question.
Fun Footy Promos and Special Offers
Online sportsbooks often provide promotions and bonuses aplenty. You have got your regular free bet and welcome bonuses, but there are also many specialised, one-off, time-based bets on football competitions that you can have a crack at, too. Let us take a quick look at those next.
- Bore Draw Money Back: If you opt for this promotion, you are guaranteed to get your money back if you bet on a side to win, and the result is a draw.
- Enhanced Odds: These odds are more favourable than at most rival bookmakers and can see you win more than expected if you stake money on the games in question.
- ACCA Insurance: These promotions allow you to make a mistake with your accumulator without losing your winnings. Here, the bookmaker may permit you to be one or two selections off and still make a decent return without your Acca dying.
Play at Leading Bookmakers Offering Top Football Bets
If you want to start betting on footy today, then a few major bookmakers stand out. One of the best is Betway. This is an online bookmaker that ticks all the boxes described above. They offer hundreds of football markets and selections daily, with thousands of individual bets available. They also have a Bet Builder mode that allows you to construct your own Accas. Moreover, major football matches are live-streamed and available as in-play bets, and there are specialised promotions available for selected games. With all this and more, Betway has clearly got the home advantage over its rivals.
