How To Bet On Football: A Beginners Guide

on March 10, 2021 at 12:54 pm

Football is regarded as the king of entertainment and the most popular sport for betting in the United Kingdom, as over 40% of the money spent by punters is staked on the cliff-hanging sport, so there is a need for beginners to know all the important features for the popular sport.

One of the main reasons football is widely accepted among bettors is the huge volume of games being played all-year-round, as it has played a significant role in growing the gambling industry with players being able to stake on lots of markets, with over hundreds of betting sites competing against each other in terms of delivering the best odds for the bettors.

For punters who are looking to start a path, this article was written and tailored to you. As a beginner, you need to understand the basics of football betting and how the market revolves around the most popular sport in the UK.

Introduction to Betting
If you already know your way around football betting or you understand a thing or two about the famous sport, you are free to skip this part. But if you’re a newbie and you’re not a football fan, you should understand how the bets are introduced to football games and tournaments.

The Odds given to the punters for a game are set by a bookmaker and it is the representational ratio between the stakes and winning for a particular outcome, you want to place a wager on. In most times, odds come in form of fractions like 2/1, but it is also represented with decimals, for example, 2.00, the players can always decide on which form they prefer to use. In an instance where you wish to place a bet on a game with the odds of 2.00 or 2/1, it means players will are could win £2 for every £1 they stake.

Betting on Football: How it works
Knowing football, you should understand that there are more than thousands of football games and different markets to bet on weekly.

Bookmakers, doing what they ought to do, offer odds on the probability of the possible outcomes of the games and events that could happen during a game, like numbers of corners played, yellow and red cards given, goal scorers, and goals scored in the match.

Regardless of being a new customer or not, several bookmakers will still have special offers and impressive odds to entice you into betting with them. And once the outcome of the event you placed your stake on wins, the player will be handed his original stake along with the earnings gotten from the odds.

The beginners should familiarize themselves with the popular types of football bets.

Match Betting
This is probably the most popular type of football betting known to the world, and it is also regarded as the simplest form of bet on football as you only need to predict the result of a match. In this type of football betting, players can bet on the home team to win, the away team victory, or a tie.

Players should note that match bets will be based on the outcome after a full 90 minutes. So, when a match ends with the leveled score line, the winning bet will be a draw regardless of the outcome after extra time or penalties.

Player Stats or Props
Player props bets gave us the idea of wide the betting markets have gone from just predicting a simple outcome to card markets. Punters can now bet on the players to get a shot, shots on target, any-time goal scorer, the player to be the first to be shown a yellow or red card in the game.

The odds being calculated for this type of bet come out differently for bookmakers, who are competing with each other for your best interest.

This type of bet is mostly used by the bookmakers to the odds given to players in the game, and as always, punters should remain cautious about the price they stake on these types of bets as it is common knowledge that football can be predictable and unpredictable at the same time.

Same Game Multi or BetBuilder
This is also one of the new additions in football betting and it didn’t take long before it made a name in for itself among the punters. In most times, it is referred to as Same Game Multi, was introduced as an accumulator of outcomes for a single game rather than the normal number of football games.

Due to the number of outcomes that need to meet in a single game, these bets don’t come in often for the punters placing them.

But, to win this type of bet, the punters need to have a tangible amount of knowledge about the two teams as you can combine several outcomes like the number of yellow and red cards, corners, goal scorers, and shot on target of a player. It is a good way to win big while placing small stake bets.

Accumulators
An Accumulator bet is one of the most famous types of football betting, as it is a type of bet that lets the bettor combine multiple selections of matches into one single bet.

It offers a potential reward of huge winnings for small stakes as the returns from each match are place on the other. The biggest risk of this type of bet is that all bets in the selection have to win before the punters can receive payouts.

In an instance, where you find four teams you believe will claim the victory in their matches and they are all priced at the same odds.

If you bet £1 on each of the team securing victories in four single bets, the total return would be £8, as £2 for each successive outcome, you predicted including your returned stake.

For Accumulators, things are played differently. Punters can place a £1 accumulator on all four winning teams at even money, the £2 for the first team winning would automatically be placed on the second team, which will double the return to £4, before doubling once again for the third and fourth team, bringing the player’s total return to £16. Should all four teams winning be given the 2/1 odds, the total return will amount to £81.

This is the reason accumulators became one of the most popular types of football betting among bettors.

Goalscorer Betting
As the name implies, it is a type of bet that predicts a particular player to bag a goal during a match.

But even in this type of bet their different outcomes, as punters can choose their selection to be the last or first goal scorer in the match or to find the back of the net at any time during the game. And as expected the odds covering the player to score any time will be short as there is a better chance of that happening in the game.

This type of football betting can only be considered great when the particular player you’re placing your stake on is on an impressive form or his team is playing against a much weaker team and it is mostly the player will end up putting the goal at the back of the net.

Over/Under Football Betting
These bets are also considered to be one of the popular types of football betting, it is a kind of bet that places a stake on the number of times an event like goals, yellow cards, corners, will play out during the game.

Bookmakers provide a baseline for a match and it will be up to the punters to decide if there will be more (over) or fewer (under) than the number the bookies offered. The baseline number is, most times, not a whole number, as it guarantees that the outcome of the game can only result in under or over.

So, if the bookmaker is providing odds for Over or Under 2.5 goals for a game, if a bet is placed on Over you automatically win when the goals scored totaled to three or more, but you lose if the goals in the game are up to 2 or less. For example, if the final score of a game is 2-1 the punters win because there are three total goals scored in the game, with little regard as to what team won the game.

The same applies to Under, you win if the game ends with one or two goals scored, and a loss will be suffered if the total amount of goals three or higher.

Half-time/ Full-time
Bettors can always bet on the results of the first half and/or second half of a particular match. Punters can bet on the home team, away team, or draw for one or both halves of the match.

This type could be said to be for punters who can indicate what teams start the game strongly or weakly. Punters’ skills in gathering information will be put to test in this type of bets as news like starting line-ups, team news, injuries, players being rested can help in deciding the outcome of matches.

Draw No Bet
This is a type of football betting that bettors get to stake on the outcome of a match, but if the game ends in a draw then your stake will be returned to you.

The odds for this type of bet, however, are unusually lower than other betting markets.

Double Chance
In this type of football bet, bettors can bet on two out of the three outcomes of football to increase your chance of winning a bet. There is a specific combination for this game, they are Home team to win or draw, Away team to win or draw, Home team to win, or Away team to win.

If any of the combinations you pick wins, you will be liable to receive a payout. Compare to a single match outcome bet, the double chance bet in football betting is lower considering it has a higher chance of winning. This type of betting is perfect for bettors who are looking to reduce the risk in their bet slip.

Correct Score
A correct score football bet is a type of bet which requires the bettors to predict what the final score of a match will be. It is a 90 minutes based bet, it has no regard for extra time or penalties.

The odds provided by the bookies for a correct score are always high and attractive but predicting the exact score line of a match after 90 minutes is not is easy for the punters.

Scorecast
A Scorecast is a type of football bet that requires the bettor to select a goal scorer and the exact score of a match.

For example, you can bet on Karim Benzema to bag a goal and predict Real Madrid to win 3-0 in a single match. The odds set by the bookies for this type of bet are always high as punters are betting and predicting two outcomes. You might be allowed to choose the goal scorer in a Scorecast bet to be either the first, second, last, or any time with some bookies.

Wincast
Just as you expected, Wincast is quite similar to Scorecast, but it requires the bettors to select a goal scorer and the outcome of the match instead of predicting the exact score of the game. The odds involved in this type of football bet, however, are not as high as Scorecast as the outcome of a match is rather easier to predict than a correct score.

Asian Handicap Bet
Asian handicap is a way of betting that originated in Asia for the football game. Handicap means a team will be handed a virtual lead over the opposing team. This type of betting removes the chances of a draw in a football game.

The bookies give a minus symbol (-) to a favorite team, which has a handicap disadvantage while a plus symbol (+) will be handed to the underdog team that has the handicap advantage. It can be a whole-goal handicap like +1 or -2, or a half-goal handicap like (+0.5) and (-1.5).

Whole-goal handicap
For example, let say Manchester City has (-1), while FC Porto was given (+2). The figures attached to the team can be applied to their score in the game.

If bettors place their bet on Manchester City, they will win if City claims a victory with a two-goal margin or more. A loss is determined when they draw or lose. Bettors will see their stake returned to them if Manchester City wins by a one-goal margin, as it canceled out by the -1, making the handicap result to a draw.

If bettors place their stake on Porto, however, they will if Porto claim a victory, draw or lose by a one-goal margin. A loss will be retained if Porto loses the game by a three or more goal margin. Your stake will be returned if they lose by a two-goal margin as it is canceled out by the +2 given out by the Bookies.

Half-goal Handicap
In an instance where Manchester City is given -1.5 while Porto was handed +1.5. If the bettors place their bet on Manchester City, a win is claimed if the team wins with a two or more goal margin. A loss is retained if they win by one goal, a draw, or suffer a defeat against Porto.

If the bettors place their bet on Porto, they win if the team wins, draw or lose by a one-goal margin. A loss is claimed if Porto loses by a two-goal margin.

European Handicap bet
European handicap shares similarities to its Asian counterpart but has two differences which are: One is a draw is an option while the other is that handicaps are only given as whole numbers.

For example, Manchester City -1, Draw -1, Porto +2. If a bet on Manchester City was placed, you win if the team wins with a two-goal margin or more. If you bet on a draw, a win is secured if Manchester City won with a single goal. If a bet was placed on Porto, the bettors win if the team wins, draw or lose by a one-goal margin.

In-Play Football Betting
As the name implies, in-play football betting is a type you place when the match is being played, you can place a stake on the next team to score in the match you’re currently watching.

There are many markets involved in this kind of betting such as which team will play the next corner, throw-in, the next player to be shown a yellow card, the next player to score in the game. This kind of bet makes the match more exciting than before.

Next Manager Bets
Many bookmakers are providing special odds on certain events that have happened off the pitch. The most popular type is Next Manager to be Sacked, and we know exactly was that bet involves, and Next Manager, where bettors can place a bet on the potential manager to fill a vacant position.

Player Odds
Just as it is for managers, there are also markets for the players off the pitch like the next club a player will be joining, the next player to win the Golden Boot of a tournament.

Research & Analysis
Right before deciding to place your bet on football, the first and most probably the most important rule bettors should follow is gathering as much information as possible before placing their bets. Follow statistics like team news, recent form, head to head, these are the information you could use to your advantage every time you want to place a bet.

Bettors should always take the analytical approach, never bet on impulse or your emotions, it is the quickest way to lose your money. Always use your knowledge on a game to bet, you don’t bet on your favorite team to win when all odds are against it.

Bettors with little or no experience should always go for the simpler bets like Match Bet, goal scorer, Over/Under markets, along with those that offer little risk.

Even with this, new bettors should keep in mind that they won’t win every single bet they placed a stake on. No bet is fool-proof as the game, football, itself is unpredictable and strange things happen. The favorite doesn’t always win, as we have witnessed Southampton beat Arsenal in a football game in the 2020/21 season.

End Note
Football Betting is one of the most famous types of betting in the world due to its wide range of matches being played worldwide and there have been a few success stories attached to it.

Football betting is fun and exciting for bettors, and it has its way of improving people’s knowledge of famous sports.

When you bet on football, always remember to gamble responsibly.