Football Betting: How to and What to Think About?


Football Betting: How to and What to Think About?

Football betting is the most popular industry in sportsbook gambling. Why? It's obvious – this sport has such a tremendous world following that the most exciting games have more than 2 billion spectators worldwide. That's why even most specialized bookmakers, with an exception of those specializing in niches, offer football gambling. However, before placing bets on matches, it's important to investigate them. To find out the most optimal decisions, you may compare football betting sites. Let us examine the main rules of football betting and analysis offered by bookmakers.

Benefits of Football Betting

Football betting is popular even among players who do not exactly like sports. This betting market has many meaningful benefits. Let us enumerate some major advantages:

  • High limits. Bookmakers offer high limits on football bets, and you can bet as much as £300,000 or more.
  • High odds. Football betting is so keen that bookmakers have to cut their margins. As such, for the most popular games, the bookmaker's margin is as minimal as 1-2%, guaranteeing high odds.
  • Extensive variety. Football betting line is widest in all cases. Bookmakers typically offer 1500-3000 events based on the number of leagues covered. Also, for the most favored games (World Cup, Euro, Champions League, top leagues), there can be over 200 possibilities to bet.

Football is the most popular sport, so you can always follow the matches. Even matches of less popular leagues are broadcast by bookmakers. The betting line is also enormous, both on live and pre-match betting, to make football betting players have sufficient options at all times.

What Types of Bets Do Bookmakers Offer?

Football tends to have the most betting options on at all times, so there is always plenty that one can bet on. There are certain types of events that are particularly popular. Some of the most notable football betting markets at bookmakers include:

  • Result. A standard bet with three possible results – win by the first team, win by the second team, or draw. And then there is the "double chance" bet, which involves two possible outcomes from a possible three.
  • Handicap. A conditional advantage is given to one team in this bet. The handicap can be "negative" (the team starts with a sure disadvantage on some measure) or "positive" (the team starts with a sure advantage on some measure).
  • Total. Total is the number of statistical indicators in the game by each team. The totals are in two forms – over and under. This can be combined with the result.
  • Individual total. A variant of the total bet, but in this case, the statistical marker is for only one team. The individual total can also go over or under. Individual totals can be wagered on either by a whole team or by an individual player.
  • Exact score. In this case, you are placing a bet on the accurate score of the match. Due to the uncommonness of a match resulting in a specific score, the odds of this kind of bet are very high.
  • Both teams to score. This bet, as the name suggests, is all about betting on both teams' goal-scoring. The "both teams to score" bet can be combined with result or total (e.g., both teams to score and total over 2.5).

Betting on football may be placed upon various statistical markers such as:

  • Goals
  • Yellow cards
  • Red cards
  • Corner kicks
  • Fouls
  • Throw-ins
  • Ball possession percentage, etc.

Besides, all the major types of bets are applicable for these statistical parameters. For example, you can bet on overall goals, individual overall yellow cards, corner handicap, etc.

What to Look for in Picking a Match

Football betting is simple but complicated at the same time. The reason is that you must consider a lot of factors. The simplicity is that there are lots of statistics, analytics, and expert services where you can obtain the information you need. Football betting requires you to consider the following factors:

  • Team form. This will determine the favorite and the underdog. If a team is playing well, winning a lot of games and scoring a lot of goals, it is necessary to consider that, even if the bookmaker does not list them as the favorite. When analyzing, it is good to look at least the last 5 official games.
  • Home and away form. There are "home" and "away" teams with home or away winning streaks. If, for example, a team is an underdog but is good to play away, then they should be bet upon.
  • Head-to-head. In football, as in all team sports, there is the theory of a "tough opponent." For instance, a team may be a heavy favorite but struggle against a particular opponent. That is something that should be taken into account.
  • Motivation. When watching the match, look at the teams' positions in the tournament. What is the team struggling for, and what are they thinking about the next match? Particularly towards the end of the season, when underdogs battling relegation usually outclass mid-table teams who have nothing to fight for.
  • Squad position. When one has numerous injured, sick, or banned players, this will weaken their squad and favor the opponent.

And then there are some secondary football factors that must be examined. Consider, for example, is the team legendary for roughhousing? If they receive plenty of yellow cards and there is a referee who is something of a card-inducing machine, you may want to consider betting on a yellow card line. Even the stadium which the teams will be playing on can have an impact. For instance, if the clubs battle each other on neutral ground, the home-field advantage is taken out.

Football is the most popular sport for betting. There is a huge variety of betting promotions and very attractive odds here. However, football betting should be profitable only in that situation if you perform thorough analysis and, ideally, bet according to some definite strategy.