With more than 3 billion fans worldwide, football is one of the most popular sports. It is hardly surprising that fans of the sport are popular both below and in the weather. If you want to use your love of football and make money from it, that’s your chance. Read our guide to football betting and prepare your bets!
Football betting markets
To bet successfully on football, you should know the different markets and betting types. Here is an overview of the most common:
1. Bottom line. With hundreds of games played every week in different countries around the world, betting on the final score of a particular game is by far the easiest way to bet on football. The most popular type is the 3-way market, so named after the 3 different exits you can bet on. In this way, you bet on whether the home team or the away team wins, or whether the away team wins. whether the game ends in a draw.
2. Correct result. There are no complicated strategies – a bet on the correct result literally means you bet on the exact result of a football match. Of course, this is more difficult than selecting a winner and so the odds reflect the difficulty of the bet. With higher odds than a 3-way bet, the correct result can yield an excellent win, but you also face more puzzles and should therefore not risk too much of your money.
3. Total goals over/ under. Another popular form of football betting is to bet on the sum of goals scored or the over/under market. Here you have to predict whether the total number of goals scored in a game is above or below the bookmaker’s prediction.
The advantage of over/under bets is that you can increase your chances of winning with the help of a good strategy. By taking into account the right factors, you can make informed betting decisions and predict how many goals are expected to be scored by the end of a game.
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Typically, bets on the over/under market are recorded with half a gate, such as Ü/U 1.5 goals or U/U 2.5 goals – this prevents the possibility of a bet not being decided. Since football matches obviously cannot end with 1.5 or 2.5 goals at full time, the actual number of goals will always be above or below that line, which means that bets will always win or lose, never be undecided.
4. First / last / any gate. These types of bets include the selection of which player you think will score the first goal of the game, the last goal or a goal at any time during the game. All participating players have odds on the goal success of the bookmaker at the beginning of the game.
While these bets are relatively simple, it’s hard to predict them regularly, so they’re used for fun rather than long-term profit. Although they may be valuable in certain circumstances, it is advisable not to use too much money and keep your balance for safer bets.
5. Double chance. The double chance is exactly the safe option we meant. Because here you have two chances to correctly predict the outcome of a football match – just select two of the three options on offer and you win when one of them arrives.
Let’s look at an example with Team A and B. If you placed a bet on ‘Team A or Draw’, you would win your bet if either Team A wins the game or there is a draw. If Team B were to win, the bet would be lost. If you bet on ‘Team B or Draw’, your bet wins if either Team B wins the game or if there is a draw. If Team A wins, you lose the bet.
Double chance bets are safer than bets on the final result, so the odds are lower and, accordingly, the possible winnings. You have two chances to win at double chance, compared to just one for a full-time bet. The easier a possible profit, the lower the odds.
Start your football bets today
Whether you’ve thought about betting on football or not, it’s easy to try it as a beginner and it adds an extra element of excitement to the game. In addition, we’ve only mentioned five of the available betting markets, but there are more deals from bookmakers and sports betting sites that give you even more opportunities to win.
Our last piece of advice? Take some time to learn more about the different players, coaches and competitions, chat with your friends, read the trade press and learn as much as possible about the game itself, as well as about football betting. The more you know, the more likely you are to make a valuable profit. Good luck!