How football betting works

This is how football betting works

There are thousands of football matches taking place every week, with even more markets available to bet on through bookmakers offering a huge variety of different odds on every little detail of matches. They will give their prices on the outcome of matches and events within the match, such as the number of goals scored, possessions won, fouls for & against, corners won, red and yellow cards given, and individual goalscorers.

There are lots of different bookmakers who will continually have special offers and competitive odds to try to ensure that you have the best value bet. Once the outcome of the event is confirmed and your bet is a winner, you will be paid out your original stake plus the winnings from the odds.

Throughout there are a number of different types of bets, including accumulators where you can combine different selections to make one large odds price to place your bet. This is available with the majority of football markets.

Below, i will run you through the most popular types of bets on football.

Bet builder/same game multi abet

Bet builders are one of the newer additions to football betting and have become one of the more popular ways to bet on the sport in recent years. Sometimes referred to as same game multi, these bets are effectively an accumulator of outcomes from a single match rather than a number of matches.

These bets are obviously less likely to come in because of the number of outcomes that need to happen. However, they are perfect if you are knowledgeable about both teams and want to place small-stake bets at the bigger odds that can be realised by combining numerous outcomes, such as the number of yellow cards, corners and goalscorers, rather than betting on each individual market. 

You can also include player props, which i explain below, in bet builders. Player props are also becoming a popular form of betting on their own.

Player props/player stats

This is a way of showing how the football betting market has continued to evolve with an in-depth set of markets released for various Premier League and international matches. This is different to the goalscoring or card markets, and includes the ability to bet on players to have a certain number of shots, goals, tackles and even offsides.

There are also every growing prop markets that lead to some incredible bets such as how many free-kicks, goal-kicks and throw-ins they have in a match. What’s on offer differs widely from bookmaker to bookmaker, but one of the bookies with the most player props available is bet365 and bet9ja.

There’s also now the option to bet on the number of passes a player makes in a match, which can be a fascinating bet to follow and allows customers to use their own research before making the specific bet.

These bets are used by many bookmakers for boosted odds to give more value to players, but you should be cautious about how much you stake on these bets as football can be very unpredictable making the outcome uncertain unless played. Which is why I'm writing to guide you on the principles you must adhere if you want to start winning bookies. 

To win betting is not a big deal or an uphill task, but the bettors failed to follow the lay down principles of betting that is the reason most of these bettors struggled to win betting.

The Asian handicap bet

An Asian handicap bet is one in which your selection has a “handicap” to overcome, and what makes the bet unique is that it eliminates the possibility of a draw in betting terms.

The bookmakers give each team a plus or minus figure to denote their handicap. This can be either a whole-goal handicap (such as +1 or -2) or a half-goal handicap (+0.5 or -1.5). 

How each works is best illustrated by a brief example.

Whole-goal handicap 

Everton -1, Aston Villa +2

The figures next to each team are applied to their score in the match. 

If you bet on Everton, you win if they win by a two-goal margin or more. You lose if they draw or lose. And you get your stake back if they win by a one-goal margin, which is cancelled out by the -1, making the handicap result a draw. 

If you bet on Aston Villa, you win if they win, if they draw or if they lose by only a one-goal margin. You lose if they lose by a three-goal margin or more. And you get your stake back if they lose by a two-goal margin, which is cancelled out by the +2, making the handicap result a draw. 

A whole-goal handicap better offers the safety net of your stake being returned.

Half-goal handicap 

Everton -1.5, Aston Villa +1.5 

If you bet on Everton and they win by a two-goal margin or more, you win. A win by one goal, a draw or a defeat and you lose.

If you bet on Aston Villa and they lose by one goal, draw or win, you win. If they lose by a two-goal margin or more, you lose.

A half-goal handicap bet eliminates the possibility of a draw altogether.

European handicap bet

A European handicap is similar to an Asian handicap but with two main differences: one is that the draw remains an option and the other is that the handicaps are only ever whole numbers. 

Again, how it works is best illustrated by a brief example.

Everton -1, Draw -1, Aston Villa +2

If you bet on Everton, you win if they win by a two-goal margin or more. 

If you bet on the draw, you win if Everton win by a single goal.

If you bet on Aston Villa, you win if they win, draw or lose by only one goal.

Half-time/full-time

You can bet on the result of the first half and/or the second half. You can bet on the home team, away team or draw for one or both halves.

This bet is for the much advanced bettors who have prior knowledge to indicate the teams who start or finish matches strongly or weakly.

Knowing the starting line-ups and whether key players are missing through injury or being rested can also be an advantage with this type of option.

Double chance

You can bet on two of the three outcomes of the match to increase your chances of winning. The combinations are:

• Home team or draw
• Away team or draw
• Home team or away team

If either of your combinations wins you woul be paid out. The odds are lower than betting on just a single match outcome as there is more chance of winning, but this bet is good for bettors who want to reduce the element of risk to avoid loosing completely.

Accumulators

Accumulators combine multiple selections into one bet and are among the most popular forms of betting on football. This is because they offer the potential reward of big returns for small stakes as the winnings from each selection are placed on the next one. The obvious risk is that all the bets have to win for the bettor to receive a payout. 

For example, you might identify four teams that you think are going to win matches, all of which are priced at even money. If you were to bet £1 on each of the teams winning in four single bets, your total return would be £8 – £2 for each successful bet including your returned stake money. 

But if you were to place a £1 accumulator on all four winning at even money, the £2 from Team A winning would effectively be placed on Team B, doubling the return to £4, and this would double again for Teams C and D, making the total return £16. If all four teams were priced at 2/1, the return would increase to £81, so it’s easy to see why accumulators are attractive bets.

Check out the comprehensive list of the best accumulator betting sites.

Goalscorer Betting

As it suggests, this is a bet on a particular player to score during a match, eg, when you place a particular bet on Cristiano Ronald to score 2 or more goals in a single match appearance.

You can bet on various outcomes, such as your selection to be the first or last goalscorer in the match or to score at any time during it. The odds on them scoring at any time will be shorter because there is obviously a greater chance of that happening.

These bets are often quite good to take a chance on when a player has been in a rich vein of form, or if a team is in overall better form than their opponents making a player more likely to find the back of the net easily.

You can choose from any of the players on the pitch, with bookmakers often having good offers to go with some of the markets within goalscoring and boosts throughout the different matches, depending on how they’re going.

Correct score/Scorecast/Wincast

A correct score bet is one in which you predict the exact final score of a match. Remember that this will be the outcome after 90 minutes in cup ties that could go to extra time and/or penalties. The prices for correct score bets are often attractive but, of course, predicting the exact score is far from easy.

A Scorecast is a bet that combines selecting a goalscorer and the correct score. For example, you can bet on Marcos Rashford to score and Manchester United to win 4-0. Again, the odds on such bets have higher odds because you are betting on the likelihood of two outcomes. Some bookmakers will also let you choose the goalscorer in a Scorecast to be the first, last or at any time.

A Wincast is similar to a Scorecast, but involves selecting a goalscorer and the outcome of the match rather than the correct score. The odds will not be as high as a Scorecast because it is easier to predict the outcome rather than the scoreline. 

Over and Under betting

This is a bet on the total number of times an event (for example, goals, corners, yellow cards) will happen during a match. 

Bookmakers allocate a baseline number to a match and you can bet on whether there will be more (over) or fewer (under) than that number. The baseline number will never be a whole number, which guarantees that the outcome will be one of two: over or under. (You can’t score half a goal.)

So in a match where a bookmaker is offering Over or Under 2.5 goals, you win if you bet on Over and three or more goals are scored, but you lose if the total is none, one or two. Likewise, if you bet on Under, you win if none, one or two goals are scored and lose if the total is three or higher. 

Draw No Bet

This is where you bet on the outcome of a match, but if it ends in a draw then you will get your stake back, if it ends in favour of your selected team to win the game then you have won but if the opponent wins in the game, then you have lost. However, this means the odds will usually be lower than other markets.