Football or soccer is the most famous sport in the world. Each country where people know how to play has at least one major league that features weekly matches for two-thirds of the year and the international tournaments are watched by billions.
With so much action going on, if you enjoy betting on sports, you absolutely need to understand football and football betting. This guide provides an introduction to the topic.
- How Football Is Played
Football is a team-based sport played in a stadium. There are 11 players on each side and a match usually lasts for 90 minutes plus extra-time. There’s a first half (45 minutes), followed by a 15-minute break, and then a second half (45 minutes). The objective of both teams is to score goals in the opponent’s post, which is defended by a goalkeeper. The side that scores the most goals wins.
Because football is so popular and has so many aspects to it, football betting is extremely diverse, offering you the possibility to wager on dozens of in-game events.
Contents
The Fundamentals of Football Betting
Football betting works similarly to other forms of betting. Team A plays against team B and you can wager on A, B, or the match itself. Here are some of the most popular football betting markets.
Match winner (1 – 2)
For every match, you can bet on team A (1), team B (2), or a draw (X). In such scenarios, you win your bet as long as the result of the match coincides with your prediction. But you can place a lower-risk bet that includes two results instead of one. So instead of predicting that 1 or 2 will win, you can use the 1X or 2X options. In this case, X means “draw” and the full meaning is this: either 1 will win or the match will be a draw. Or, in the second case, either 2 will win or the match will be a draw.
First Half Winner
Because football matches consist of two 45-minute halves, bookmakers give you the option to bet on each half as if it were its own individual match. Therefore, you can predict a victory for one of the two teams, or a draw, just for the first half. And you can do the same for the second half as well.
Correct Score
The correct score of a match is one of the most fascinating football betting markets. The odds are huge and if you guess correctly, a single bet can help you make more than 5 or even 10 smaller bets added together.
Total Goals
This is a standard above/under betting option that allows you to predict how eventful the match will be in terms of goals. When strong teams encounter much weaker opponents, you’ll usually want to bet that a lot of goals will be scored. But when two teams with exceptional defensive capabilities meet each other, anything above three goals is quite rare.
Total Corners
Total corners is another above/below betting option, this time involving the total number of corners in a match. In football, corners are moments when the ball has crossed the back-line after it was last touched by the defending side and the attacking side is given a free-kick from the corner of the playing field.
Red Card
Here you can predict whether the match will have a red card or not. Red cards are given by the referee after two severe faults or sometimes just one, and they tend to be more frequent in high-stakes matches.
The Biggest Football Leagues and Tournaments
Football is full of great leagues and tournaments. Some of the most important ones are listed below.
Leagues
- Premier League (England)
- LaLiga (Spain)
- Ligue 1 (France)
- Serie A (Italy)
- Bundesliga (Germany)
- UEFA Champions League
- UEFA Europa League
Tournaments
- UEFA European Championship
- FIFA World Cup
The leagues listed here take place every year. But the tournaments take place just once every 4 years. Therefore, when such events occur, you really don’t want to miss them.
For UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA European Championship, and FIFA World Cup, apart from the event itself you can also follow and bet on its qualification matches. Such matches usually start weeks, months, or even years in advance.
