Common Football Betting Markets Explained
Football betting is the king when it comes to sports punting. Football betting owns the lion’s share on the total amount of bets places in the world. The first bookmaker to offer football odds was William Hill back in 1934. Football betting has transcended tremendous levels since then. In the current world, almost every online bookie will offer football betting odds, with the majority of those football bets placed online.
The shift to digital has brought about significant changes to the services offered as well as the various betting markets offered by bookmakers. All betting sites curate their football bets to give customers plenty of options depending on which they find most attractive. It is easy to find one football game with over 120 different betting markets. Here is a comprehensive guide that explains football bets and markets.
Full-Time Result
The most popular market in football betting is the full-time result. Two forms of betting are the most common; three-way betting (1X2) and Asian handicap. The Asian handicap makes one-sided games rather interesting by doing away with the draw option. Bookmakers will offer the customer a goal handicap that is either deducted from or added to a team’s full-time result.
For instance, a handicap of +1 goals means that if the customer adds a goal to the full-time score, then the score is higher than the opposition. The customer’s bet is then a winning bet, and the team has ‘covered the handicap’. The same goes with handicap deduction. If the team’s score is still higher than their opponents after the handicap has is deducted, that is a winning bet.
With the 1X2 type of betting, the customer is allowed to place a bet on either team to win or draw. The ‘1’represents the club playing at home, the ‘X’ represents the draw, and the ‘2’ indicates the team who are playing away from home.
Double Chance Odds
A double chance bet gives the customer freedom to bet on two out of three possible results of a football game. A double chance bet could either be a home win and a draw (1X), an away win and a draw (X2), or both teams to potentially win the game (12). However, it is essential to note that the odds offered on the double chance market are usually lower than if the customer was to bet on a single result. These lower odds are because the double chance offers a bet that covers two potential outcomes.
Correct Score Odds Market
This market involves betting on the accurate full-time result of a football game. This market is popular with bettors because of the potential reward promised by selecting the odd. A popular strategy on this market involves betting on a combination of potentially accurate results. It is a technique bettors refer to as ‘Dutching’.
For instance, if a bettor thinks the outcome of a particular game will end 4-2, then they can pick that as the correct score bet. Alternatively, the bettor can bet on various score lines such as 4-1, 3-2, or 2-1 but using different bet slips. The downside to this is that the returns will be smaller. However, the customer does this to provide themselves with some insurance should either of those options fail.
Number of Goals
Football bettors have the option to bet on the total number of goals scored in a football match. Odds on these types of bets on many occasions are big but seldom profitable because getting the right choice on such a market is difficult.
A lot of precision and luck is required to get it right. Bookmakers also place big margins on such markets because betters tend not to notice the lower odds on the market with a multitude of potential outcomes. These margins are significant because of how hard it is to predict these kinds of results right.
Over/Under Bet Markets
Another highly prevalent bet is to predict the total number of goals that will precede a specific figure. 2.5 goals is often a standard benchmark whereby bettors bet on whether a game will end with either more or fewer than 2.5 goals. In essence, meaning that the game will end with three goals, more or less than 3. Some football betting sites will offer odds ranging from over or under 0.5 going up to 10.5 goals.
It is a popular choice for football bettors because they don’t need to pick the result or winner of a particular game. The only thing needed to decide on a winning bet is if the goal will have more or fewer goals. If the customer places a bet on over 2.5 goals, and the match ends with two goals or more, then they have won the bet. Anything otherwise would render the bet as a losing bet. The same criteria apply to bets applied under 2.5. If the game ends with two goals or less, then the customer has won the bet.
