Football betting guide to popular bet types

Football betting is the most popular betting activity in the world, according to Match.Center, an analytical platform looking at bookmakers, their operation, pros and cons. It can become overwhelming at times as there are hundreds of different bets available on a single football match. Some of the bets are the traditional three way of home or away win and the draw result while there are more complex bets like the prop and points spread bets. In this guide we will look at some of the most popular types of football bets and also bets that can be slightly more difficult to understand.

Single and Accumulator Bets

· Single bets are bets places just on one selection or outcome. In football Win/Draw/Win is the most straight forward single bet type, as there are only three possible outcomes. In a football match, either team can win, with the draw being the third possible outcome. The odds on this type of bet are generally low as predicting the outcome is not considered too difficult.

· Accumulator bets have grown to become a very popular bet type as there is potential to win huge payouts. This bet consists of several selections or outcomes, and in order to win, all your selections on the bet slip must be correct. It’s not easy to make several correct predictions, therefore the payouts are lucrative. One strategy is to only pick favourites in your accumulator but remember the odds will not be very great.

Double Chance Bet

When you make a single bet in a football match, there is a 33.3% chance of being correct. These are not great percentages but if you are looking to increase your chances of winning, then the double chance bet is a great option. You can now choose two possible match outcomes in your bet, increasing your chances of winning to 66.67%. This option, however, has very low odds and will require a larger wager to gain a decent profit.

Over/Under Bets

This type of bet is related to the number of goals in a match. You can bet, for instance, that the total number of goals in a match will be under 2.5. This means that if the number of goals in the match is two or less, then your bet will be a winner. If you bet that the total number of goals in a match is over 2.5, and the match ends with the score of three or more goals, then your bet is a winner. Before placing such a bet, you are recommended to read statistics to see if a team involved in the match you would like to bet on, scores a lot of goals.

Handicap Betting

This is an extremely popular bet type, and it involves a team starting with a positive or negative goal tally. This bet is available when a very strong team is playing against a much weaker team. The actual result of the match may be easy to predict therefore the bookmaker may start the weaker team with a +2 goals tally. This means that in order for the stronger team to beat the handicap betting odds, they will need to win by three goals or more.

Outright Betting

This type of bet is generally a long-term bet as you make a prediction on a winner of some kind of tournament. Fo example, at the start of the English Premiership, you can make a bet on the team that you think will win the league. These bets are also available on other football tournaments like the Champions League and the Euro Championships. The odds on these bets are usually excellent as it involves many teams playing over an extended period of time.

Prop Bets

This type of bet is associated with the players and not the outcome of the match. You can bet on which player you think will be the first goalscorer or which player will be the last goalscorer. There are also other prop bets like in which ten minute intervals in the match a goal will be scored. These bets are considered being high risk, so the odds are usually quite high.

Conclusion

In the past, punters were highly restricted in their choice of bet types but all that has now changed with up to a hundred different types of bets offered for a single football match. The vast number of betting options can sometimes be confusing but it’s important to stick to the bets that you are most comfortable with. If you would like to make any of the above bets, you can find a bookmaker for that at Match.Center. Remember to bet within your constraints and never take bets that you never fully understand.