Football Betting Tips For Beginners

Football is the most popular sport in the world with over 4.0 billion followers.Football is also the most popular sport for sports bettors. It is estimated that sports bettors place bets of up to £1 Million in the UK alone.

If you are new to sports betting, betting on Football might be your best option primarily because of how many options you have when it comes betting on the beautiful sport.

If you are wondering how to get started betting on Football, check out our guide on Football Betting and Football Betting tips. If you are reading this from Canada we recommend you to check out this guide on Soccer Betting From Canada.

Best Bookmakers For Football Betting

Finding a bookmaker is essential if you want to get a bang for your buck with Football Betting. Some of the popular bookmakers may not accept players from your country or their offers and bookmaker bonuses start drying up once they see you are a regular.

Most bookmakers don’t have bonuses, offers and free bets specifically for Football betting. Many of the popular bookmakers don’t accept players from several countries.

We found five bookmakers that give regular free bets and bookmaker bonuses which helps you to make more money by betting on many sports. These bookmakers also give special offers for Basketball betting and free bets for Football Betting.

These bookmakers also accept players from over 167 countries so there is a high chance you can bet on Football from their bookmaker whether you are from Kenya,India or Canada.

Here are the five bookmakers that we personally recommend for Football betting:

A brief introduction to how sports betting works

If you are a complete beginner to sports betting the first thing you should know is how bookmakers odds work.

The odds set by bookmakers are basically a representation of the ratio between the stake you bet and the amount of money you stand to win if you place the bet.

Odds are usually shown in three formats:

1. Decimal format: This format is shown in decimals. What the decimal represents is how much you would win for every $1 you bet. For example, if the odds are 2.05, it means for every $1 you bet, you stand to win $2.05.
   Decimal formats are usually popular in mainland Europe.
2. Fractions: this odds format is usually popular in Britain. The denominator in the fraction represents the bet amount and the numerator shows the amount of money you stand to win from the bet amount. For example, if the odds are 2/1, it means for every $1 you bet you will win $2.
3. American: The American odds format is popular mostly in the United States and Canada. In this format odds are offered in a + or – format. For example let’s assume there is an international match between Germany and Iceland. Germany might have odds like $159 and Iceland might have odds like -127. This means in order to win $100 you might have to bet $159 on Germany while you can win an additional $127 for every $100 you bet on Iceland.

How Football betting works

Because Football is such a popular sport there are plenty of Football matches for you to bet on throughout the year.If the popular Football leagues like the Premier League or La Liga seasons end you can still bet on less popular Football leagues or international matches and competitions.

Apart from Football matches, you’ll find many different things to bet on in Football like the number of goals scored,total number of corners, saves by goalkeepers etc.

Many EU bookmakers will give you competitive odds, free bets and special offers that help you get the best value bets.Once you place a bet and the outcomes you bet on are in your favor the bookmaker gives you a payout.

Now, We will be covering the different types of bets in Football betting:

Match winner bets or 1×2 bets in Football betting

This is the most simple and straightforward bet in Football betting. In 1×2 bets or match winner bets in Football, you basically bet on either of the teams winning the Football match or on a draw.

One way to understand 1×2 betting in Football is to see it terms of three outcomes:

Outcome 1: Team 1 wins
Outcome 2: x, or draw

Outcome 3: Team 2 wins

Combo bets or accumulator bets in Football betting

Combo bets are multiple bets all combined into one.The odds for each outcome are added in this type of Football bet and each outcome has to occur in your favor so that you win an accumulator or combo bet in Football betting.

Combo bets offer good odds in Football but they can be quite risky as well.It is not recommended for beginners or bettors with little experience or knowledge about the sport.

Prop Bets in Football Betting

A prop bets or proposition bet is a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event during a sporting event.

When it comes to player prop bets in Football betting, you have many options like:

1. Which player will score the winning goal
2. Which player will score the first goal
3. Which player will get the first yellow cards
4. How many corners will be conceded during the game

Handicap Betting in Football Betting

What is handicap betting in Football?

In handicap betting in Football betting one of the teams is given a theoretical advantage while the other is given a theoretical disadvantage in terms of the number of goals one of the teams starts of the match with. There are two kinds of Handicap bets in Football, the Asian Handicap and the European Handicap bet

Asian Handicap Bets in Football

For example let’s say there is a match between Germany and Poland.Germany is the stronger team.

Bookmakers might offer handicap odds such as 

+1.5 goals for Poland,-1.5 goals for Germany.

What this means is that the game is essentially starting at 1.5-0 in Poland’s favor. In order for Germany to win this theoretical matchup, Germany would have to win by a margin of 1.5 goals.

As goals can’t be in decimals, this means that Germany would have to win byu a margin of at least 2 goals.

This means that if you bet on Poland in this handicap bet and Poland loses by margin of less than 1.5 goals, you will win the bet.

Usually in games between two teams of fairly even caliber, the handicap may be set at 0.25 or 0.5. In these cases, the favorite (or the team that has the – goals handicap) has to win by a margin of at least 1 goal.

This is an example of Asian handicap.

There are two forms of Asian handicap bets in handicap betting in Football. The first type of handicap we mentioned above is called a half goal handicap.

The second type of handicap in Football betting is called the full goal handicap. In this case one team is given a whole goal advantage or handicap,sometimes this can be more than one goal.

Let’s go back to our example of the theoretical matchup between Germany and Poland. This time Germany gets a handicap of -1 goal and Poland gets an advantage of +2 goals.

If you bet on Germany you win the game if Germany wins by a margin of 2 goals or more, you lose the bet if Germany draws or loses the game. If Germany wins by a margin of 1 goal, the result in the handicap scenario would be a draw. In this case your bet amount would be returned to you.

If you bet on Poland,you win if Poland wins,draws or loses by a margin of one goal.If Poland loses by a 3 goal margin or more then you lose. If Poland loses by a margin of 2 goals, in the handicap scenario this would be a draw and you would get your money back.

European Handicap bets in Football

There are  two main differences between an Asian handicap bet and a European handicap bet in Football. 

The first difference is that the handicaps are always whole numbers.

The second difference is that draws also have a handicap.

Let’s go back to our example on the theoretical matchup between Germany and Poland.

Bookmakers would offer handicaps in this format

Germany -1, Draw -1, Poland +2.

In this case,If you bet on Germany, you win if Germany wins by a two-goal margin or more.

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

If you bet on Poland, you win the bet if Poland wins the game, draws the game or loses by only one goal.

Half-time/full-time bets in Football betting

In Football betting you can bet on both the first half result and the second half result. Half time/full time bets in Football basically work like match winner bets where you predict who will lead(or win) the first half or whether the scores will be level (draw).

When in comes to Football, some teams tend to start matches poorly and this kind of bet is useful if you have done your homework on a team’s past performance and tendencies.

Double chance in Football betting

Double chance, is a type of bet in Football which allows you to be on 2 of 3 outcomes. This obviously increases your chances of winning a bet but the odds for these kinds of bets are lower.

The three choices bookmakers will offer you in double chance bets in Football betting are:

1. Home team win or draw
2. Away team win or draw
3. No draw,Home team or Away team win

Accumulator bets in Football

What are accumulator bets?

Accumulator bets involve making multiple bets. In order for you to win the accumulator bet, you have to win all the bets to get the big payout. Accumulator bets are also known as ACCA.

Accumulator bets are one of the most popular bets in Football betting. This is due to the fact that they offer huge odds. The odds for accumulator bets are high precisely because of the fact that you have to win all the bets, which makes it a risky bet if you are not very familiar with the sport.

Here is an example of how accumulator bets work:

Let’s say you want to bet on 4 teams to win their games in the premier league and you decide to bet on Manchester United,Leeds United,Arsenal and Liverpool to win their games in a particular game week. The odds for each team to win is 2/1.

If you bet $1 for all these teams to win, individually your return would be $2 per team or a total of $8. Your total profit would your total return of $8- $4 that you bet in total. So essentially, your profit would be 2 times your bet amount.

If you decided to place an accumulator bet of $1 on all four of these teams to win, the $2 that you won from the first bet would get transferred to the second bet, if that team would, your money would be doubled and the $4 would be transferred to the third game. If your team won, you would get $8 and this amount would automatically be bet on the fourth match. If the 4th team wins you would get $16.

In this case because of your choice of using an accumulator bet, your profit would be 16 times your original bet of $1.

Goalscorer bets in Football betting

Goalscorer bets are similar to prop bets. In fact, we can even say that it is a prop bet. As the name implies, goalscorer bets are bets where you bet on a particular player to score during the course of the match.

The odds depend on which player you decide to bet on to score. If you are betting on a player with a good scoring record, the odds would be low.

You can also bet on a player to score at a particular time during the match, for example in the first half, second half or in the final 10 minutes. In this case, the odds would be higher.

Our Football betting tip when it comes to goalscorer bets would be to look at the statistics of the player and when he is most likely to score during the game. Also, you can choose to combine a match winner bet with goalscorer bets to get a better payout.

Correct score bets in Football

A correct score bet is one in which you predict the 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 Mo Salah to score and Liverpool to win 1-0. Again, the odds on such bets are higher 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 Football betting

Over/under bets in Football usually involve betting on whether the total number of goals will be over a certain number. Usually you will see these numbers in decimals like over/under 2.5 goals.

If you bet on under 2.5 goals, you will win the bet if there are 2 or fewer than 2 goals during the match. If you bet on over 2.5 goals you will win the bet if there will be 3 or more goals during the match.

You can also use over/under bets on a particular team to score a certain amount of goals. For example if there is a match between Manchester United and Real Madrid, you can bet on over 1.5 goals for Mancheser United or Under 1.5 goals for Manchester United.

In this case, if you bet on over 1.5 goals for Manchester United you will win the bet if Manchester United score at least 2 goals, if you bet on under 1.5 goals for Manchester United then you will win the bet if Manchester United score 1 or less than 1 goal.

You can also bet on over/under corners or yellow cards as well.

In-play Football betting

In play Football betting is also called live Football betting. This involves placing a bet while the game is being played. This can be very exciting and is popular amongst Football bettors because of the flexibility it affords to bettors. The odds during live Football betting are very volatile though.

You can found out more about live Football betting in our article on live Football betting tips.

Important Football Betting Tips

The first Football betting tip we have for you is to remember that there are no sure shot bets in Football.You could be very knowledeable about the sport, do airtight research but still end up losing your bet.

That being said, doing your research does tilt the odds in your favor.

The next Football betting tip we have for you is if you are a beginner you should start off small and with low risk bets like match winner bets or goalscorer bets.

The third Football betting tip we have for you is to focus on a particular league or like the Premier league, La Liga. This helps you to focus in on the stats in that particular league and not get overwhelmed. As you learn more about the sport you can graduate to betting on international leagues like the UEFA Champions league and other leagues and eventually the international matches and tournaments like the Confederations Cup, EFA European Football Championship, African Cup of Nations, the FIFA World Cup etc.

The final Football betting tip is the most important one, keep an eye out for your budget. You should start off with a modest budget, keep track of your wins and losses on an excel spreadsheet or google spreadsheet and then as you become more experienced, increase your budget.