Beginners Guide to Football Betting
This is a beginners guide to football betting, written by a beginner!
You might not know this about me, but whilst Ian is a football betting expert with a long history of placing football bets, I am not! I know the web and how to make things on it, but I don’t know a lot about football.
I do love this site though, so I wanted to learn more about football betting so that I can better contribute to the conversations on it. I have been researching things for some time and thought I would write them up as a guide to football betting.
You might wonder why I didn’t ask Ian to write this guide, him being the expert, the truth is I thought it would be better coming from someone picking up the ropes. Ian knows so much he might assume you know something you don’t, I don’t know anything so that can’t happen!
Some Football Betting Terms
I figured I would start off with some football betting terms.
- Stake – This is the amount of money you place on a bet, in other words the amount of money you stand to lose if you don’t win.
- Accumulator – A football accumulator is a series of single bets grouped together, if each of the bets comes off then the odds accumulate together. Normally when you hear of people putting a fiver on something and winning a couple of thousand it is because of accumulators. Because each bet needs to win though they can be risky.
- Handicap – This is a bet that is offered when one team is the clear favourite – Think Brazil vs your local old boys team! The handicap gives a small advantage to the underdog. For example, there may be a one goal head start given to the underdog. I am going to explain Handicapping more later in this article.
- Half Time/Full Time – This type of bet is split into two, when you predict the winner of the first half then of the entire game. So you could predict a draw at half time but for the home team to win by full time.
- Banker – This is basically the closet thing to a certainty as you can get, the tipster is very sure that the bet will land if they consider it a banker. For example we give banker tips to our members.
- Scorecast – This is when you bet on a player to score the first goal along with predicting the correct score.
- Wincast – Very similar to a scorecast but you bet on a player to score and then predict the winner of the game.
- 90 Minute Betting – This is mentioned a lot when people bet on individual players (maybe as goal scorers) normally if the player doesn’t make an appearance the bet is called off, but if the player appears during the normal 90 minutes of the game they are eligible for the bet.
- 24 Hour Rule – Most betting websites have a rule like this where if a match is postponed the bet only becomes void if the match doesn’t get played within a 24 hour period. So for example if a match was just put back 2 hours the bet would still stand.
- Over/Under – This is when you bet on the amount of goals being scored, normally it will be over or under an amount, for example over 2.5 means if there are 3 or more goals. Under 2.5 would be 0, 1, or 2 goals being scored.
- DNB – This stands for Draw No Bet. What this means is if the score is a draw you get your money back for your bet. This can be seen as a safer option but you should understand that the odds are usually lower when this is selected.
- Double Chance – A Double Chance bet is one where you pick a winner and if they win OR it is a draw, you win the bet. If the team you pick loses then you lose the bet. Like DNB the odds are generally lower but it is a safer bet as a result.
Handicaps
Handicaps are something that confused the heck out of me for the longest time, so I want to spend a while looking at them in detail. This is such a common question that I have written up a guide to the differences between Asian and European handicapping.
There are two types that I will be talking about, Asian Handicaps and European Handicaps, I will mention each one in turn but first let me reiterate what I said above. This is a bet that is offered when one team is the clear favourite – Think Brazil vs your local old boys team! The handicap gives a small advantage to the underdog. For example, there may be a one goal head start given to the underdog.
Asian Handicaps
The best way to try and describe this is with an example, but first it is important to know that draws get refunded when you are doing Asian Handicapping;
In the most simple example Image Team A vs. Team B and the handicap is Team B + 2.5
This means that in order for Team B to lose, Team A would need to score 3 goals against them.
For a slightly more complicated example I am going to introduce what are known as two way handicaps.
Imagine Team A vs. Team B and you get the handicap: Team B +1.0, +1.5
This means that half of your bet goes on Team B to win, draw, or lose by less than 1 goal; and half on Team B to win, draw, or lose by less than 1.5 goals.
If the final score is Team A 1-0 Team B, half your bet would be refunded due to draw (Team A 1 – +1 Team B). The second half would win (Team A 1 – +1.5 Team B).
European Handicaps
You will be pleased to know that if you have grasped Asian Handicapping then European Handicaps are easier! They are the same as Asian Handicapping but a draw is possible.
So if you bet on Team A and they are at -2 and they win 2-0, that would be a draw and you would lose your money. (In Asian Handicaps you would get your money back)
Overs and Unders
You will often see phrases like “Over 1.5 goals” or “Under 2 goals”.
The general principle
Let’s ignore the ‘.5’ bit of these phrases for now. These bets that are stating that over (or under) a certain amount of goals will be scored.
If I were to bet that on a certain match “Over 2 goals” would be scored I would win if all the goals in that game added together were more than 2; so if the final score was 2–1, I would win because the total amount of goals is 3, which is more than 2.
Why .5?
Normally bets like these will include ‘.5’ – whilst this seems confusing (how do you score half a goal?) it actually makes the bet much easier because it removes the possibility of a draw.
If I bet that Under 1.5 goals will be scored the following score lines would mean I win;
0–0, 1–0, 0–1
This is because if you add up both teams goals, no result scored more than 1 goal.
If a game ended 1–1 I would lose, because 2 goals is larger than 1.5. There is no way for me to draw.
Not just goals
Overs and Unders don’t just apply to goals, you could have “Over 2.5 yellow cards”, “Under 20.5 throw ins”. Pretty much any event that can be easily counted could have an Overs or Unders bet associated with it.
Accumulators Vs Singles
These are the two most common way to place bets these days so I wanted to cover them in a little detail. We don’t hide that fact that Ian prefers singles but that doesn’t help you if you don’t know the main differences.
When you bet with an accumulator, all your bets need to win in order for you to be able to claim the money. This makes it much harder to win but of course the reward is far greater. As a new football bettor it is very tempting to bet on accumulators because you could see your £10 stake spiral into big bucks pretty quick.
Singles on the other hand are not effected by other bets. So if I place £10 on three different matches as singles and 2 of them come in, then I make money on those two bets. The odds aren’t as good if I was to role up all my bets into an accumulator, but the odds of me walking away with some money are much higher.
The main advice here is to find what it right for you. Just because some people swear by accumulators and others swear by singles doesn’t mean you should listen to the loudest voice. Do some research, maybe put some small stakes on a few different ways and see what felt good and what had a good return on your investment.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s covered in this section.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Betting on Football
We analyze the main advantages that football has to offer those wishing to bet on the sport, such as the number of betting opportunities and the vast amount of statistical data available. We also look at a couple of significant disadvantages, such as the fact that finding value is becoming increasingly difficult.
How to Bet on Football
This information is especially useful for absolute beginners, as it talks you through each step required to actually start betting on football games. It also includes details of the various options you have in terms of who you place your wagers with.
Types of Football Bets
There are many different football wagers that you can place. Some of these are very straightforward, and some are a little more complicated. It’s important to understand how they all work, which is why we’ve taken this time to explain each wager in detail.
Tips for Beginners
We offer a range of useful, but simple, tips that will help you make good decisions when betting on football. Although these tips are aimed squarely at beginners, the advice is relevant for anyone interested in betting on the sport.
Football Betting Mistakes
Most people who bet on football have their fair share of winning wagers, but the vast majority of them lose money overall. The harsh reality is that you probably will too when you’re starting out. There’s no need to worry about that though; if you’re committed, then you’ll improve as you go along. One of the easiest ways to improve is to cut out some of the common mistakes that bettors make, and we’ve got some advice to help you do just that.