Football Bets at Online Bookmakers - Extended Guidelines
There is no second opinion that one of the most popular, if not the most popular sport for betting is football. Football betting opens a lot of doors for you, football betting is accompanied with a lot of markets and extremely high odds, also bookmakers give a lot of bonus offers, which can make things even better for you. Football betting can be not only satisfying for you, but also can bring you a lot of winnings, but only if you know the tactics and strategies about how to place the perfect bet. Now, let’s go a little deeper into football betting and reveal the best tips and strategies on how to place the perfect football bets.
A Brief History of Football Betting
Actually, football betting become popular and legal simply when sports betting came. Football betting was not legal almost everywhere, before the 1960s that was not legal and was considered as a crime, actually then football bets were only placed on illegal street casinos, but through years things changed a lot. First, in 1960 sports betting was officially legalized in the UK, and from 1961 you were able to place bets in some street shops. From this year, the growth of football betting has begun, through years more and more countries started to allow football betting, and nowadays, this is actually the most popular sport for betting. In the past you were not able to place single bets, the minimum was 3 in one selection, but in 2002 that was changed.
Later, with the introduction of computers, and the fact that everything comes digital, bookmakers (the shops for betting) started to develop a computer version, where you can place bets, which nowadays are known as online bookmakers. Now, you can find a lot of markets and extremely high odds for football in every single online bookmakers.
Leading Football Championships
As we already mentioned football is the most popular sport for betting. There is no online bookmaker who does not offer football betting options. Actually, you can place bets on games from all of the championships and leagues, which everybody knows, let’s cover some of them:
World Cup
There is no person that never heard about the World Cup. This is a competition, which face the football teams of every single country in one competition, where each team should first qualify for the group stages, then pass through the direct eliminations, and the final, which shows up the final winner of the prestige title World Cup Winner. The World Cup is played every 4 years. Let’s see some of the most iconic teams, which are competing in the World Cup:
- Germany,
- Italy,
- Brazil,
- France,
- Argentina,
- Chile,
- Uruguay,
- Spain…
UEFA European Championship
UEFA European Football Champions was founded in 1958, and is simply a championship, which faces all the European national football teams. Here, things are quite the same as the World Cup, each team should qualify for the championship, then win on the direct eliminations, and then win the final. The UEFA European Championship is again played on every 4 years. You can be sure that when this championship is on, every single bookmaker, allows you to place bets on every single game on a lot of different markets, extremely high odds, and as for the World Cup, you can even place a bet for the final winner of the competition. Let’s now see some of the teams, which do a lot for the history of the UEFA European Championship.
- Spain,
- Germany,
- Italy,
- Romania,
- Belgium,
- Czech Republic,
- Netherlands,
- Greece,
- Turkey.
German Bundesliga 1
The next very popular league, which you can place bets in every single bookmaker is the German Bundesliga league, which is the main football league of the country. Every season, in the 1 Bundesliga, you can see teams competing for the first places, which will lead them to the Champions League and the Europa League, but if they finish last, they will drop in the second Bundesliga. Through this whole season, each team is facing all of the others on their home stadium, and also are guest to every other team. Here, you can see teams like:
- Bayern Munich,
- Borussia Dortmund,
- Hertha Berlin,
- Borussia Monchengladbach,
- Bayer Leverkusen,
- Werder Bremen,
- Koln …
Primera Division
The Primera Division is the first league of Spain, where things are quite the same as for the Bundesliga. In the Primera Division, each season teams in it are facing each other in a home and away games, where at the end, first teams are qualifying for the Champions League and the Europa League, also the last ones are dropping in the Secunda Division. There is no online bookmaker who does not offer betting markets for this competition. Let’s now see some of the teams, which you can see in the Primera Divison:
- Real Madrid,
- Barcelona,
- Athletico Madrid,
- Athletic Bilbao,
- Valencia,
- Valladolid,
- Betis,
- Sevilla…
Serie A
Let’s continue with the next very popular league in all over the world. The Serie A is the first league of Italy, where things are the same as the Primera Division and the Bundesliga. The teams, which finish in the first places are going to the Champions League and Europa League, and the last ones are going to the Serie B. Here, you can see popular teams like:
- Juventus,
- Milan,
- Monaco,
- Verona,
- Palermo,
- Inter Milan,
- Napoli,
- Fiorentina,
- Roma,
- Torino…
Premier League
The Premier League is the first league of England, this is a league that is popular in every single spot in the world. You also know what is happening here, each team has a home and away game with every single team for the season, and in the end, the ones, which finish in the first places are going to the Champions League and to the Europa League. The teams, which finish last are dropping to the second league. There is no online bookmaker, which does not offer betting on the Premier League, as this league is one of the most popular ones. Here you can see teams like:
- Arsenal,
- Manchester United,
- Manchester City,
- Liverpool,
- Chelsea,
- Watford,
- West Ham,
- Norwich,
- Newcastle United,
- Everton,
- Tottenham.
Champions League
You already know that the teams which are finishing in the first few places from every single league are qualifying for the Champions League, which is the most prestigious championship. Each year there is a Champions League season, which gives every team an opportunity to win the popular Champions League Cup, which simply means that this team is the best. Here teams should pass the group stages, then the direct eliminations, and in the end is the final, which determines the winner. In the Champions League, you can see teams like:
- Bayern Munich,
- Real Madrid,
- Ajax Amsterdam,
- Barcelona,
- Juventus,
- Olympiacos,
- Monaco,
- Paris Saint Germain,
- Milan,
- Manchester United,
- Chelsea.
Europa League
UEFA Europa League is an annual football competition, which is facing all the teams from national leagues. The competition is on since 1971. Before 2010 the Europa League was called UEFA Cup. Each year UEFA is organizing a Europa League championship, which is facing some of the top teams in the national teams. In the whole history of UEFA Europa League the most popular team, which won 5 titles is Sevilla. Every single online bookmaker is offering a lot of markets for each game of the UEL, which gives you a lot of betting opportunities. Let’s see some of the teams, which made a lot for the UEFA Europa League.
- Sevilla,
- Chelsea,
- Manchester United,
- Borussia Dortmund,
- Manchester City,
- Athletico Madrid,
- Bayer Leverkusen,
- Dynamo Zagreb,
- Liverpool,
- CSKA Moscow,
- Ajax Amsterdam,
- Benfica,
- Porto,
- Espanyol,
- Fiorentina,
- Juventus,
- Inter Milan,
- Anderlecht..
Types of Football Bets
As you can see football betting is popular in all over the world. By becoming part of the whole online football betting world, you can move your online betting level to the next high level. It is not a secret that online bookmakers are very generous when it comes to football betting markets and odds. There is a wide variety of different markets, which cannot be seen for other sports, let’s see some of them:
- Winner - The most popular betting option for football events is the final winner, which requires you to predict, which team will be the winner or if the game will be drawn, for example, you can bet for the home team, for a draw or for the away team.
- Goals Under/Over - Another very popular betting option is Over/ Under Goals, where you should predict how much goals will be in an exact game. For no doubt, the most popular option is over/ under 2.5 goals, which means you should predict if it will be more or less than 3 goals. The odds for that market are very high, and another big advantage is that there are only 2 options. There are other options like over/ under 1.5 goals, 3.5 goals, 2 goals, 5 goals, 4.5 goals, and so many others,
- Double Chance - As you already saw there are three options for the final result of each football game, so in order to perform better bet slip, bookmakers offer a double chance markets, where you can bet for the home team or draw, away team or draw, home team or away team, which makes things easier because you simply eliminate one of the three possible outcomes. Of course, the double chance has quite lower odds, but the chance of winning is a way bigger,
- Correct Score - Every bookmaker even allows you to place bets for the correct score of an exact football game. For example, you can place a correct score bet for 1:2 of an exact game.
- First Half/ Final Score - A very popular and beneficial market for players, is the First Half/ Final Score market, which requires you to predict the score for the first half, and after that what will be the final result of the game, for example, you can place a bet, which says that the first half the home team will win, and the final will be a draw: 1/X,
- Both Teams to Score - The next very popular market for football events, is Both Teams to Score. For that option, odds are not quite big, but the chance to predict it is very big, you simply need to guess if both teams will score a goal, or no,
- Handicap - Handicap Betting become very popular through online football bettors. Handicap simply removes one outcome. Handicap simply gives goal advantage to one of the teams, which means if you place a handicap bet for the favored team, it should win with a difference of at least 2 goals,
- Corners - The world of football betting grown a lot, so you can even place bets for a number of corners. You can place Handicap corner bets, you can place over/ under corners and so many more, this betting option is very popular and beneficial, because, in order to guess it, you only need to make a simple research for that exact game.
Accumulator vs Single Bets
In the whole sports betting world, you can place two types of bets, single and accumulator bets, they are quite different and can be used for different purposes. Let’s cover both types of bets:
Single Bets
Single bets are simple bets, which consist only one selection in it, of course, the potential for winning them is quite bigger than the accumulator bets. Single bets are also perfect for risky bets with extremely high odds, for example, the correct score. The disadvantage about single bets is that odds are not multiplied and you can win less than from an accumulator bet. Let’s see a simple example of a single bet.
Example:
Let’s say that there is a game Home: Away, where the odds are 1.80 for the home team/ 3.00 for a draw/ 3.60 for the away team.
If you place a single bet for the home team with 10 dollars, you are going to win
1.80 * 10 = 18 dollars.
Accumulator Bets
The accumulator bets are the bets, which can give you a lot in return, but you should make a lot more research and you should have more knowledge about betting. The full guide about accumulator bets, you can see in our extended accumulator bets guide. Accumulator bets simply consists of more than one selection, and also the odds are multiplied with each other, so the final winning amount is quite bigger. Let’s see an example for an accumulator bet.
Example:
Let’s say that we want to place bets for 3 home teams, which have odds of 1.80, 2.00, and 1.60, with the help of an accumulator bet we can combine them all and win a lot more. If we again bet 10 dollars, if we win the bet, we will win:
1.80 * 2.00 * 1.60 = 5.76 (This will be the final odds)
5.76 * 10 = 57.60 dollars will be your final winning amount.
Of course, accumulator bets are riskier, simply because you should guess more than one final outcome, which makes things a little bit harder.
Useful Options from Bookmakers for football bets
For no doubt, most of the amazing features and options in almost every single online bookmaker are for the football bets, which is the most preferred sport for betting. Every single day new betting options and amazing beneficial features are coming out for the football betting. Let’s see some of the amazing features and options, which can help you a lot with your football betting experience.
- Football Bonus Offers - There is no such a top online bookmaker, which does not have a bonus offer for sports. Things start with the generous welcome bonus offers, after that the bonus offers for existing players, which can give you a lot:
- CashBack Bonuses,
- Deposit Bonuses,
- Bet Insurance,
- Bonuses for loyal players.
- Cash-Out - One of the most popular and helpful available features for all online football betting players is the cash-out, this option gives you full control over your already placed bets. You can simply withdraw your placed a bet before the game ended, there are partial cash-out and full cash-out,
- Live Streaming - Every single online bookmaker, which is on the top for sure offers a live streaming option, which literally can allow you to watch an exact game. For football betting lovers live streaming is more than awesome, you simply can place a bet and after that watch that game, and see all the live statistics,
- Odds - As a leading sport for betting, football is accompanied by extremely high odds. There are bookies, which offer an increased odds specific for football events,
- Statistics - A lot of bookmakers even have a special section, where you can see a lot of information about each upcoming football event, also for the previous one, so you do not even need to make a deep research in Google, simply because you have the whole information and statistics in the bookie’s website.
Live Football Betting
There is no second mind that the real satisfaction from betting on football, comes from the live betting, where you can place stakes on events, which already started. But Live football betting should be done only if you made a good research and know what is happening in the game. No matter that the odds are literally escalating every single second, so for example, if an exact outcome has odds of 1.80 before the game can jump to 5.00 only for a few minutes of the game. So, you need to be careful and watch exactly what is happening through the game.
For live bets, you should be very careful because they are quite different from the pre-match bets.
- First, you should never be jealous and never place a bet, only because of the high odds,
- Second, in live football betting, you can catch some unexpected outcomes, which were not obvious before the game,
- Third, you should be very careful with the choice of the bookmaker if you are a live football betting fan, there are online bookmaker, which offer more than others about live betting.
Major Football Betting Strategies
In order to gain knowledge and experience from your hobby - football betting, you should always improve yourself and learn new things, and something important - to always learn from your mistakes. There is no way to go further if you do not follow some simple strategy, our advice is to see what works best for you and follow it, but let’s give you some ideas about what professional betting players are following:
Handicap
Some of the most popular strategies through online professional gamers is for no doubt Handicap betting, which can open a lot of doors for you. The biggest advantage of Handicap betting is that it can be used for the final outcome, corners, first-half results, goals, etc,. You can see more information about Handicap betting, in our extended Asian Handicap betting. Handicap simply eliminates one of the options for betting, which increases your chance of winning a lot. This is a strategy, which is followed by a lot of people, and make them more experienced.
Both Teams to Score
Another football betting strategy, which can be very beneficial for you is to bet on Both teams to score or not. The biggest advantage here is that you only need to predict if both teams will score goals, which with a little bit of research can be easily done,
Accumulator and Single Bets - Another strategy, which is working for a lot of people is to understand what is working better for you, if it is to place single bets with more higer stakes, or accumulator bets in which odds are multiplied.
Martingale
Martingale is a very good strategy to never lose, but here you should start with a solid fundings and place a lot of bets. Martingale was first used by roulette players, but now players are using it for football, for example for markets like both teams to score. What Martingale basically is, to always double your next bet, and search for odds of at least 2.00. Each time you win a bet you take your placed funds back and have some net winning. For that strategy, you should remember that you should have time and a lot of investments to start.
Oscar Grind
Oscar’s Grind strategy is similar to the Martingale strategy, and everything is calculated to make you win every time. Most of the time win and loss come in a streak, which is the key to this strategy. After a few simple calculations, you can learn a lot, just from multiplying your bets. For that strategy, everything is based on wagering, and you also need to start with a solid risky funds and a lot of free time.
Virtual Football Betting
Over the past few years, virtual football betting gained a lot of popularity through only players. A lot of online bookmakers offer that opportunity. Virtual football games are based on the real equivalents, but are quite shorter in length, and of course, everything is virtual, even the results are generated by an algorithm. Virtual Football betting is the perfect alternative if there are no good real football events to bet, or you just need to take a rest from the real football bets, if things are not going well. The biggest advantage is that the markets for virtual football games are quite the same as the real ones, and also the odds are very high.
eSports Football Betting
Another very good alternative for football betting comes from the eSports section, where you can enjoy betting on games like Fifa. ESports are electronic games, which are played by real gamers, which are facing against each other. Over the past few years, a lot of bookmakers introduced eSports betting to their platforms, so you can take a rest from the real football betting. Something really important about eSports betting is that odds are extremely high for every single game, simply because the final outcome is very hard to be predicted.
How to choose the best Bookmaker for football betting
Actually, it is not very hard to choose the best online bookmaker if you are about to place football bets, this is simply because every single bookie offers a lot of different options, markets, and features for football betting. So, everything depends on you. Let’s see some of the main factors, for which you should pay attention when you are about to join an online bookmaker, and remember you should see what is more important about you,
- Bonus Offers,
- Markets,
- Odds,
- Live Streaming,
- Features,
- Statistics section,
- Exchange Betting,
- Live betting.
Here are some of the Best Online Bookmakers for Football Betting
No matter that every bookmaker offer a lot of different football betting options and features, there are some which for no doubt can give you a lot, let’s see some of them:
1xBet
One of the most popular and preferred online bookmakers from football betting players is 1xBet, which opens a lot of doors for increasing your football betting experience. 1xBet can give you an amazing start, with the amazing and generous welcome bonus offers for sports, also to a lot of bonuses for existing players for football. Also, 1xBet gives you access to a lot of amazing and beneficial features. The only disadvantage of 1xBet is that the list with restricted countries is not short.
William Hill
William hill is another online bookmaker, which is perfect for football betting. By joining William Hill you are going to have access to a wide variety of football betting options, markets, and extremely high odds. Also, the bookmaker allows you to claim a lot of bonus offers, which can give you a lot of promotions for football betting. The bookmaker also has a lot of features, including live streaming. But, the problem here is again the list with restricted countries.
Betfair
Betfair is another very good online bookmaker for football betting lovers. By joining it, you are also going to have access to a lot of football betting options and markets, high odds, a lot of bonus offers, and last but not least a lot of features. Betfair is very popular with its exchange betting section. The biggest advantage is that Betfair’s football betting section is available in almost every single country.
888Sport
888sport is part of the 888group, which can give you a lot if you are a football betting lover, with its wide variety of betting options and services. Bonus offers are another part, which can make you join it if you are a football betting lover. But again, the list with restricted countries is a problem.
Top 5 Football Betting Tips
In order to make things even easier for you, let’s list some of the most important tips, which if you follow, you will probably increase your football betting level. For no doubt, you already know that, but you never paid attention to it.
- Never go all-in - In order to succeed in any type of betting, you must never go all in, no matter how sure is the bet, because there is always a chance to lose. It is always better to keep some amount of funds in your account,
- Research - For football betting, it is very important to always do a research before you place a bet, by doing that you are going to increase your chance of winning. There are games, which is obvious that the favored team will not win, so you can only know that if you research,
- Watch out the odds - As you already know every bookmaker has a different mind about each game, so when a new football event is published odds can be very unlikely to help you place a winning bet, there are a lot of people which make mistakes because of that, it is always better to wait and see if the odds for an exact market are dropping or not, which can really help you a lot,
- Bonus Offers - A lot of players do not care about bonus offers, because they think only bookmakers are winning from them, and the rules and requirements are very hard to be followed, but it is actually the opposite. It is always better to claim bonuses, simply because you take more betting opportunities.
- Place Live Bets - Live Betting can be really beneficial to you, not only because the odds are escalating very fast, but you can watch the game and see all the statistics, which can help you place the best bet.
Football betting Advantages and Disadvantages
We, from Bettingy.com always try to make your online betting experience better and easier. So, we are going to list all of the advantage and disadvantage of football betting, in order to help you decide if it is worth it and if it is the best betting type for you:
Advantages
Football Betting:
- Is available in every single online bookmaker,
- Has a lot of markets and options,
- Odds are extremely high,
- Is accompanied with a lot of bonus offers,
- Online bookmaker introduces a lot of features,
- Support live betting in almost every single online bookmaker.
Disadvantages:
- Require a little bit of research,
- May be hard to find the best events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is there a secure football bet?
A: Unfortunately, there is no such a secure football bet, there is always a chance to lose.
Q: Which is the best strategy for football betting?
A: There is not simply the best strategy for football betting, you should try different ones and see which one is working the best for you.
Q: Which is the best online bookmaker for football betting?
A: There is no perfect bookmaker, every single one of them offers different football betting options, services, and bonus offers, so again you need to see which is the best for you. Some of the ones, which you can check are: Betfair, William Hill, 1xBet, etc..
In Summary
For no doubt one of the most popular sports for online betting in all over the world is football. By now, you already saw how to place the perfect football bets, what are the best strategies to follow in order to win a lot from football betting, also how to choose the best online bookmaker, at all how to succeed in online football betting. You should remember that football betting can open a lot of doors for you, and increase your online betting level a lot.
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See other interesting articles about your successful bets
- Arbitrage Betting Pros & Cons - Full Guide
- Types & Calcilation of Betting Odds
- Corner Betting - When - How - Why



