Betting on football is very easy. Know the teams, research the conditions of each, choose which one you think will win, place your bet and start cheering. Simple, isn’t it? But that’s just the basics of football betting. There are many other options, and here you can see what they are.
Sometimes it happens that the favouritism of a team is so big that the profit offered by bookmakers ends up not being very high. What to do? Betting on the big underdog may be worth a lot of money, but it is unlikely that they will win. In this case, the best is to keep believing in the favorite and risk your guess on how the victory will happen. In other cases, the game is so evenly balanced that you don’t know who to invest your money in.
Football betting options
When it comes to football, the betting sites make it easy for you to invest in “moneyline”, precisely because it is the simplest option. This is the first one we will explain. To access the others, go to the betting site, find the match that interests you and click on the number on the right of the betting table. It usually appears in one of these ways: 79 > or +21 >
Match Winner (1X2 or Moneyline)
Known and abroad as “moneyline”, is the most basic bet to make in football: you simply choose between three options: 1, X or 2:
- 1: Victory of the home team.
- X: Draw.
- 2: Away team wins.
The odds are around R$ 2.40 (usually a draw pays more). When a team’s win is worth more than this, it is considered an underdog. If it offers from R$ 8 upwards, it has practically no chance of winning. It is better to turn your attention to the opponent.
Very important to remember: the bet is only valid for the normal time of the game. Draws decided in extra time or penalties are considered by the bookmakers as simple draws.
European Handicap
In this mode the team that is considered the underdog starts the game with an advantage of 1, 2 or even 3 goals. The amount will be defined by the bookmaker.
We have as an example the match Barcelona x Las Palmas. Las Palmas was such a big underdog that its victory would pay R$ 29 for each R$ 1 bet in the moneyline. However, with the handicap option, it was as if they started the match with 3 goals already on the scoreboard. The odds would drop to R$2.00, however with this fictional handicap Las Palmas would have some chance of beating Barcelona. Meanwhile, if Barça were to win even if they start from a deficit (they would need to score at least 4 goals), they would pay R$2.50 for every R$1. If they only scored 3, a draw (a fictitious 3-33) would be worth R$4.75/ R$1.
Asian Handicap
The Asian handicap is similar to the European one, but removes the draw option. You can bet on a whole number (example: +3) or a decimal number (+2,5), each with their own odds.
Let’s return to the example above, Barcelona x Las Palmas. In the Asian handicap, we had the following integer option (in this case, the number “3”):
- Barcelona victory with handicap of -3, odds: R$2.10.
- Las Palmas to win with a +3 handicap, odds: $1.70.
If you bet on Barcelona, you would have to hope that they score 4 goals, which would give the result 4-3 (assuming Las Palmas do not score). If you bet on Las Palmas, on the other hand, Barcelona could score up to 2 goals and you would still win the bet. If the match ends 3-0 for Barcelona, the result in the bet would be 3-3, a draw. In this case, the bet is void and the amount invested is refunded.