Understanding Soccer Betting Types
Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, loved by hundreds of millions of fans. It’s also the preferred choice among bettors. One of the reasons why that is the case is that there are plenty of interesting bets to choose from.
If you’re new to soccer betting, we’re now going to introduce you to some of the most popular soccer betting markets.
Most Common Soccer Betting Types
Although soccer is offered by almost every online sportsbook in the world, some of them might not have a too big variety of markets. Still, there are some soccer betting markets you can expect to find in every book. Here are some of those.
1X2 Betting
The most popular soccer bet type is the one in which you guess the outcome of the match. You can bet on three outcomes – home team victory, away team victory, and draw.
Apart from being on a single outcome of the match, you can increase your chances of winning by betting on two outcomes. The kind of betting market you’re looking for is ‘double chance’.
Draw no Bet (DNB)
When it comes to the ‘draw no bet’ market, the clue is in the name – you bet on one of the two teams, while in the case of a draw, your bet is void.
Half Time/Full Time
Not only can you bet on the outcome of the game, but you can also bet on the outcome of the first 45 minutes. And you can combine the two if you choose the half time/full time (HT/FT) market. In order to win, you need to correctly guess the outcome of the game as well as the outcome of the first half.
Correct Score
What are the numbers that we’ll see on the scoreboard once the ref blows the final whistle? If you think you can guess them, why not bet on the correct score market!
Number of Goals
How many goes are going to be in the game? You can bet on the exact number of goals, but also whether there will be more (or less) goals than a certain margin. The margin comes in the form of a number and a half, e.g. 2.5 goals.
Both Teams to Score (BTS)
If you think the game will see goals on both ends, you can bet on BTS, which stands for ‘both to score’. Similarly, you can also bet that such a scenario will not play out, that is, that at least one of the two teams will not score.
Handicaps
If a team is a huge favorite to win the game, the sportsbook might give it a few goals’ disadvantage to make things more interesting. This is called handicap and in this type of bet, winning is not enough.
The favorite needs to cover the margin set by the book. For instance, if the handicap is -1.5, in order to win, your team needs to beat the opponent with at least two goals difference.
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Player Betting
Apart from betting on a team as a whole, you can also place bets on individual players. Some of the most popular player betting markets include the following:
- Will score anytime
- Will score a hat-trick
- Will get a booking
- Will miss a penalty
- Will play 90 minutes
Not only can you bet on how a player will perform in one particular game, but you can also bet on his season-long stats. For instance, you can bet on which player will get the Ballon d'Or award or who is going to be the top scorer at the end of the season.
Parleys Explained
Accumulators, accas, combos, multi-bets, parleys – all these terms refer to the soccer bet types in which you wager the money on several different events at once. To win, you need to hit all of the individual bets.
The biggest advantage of this kind of wager is a better value. How multipliers work is that the odds for each individual bet are multiplied altogether with your stake.
Plus, many sportsbooks give bonuses on accumulators which enhance the potential winnings. The reason why they do it is not that they’re generous; it’s because the chance of hitting a multiplier is much smaller than hitting a single bet.
Live Betting
Most bettors place their wagers before the start of the game, but you can also do it during the game. What we’re talking about is live betting, a feature that many top-rated sportsbooks have.
Most of the soccer betting markets you will find offered pre-match should be in the live-betting offer as well. However, the live odds differ from the pre-match ones, depending on how the match is progressing. If the favorite is losing, for example, the odds on that team will be much higher than they were ahead of the match.
Betting on Futures & Specials
A big majority of wagers are placed on events that take place the same day or the same weekend. Bettors just don’t like waiting for too long before they know whether their bets are winning or losing ones.
But, this doesn’t mean you can’t bet on markets the outcomes of which will be known weeks or even months into the future.
The so-called futures or outrights are soccer bet types like:
- Which team will finish among the top 6 in the Premier League?
- Who will be crowned Il Capocannoniere (top scorer) in the Italian Serie A?
- Which team is going to win the next Champions League?
- Which national soccer team will win gold at the Olympics?
And for those bettors with creative minds, some books have special offers. They might let you come up with your own bets.
If you have some kind of exotic bet in mind that’s not in the offer, there are some sportsbooks that are open to suggestions.
Do you think we’ll see a streaker stopping a major Champions League match (like it happened in 2019 final)? Many sportsbooks that will accept such a wager gladly.
