Played in over 200 countries globally, football is by far the World’s most popular sport. Enjoyed internationally, throughout the year, it’s no surprise that it also ranks highly as the most popular sport to bet on.
Homegrown leagues offer a variety of ways to place your bet, not to mention continental and international tournaments. Choose from the Champions League, pre-season matches, European Championships, Africa Cup of Nations, Copa America and the World Cup, to name but a few.
Our guide is here to serve as an introduction to football betting, the different terms used and ways you can improve your knowledge of football betting.
Betting on Football
With Unibet, we bring you a massive selection of football games you have the opportunity to bet on. With fixtures organised in nationality and league order, it’s never been easier to find the game you wish to place a wager on.
Here at Unibet, we offer everything from the largest leagues such as the Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A to the lower divisions, internationally. We bring you the chance to place a wide range of bets from full-time result to combination bets (commonly known as combi bets), where you are able to bet on different outcomes, all on the same bet slip. Whether you want to wager on total goals scored, first goal scorer, last goal scorer, half-time score or more, we have it all here at Unibet.
In the following section, we’ll take a look at the more commonly placed bets and how to place them.
How to Bet on Football
There are numerous ways you can bet on any single football match and here at Unibet, we strive to give you the most competitive odds with the widest variety of outcomes to bet on.
The Match Bet is by far the most commonly seen type of betting in football. Simply put, this is when you bet on the outcome of a game. The three outcomes in football are win, draw or loss. Often referred to as the ‘1X2 Bet’, due to the fact that you can bet on the home team to win (1), bet on a draw (X) or bet on the away team to win (2).
Our Sportsbook at Unibet is clearly laid out, so whether you want to browse your way to the match you’re looking for or make use of our handy search field option, you’re never far away from finding the right game for you.
Football Double Chance
Another very popular way of betting on football is the Double Chance. The Double Chance is when you can bet on two different results on a game. You may wish to bet on a draw and a win on the same match. If you’re looking to minimise risk while you wager, then this could be the bet for you. You’ll be getting reduced odds than compared to, say, a Full time result bet but in turn, your chances of winning are greatly improved.
EXAMPLE:
Manchester United are playing at home against Chelsea in the Premier League and you decide to place a Double Chance bet on Manchester United (1X). You will win if Manchester United win or draw. It really is as simple as that. It’s also possible to bet on one of the two teams to win with Double Chance betting (12). With this example, you lose your bet if the match ends in a draw.
Handicap Betting
Handicap betting (3-Way Handicap) is also a common type of bet in football. The Handicap Bet normally is based on goal differences between the two teams playing. This gives a speculative advantage or disadvantage to your selected team before the match begins.
EXAMPLE:
Arsenal vs Leicester in the Premier League. If you were to be on Leicester with a -1-goal handicap when they play, in this scenario, Arsenal need to win the match by at least two goals for you to win the bet.
What is Asian Handicap?
Asian Handicap, named after the popularity of this type of bet in Asian countries is a different kind of handicap betting. With Asian Handicap betting, you have two possible selections so that the odds for each team become more equal. The difference between a standard Handicap Bet and Asian Handicap bet is that you have the chance to wager on half and quarter-lines. Not only this, but you could also have the opportunity to bet on a greater variety of outcomes such as Total Goals Scored, also known as the Asian Total, what cards are handed out during the game and how many corners are awarded.
You can read more about Asian Handicap betting in our useful guide, right here: Asian Handicap.
Another popular type of bet on football, especially if you don’t have a particular allegiance to the teams playing is to bet on Total Goals. No surprises that this means you bet on the total number of goals scored by both teams in any given football match. A further form of Total Goals is to bet on over/under a certain amount of goals. This gives you more chance to win, but in turn lowers your odds on the match.
EXAMPLE:
England vs France in the World Cup. You could place a bet on +2.5 goals being scored during the match. Of course, you’ll never see a 0.5 goal in football so what you’re really betting on is three goals of more being scored. It works both ways, you may wager on –2.5 goals being scored. In this situation, you’ll have a winning bet if there are two or fewer goals scored before the full-time whistle is blown.
Betting on Football Tournaments
You can also bet on the final outcome of a football tournament with this kind of wager being known as a long-term bet. You could place a bet such as Manchester United to win the Premier League or perhaps Argentina to win the Copa America but there are also a huge amount of results you could be betting on, such as the exit point of a particular team in a tournament or a team’s final position in a league. Common examples would be to bet on England to make it to the semi-finals of the next World Cup or for China to be knocked out at the group stage of the AFC Asian Cup.
Individual Player Betting
Not only does Unibet offer the chance to bet on tournaments and individual games – you also have the chance to bet on a ‘Top Scorer’ market across some of the World’s biggest football leagues. This gives you the chance to place a bet on a certain player to win the Golden Boot, be it in their division or tournament.
In addition to this you can wager on the top assist maker in a certain competition or perhaps the player of any given tournament. This kind of pre-tournament bet will see price fluctuations during the tournament as odds adjust to developments during the tournament.
Depending on the importance of a certain match, Unibet will offer a greater variety of bets and you could potentially have the chance to bet on which player will be sent off first or even if a failed goal attempt hits the crossbar. There really are a huge number of possible outcomes you can place a bet on.
Football Betting Specials
With football betting specials, you can bet on actions such as the who the next Premier League Manager is to be fired or, say, summer transfers for example. Football betting specials are a great way to add some variety to your online betting experience.
If you’re interested in placing a bet on a football transfer, this works by predicting the club you think the player will end up with at the end of any given transfer window. A lot of the time this will be the club the player is already playing for, but when you’re looking at odds of 10/1 for the current team, for example, there’s a good chance that a transfer is about to take place.
Live Streaming Football and Betting In-Play
Not only does Unibet offer you some of the best odds in the industry, you can also gain access to live football streaming through Unibet TV's live stream. Unibet also features the biggest football fixtures, we also cover matches from Europe’s smaller leagues and larger tournaments internationally, giving you the chance to watch and wager on football around the clock, seven days a week, with the weekends being the busiest time for football markets.
One of the greatest appeals of betting on live football (also known as in-play betting) is that should you decide to change your mind during an event, you can adjust your wager to accommodate any factors that you believe may affect the outcomes of the game.
Cash Out – What is it?
Cash out is an option you have when placing a bet on football. If you decide you want to settle your bet before the match has finished, which could have been placed before a game or even during play – this is called ‘Cashing Out’. Features such as what live odds are being offered and the price you of your original bet may be deciding factors in whether you wish to cash out. Players may even cash out when they’re not seeing a profit as a way of reducing losses.