How to Bet on Football

There are so many opportunities to bet on football. With 1,000s of matches played throughout the season at home in the Premier League, Championship, and in the English football pyramid, plus the FA Cup and League Cup, the football never stops. Not to mention the Champions League, Europa League and the domestic leagues across the world.

But how do you bet on football? We’ll tell you what you need to know in our football betting guide below, and we’ll throw in some football betting tips too.

Types of Football Bets

Let’s start with the different types of football bets you can make. They include:

Match Betting

Football match betting is of course a bet on a specific match. Now the Premier League has 380 matches across the full season, so you know there are plenty of bets you can make on a football match.

The easiest match bets you can make include a bet on the winner, a bet on the final score, a bet on the half-time score or the first goalscorer. You can place a bet on the total number of goals (over or under a certain number) and on both teams to score, plus many more.

Football Accumulators

Football accumulators are bets on four or more outcomes that are combined into the same bet. For example, you could bet on the outcome of four different Premier League matches. In order for your bet to be successful, all your bets will need to come in. If you bet on five separate outcomes and only four happen, unfortunately you would lose your bet. The odds for accumulators are much longer (less likely) than football match betting because of the lower probability of all the bets coming in, but it makes for greater rewards.

Accas used to just cover the winners of matches, but today you can include a variety of bets within an accumulator. They include:

• Match Result
• Both Teams to Score
• Over 2.5 goals
• Both Teams to Score in Both Halves
• Full Time Result & BTTS
• Total Match Goals
• Both Score No Draw
• Handicaps
• Double Chance
• Draw No Bet

Outright Football Betting

Betting on the outrights is a great way to bet on football. So, what is an outright bet?

An outright bet is a super simple bet which involves betting on which team you think will win a competition at the end of the season. For example, you could place a bet on Manchester City to win the Premier League or Real Madrid to win the Champions League.

Outright betting also covers relegation betting and top four betting too.

Live In-Play Football Betting

We all know how exciting football can be. They don’t call the Premier League the best league in the world for nothing. Any team can beat any team on their day, and matches can change in an instant. A player could get sent off, a goal could come out of the blue or a penalty could completely change the trajectory of an encounter.

Live In-Play football betting lets you bet on the action as it unfolds, with live odds that change throughout the course of a match. You can bet on the next player to score, the final score, the half-time score and much more. You can also make more niche bets when you bet In-Play, like the next player to get sent off, the number of yellow cards or the number of corners.

Player and In-Match Betting

In football, we love the personalities too. From Eric Cantona with his collar up, Alan Shearer with his favourite celebration and Thierry Henry with his trademark curler. Today, we’ve got the likes of Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Mo Salah all gracing the Premier League, so it’s only right that you can place a bet on your favourite players too.

In the Premier League and all the top leagues across Europe and the world, you can bet on the top goalscorer and the player to take home the Golden Boot at the end of the season. You can also bet on the top assist maker and the goalkeeper to bag the most clean sheets throughout the campaign. Football player betting also includes the player of the season awards too.

During individual matches, you can also bet on a certain player to score, get sent off, pick up a yellow card or even hit the crossbar.

Football Betting Specials

When it comes to football betting, there are a range of football betting specials you can choose from – like betting on which manager is the next to be sacked in the Premier League. With more than half of the Premier League teams in the 2022/23 season sacking their manager, it’s safe to say this is a popular football betting market.

You can also bet on which players you think will move during the summer transfer window and the January transfer window. You’ll see the odds for each potential team that may be in for a player, as well as their current team. If the odds on their current team are big (let’s say 20/1), it suggests they could well be on the move.

Other football betting specials include a bet on the player you think will be crowned the world’s best in the Ballon d’Or or whether you think Lionel Messi will head to the MLS or Cristiano Ronaldo will ever return from his exile in Saudi Arabia.

Cash Out

Cash out means that you can get your money back on your bet at any time during the match, not just when the event is over. If you cash out, you might not get the full amount back and it will depend on how far along the match is. The nature of cash out offers vary from bookmaker to bookmaker.

Taking the example of Manchester City to beat Liverpool in the Premier League. If you bet on City and they’re winning, but the tide looks to be turning in the last 20 minutes of the match, you may be offered a cash out option. It means you can either cash out now and take the money on offer or wait to see if City can hold on for the win.

The first option means you will win something (depending on the cash out option), but it won’t be as much as you could win at the end of the match. If you wait until the final whistle, you run the risk of Liverpool coming from behind to win or draw and you’ll completely lose out on your bet.

Common Football Betting Terminology

Asian Handicap: A way of levelling out the odds by adding a virtual advantage to the team that starts as the underdog.

Accumulator (ACCA) Bet: A bet on four or more outcomes in a single bet. All outcomes need to come in for you to win.

Double Chance: When you bet on two outcomes in one wager.

Draw No Bet: You win if your team triumphs and you will get your money back if the match ends in a draw.

Full-Time Result: A bet on the outcome of the match, either home win, away win or draw.

Half-Time/Full-Time Betting: A bet on the score at half-time or full-time.

Head-to-Head: A bet on whether a certain player will do better in a game than another player. For example, in terms of goals or assists.

Over/Under: A bet on whether the total number of goals in a match will be over or under a certain number.

Void: Your bet will be void if the match is cancelled, postponed or abandoned.

How Football Odds Work

Odds are simply the likelihood of something happening in a particular sporting event, for example Harry Kane to be the top goalscorer in the Premier League this season.

Fractional odds take the format of 15/8 and 7/4 for example. And while trying to work out your potential winnings may appear complicated, it’s actually pretty simple. When a team has odds of 4/1, they are perceived as the underdog and the likelihood of that team picking up a win is less likely. If you make this bet and you win, you will have a higher payout. For example, if you place a bet on a selection which has odds of 4/1, for every pound you place, you stand to win £4.

Odds-on selections tell you that the team is a strong favourite to win the game, for example 3/4 or 10/11. If you were to place a bet on an odds-on selection your return will be less as it is deemed more likely to happen. So, if you place a bet on a team which is 3/4 to win, for every £4 you place, you stand to win £3.

But what are decimal odds?

Decimal odds are considered by many punters and bookmakers as the easier format to understand, as fractional odds can cause problems if your mental arithmetic isn’t up to scratch.

Trying to work out the greater number between 15/8 or 7/4 can prove troublesome, however, it’s much more straightforward to see that 2.50 is a bigger number than 2.45. Calculating your potential winning is a lot more straightforward as well, as all you need to do is multiply your stake by the decimal odds. For example, if you stake £5 at 2.50, your winnings will be £12.50.

Tips for Football Betting

Ready to bet on football? Check out our football betting tips before you do.

• Get to know your league: Before you bet on football, make sure you’re up to date with all the goings on in the league and division you want to bet on. If you’re up to date on the latest from the Premier League, go ahead and bet. But if you want to bet on Series A and it’s been a while, make sure you get right up to speed on the form of certain teams and players. If you know all the minor details, you’ll be able to be much more precise in your betting.
• Get to know your betting markets and odds: Check out all the available betting markets – whether match betting, outrights or player betting – and view all the available odds before you make your bet.
• Lead with your head and not your heart: We all have our own allegiances when it comes to football. And whilst you may want your favourite team to win, it doesn’t mean they’re going to. The form, odds and head-to-head are better to look at to inform your betting.
• Follow a tipster: A helping hand is always good, so check out our betting tips and predictions online with Grosvenor Sport.
• Look for value in the more obscure markets: There are literally thousands of football bets that you can make. It pays to look around, as you never know where you may find some value.
• Stop when the time is right: It’s key to understand when it’s the right time to stop betting and remember to only bet what you can afford to lose.

 

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