Football Betting Guide

This football betting guide will attempt to teach you, in simple terms, everything that is needed to bet on football online, from opening an account with a bookmaker to all the various kinds of betting opportunities on offer.

If, after reading this guide, you still have any questions about how to bet on football then feel free to contact us and we will be more than happy to help you!

Although it may appear difficult at first, betting on football (soccer) is easy once you learn the basics and terminology. Nobody who is interested in football betting should ever have to miss out on the chance to take part due to not understanding certain topics.

It is our hope that this guide will help you to understand any and all aspects you need to know so that you will never have any trouble when it comes to betting on football online.

3. Understanding Different Odds

1. Opening an Account with a Bookmaker

The first step in betting would be opening an account with an online bookmaker.

Personally, we recommend that you open accounts with many different bookmakers for a number of important reasons:

1) Opening an account with a bookmaker is free and easy so there is nothing to lose!
2) By betting with different sites, you will soon be able to get the feel of each one and choose which one(s) you like the most.
3) Each bookmaker has great free bets on offer for all new users, and by signing up to different bookies, you can take advantage of all of these generous offers!
4) Each bookmaker offers different odds and betting choices on events. If you were only betting with one bookie, you would be severly limiting your choice and could be missing out on the best odds available. By opening accounts with multiple bookmakers, you are ensuring that you can find the best odds, the best betting opportunities and that you have the best choice when it comes to betting online.

Opening an account with a bookmaker should be a quick, safe and easy thing to do. Some of the typical details you will be asked to include when signing up to a bookmaker are:

1) Your name and address
2) A valid email address (where you will often receive a confirmation/verification email)
3) Date of birth (to ensure that you are over 18 years old)
4) Username and password (and possibly a password reminder question)
5) Your currency choice (and possibly your odds format preference)
6) Your payment details

Most good bookmakers will have a large selection of deposit and withdrawal payment options, ranging from all major credit and debit cards (visa, mastercard, visa electron, solo, maestro, etc), to online payment processors such as Moneybookers.

Personally, we recommend that you either your online betting with either a debit card or Moneybookers.

We highly recommend using your debit card for online betting as they are free to use online (whereas using most credit cards will incur a charge for online gambling as they are seen as "cash advances"), your data is safe and secure and in the extremely rare case of fraud your issuing bank will help you recover all funds, and practically every bookmaker online accepts debit cards as their preferred payment methods.

If you do not feel comfortable inputting your debit card details into each website, a payment site such as Moneybookers would be our next recommended choice for online betting, although they do charge small fees for various payment options so make sure you are aware of this before using them.

So the first and most important step when it comes to online football betting is to sign up with bookmakers!

For our list of recommended bookmakers, check out our bookmaker reviews page. We only include those bookies that we feel are entirely legitimate and safe to use and ones that offer great odds and free bet offers for football betting

2. Understanding Different Types of Football Bets

When it comes to online betting, and especially football betting, there is a huge choice of different propositions that you can bet on. We hope to cover all the major choices there are, so that you can bet on any and all you like.

1. Full Time Result (aka 1x2 or Pick or Money Line Bet)

The most simple and arguably the most popular betting choice is the full time result pick. This option simply asks you to bet on which outcome or team you think will win at full-time.

Naturally, there are only three options to bet on for this type:

1) A win for Team 1 (the home team)
2) A draw
3) A win for Team 2 (the away team)

Your bet wins if you make the right selection out of the three choices.

For instance, if the match was Man United vs Chelsea and you wished to bet on the full-time result:

If you bet on Manchester United and they won, your bet would win. It would lose, however, if the match ended in either a draw or a Chelsea win.

2. Total Goals (aka Over/Under)

Another popular betting option is to bet on the total goals scored in a match, and whether the total will be over or under a preset choice presented by the bookmaker.

For example, if the match was Arsenal vs Liverpool and the bookmaker offered odds on Over/Under 2.5 Goals:

If you bet on Under 2.5 and the match ended with less than 2.5 total goals scored (e.g. a score of 0-0, 1-0, 1-1, or 2-0), you would win your stake. However, if the match ended up with more than 2.5 total goals scored in the match (2-1, 3-0, etc etc), you would lose your stake.

If the odds offered where for Over/Under 3 and the match ended with 3 total goals (3-0, 2-1, etc), you would be refunded your entire stake no matter whether you bet on the over or under choice.

Sometimes, the bookmaker will offer more than one goal total in their odds offered, such as over/under 2.0, 2.5.

In this example, take the same Arsenal vs Liverpool match, but this time the bookmaker offered odds on Over/Under 2.0, 2.5 Goals:

If you bet on Under 2.0, 2.5 and the match ended with less than 2.0 and 2.5 total goals scored (e.g. a score of 0-0 or 1-0) you would win your stake. However, if the match ended with 2 total goals scored (2-0 or 1-1), you would win half of your stake at the odds offered but lose the other half as you are essentially betting on different different outcomes in this bet (under 2 goals and under 2.5 goals).

However, If you bet on Over 2.0, 2.5 and the match ended with less than 2.5 total goals scored, you would lose your entire stake, whereas if the match ended with more than 2.5 total goals scored, you would win your entire stake.

In this example of Over/Under from Pinnacle Sports, see how there are various options offered for the over/under bets (over/under 2.5, over/under 2 and 2.5, over/under 3)

3. Asian Handicaps

Asian Handicaps are an exciting way to bet on football matches for those of you who want something a bit more interesting than a straight winner pick.

In Asian Handicaps, the bookmaker attempts to create a handicap or "line" that will make the chance of either team winning (considering the handicap) as close to 50% as possible. This is done by giving the worse team a positive handicap or a head start of a certain number of goals or the better team a negative handicap or having a certain number of goals taken away from them before the match begins.

For example, if the match was Arsenal vs Everton, the bookmaker might decide to offer an asian handicap of Arsenal -1.5 or Everton +1.5. This would mean that, for betting purposes, the match would begin as Everton leading by 1.5 goals to 0.

If you bet on Arsenal -1.5 and Arsenal won the match by a two goal margin (2-0, 3-1, etc) you would win your entire stake as Arsenal would win this Asian Handicap by 0.5 goals to 0.

If you bet on Everton +1.5, and Arsenal won by a one goal margin (1-0, 2-1, etc) you would still win your entire stake as Everton would still have won this Asian Handicap by 0.5 goals to 0.

If the Asian Handicap offered in this match was Arsenal -2 or Everton +2 and the match ended with Arsenal winning by a two goal margin, your entire stake would be refunded no matter which option you bet on, as there was no winner in this bet (the asian handicap result would be a draw no matter which side you bet on).

Somtimes, bookmakers will offer more than one goal handicap value for an Asian Handicap bet.

Taking the above Arsenal vs Everton match, the bookmaker may have offered an asian handicap of Arsenal -1.5, -2 or Everton +1.5, +2. This would mean that, for betting purposes, the match would begin as Everton leading by 1.5 goals to 0 for half of your stake and 2.0 goals to 0 for your other half.

If you bet on Arsenal -1.5, -2 and Arsenal won the match by a two goal margin (2-0, 3-1, etc) you would win half your stake and have your other half refunded as Arsenal would win the first part of the Asian Handicap by 0.5 goals to 0 and draw the second half.

If you bet on Everton +1.5, +2 and Arsenal won by a two goal margin you would still lose half of your stake and have your other half refunded as Everton would have lose the first half of this Asian Handicap by 0.5 goals to 0 and drawn the second half.

Some bookmakers show a +/- 1.5, 2 Asian handicap as +/- 1.75 or a +/- 0.5, 1.0 Asian handicap as +/- 0.75, etc.

In this example of Asian Handicaps from Canbet, notice how there are various different options offered for asian hndicap totals, depending on how different in skill the two teams are.

4. Correct Score

The name of this bet speaks for itself - the aim is the predict the correct score of the match at full-time. Scores are quoted as "home team score - away team score" so make sure that you choose the right selection, as there is a big difference in this type of bet between betting on a 3-0 scoreline and a 0-3 scoreline!