Online Soccer (European Football) Betting
Played in over 200 countries and cherished by sports enthusiasts from all over the world, soccer accounts for the lion’s share of the traffic going through most of the major online sportsbooks, particularly when it comes to Europe. As a result, finding a reliable site that allows you to wager on all the amazing soccer events going down around the globe is remarkably easy. This means that if you’re looking for a good place to bet on this sport online, you’ll be able to focus on getting the best bonuses and odds, especially since most bookmakers cover more games and leagues than even the most die-hard fan could reasonably follow.
best sites to bet on soccer online
Ways to Bet on Soccer Online
The amount of betting opportunities available on the market these days might be somewhat confusing for novice bettors, especially since many sites offer a number of rather exotic bet types in order to keep some of the seasoned customers entertained. Fortunately, virtually every online sports betting site gives you immediate access to all the basic, popular wagers, which include money lines, totals and simple combination bets. Consequently, learning how to bet on soccer is very intuitive and simple – in fact, you won’t even have to take advantage of all the complicated accumulator bets in order to turn some serious profit, as most professional punters stick to simple bets and solid handicapping anyway.
Money Line Betting
Betting the money line, which is also known as a 1X2 bet, is the easiest way of wagering on soccer. All you have to do is pick one out of three options: home (1), draw (X) or away (2). As you’d expect, each option offers different odds, which might be expressed in decimal, fractional or American form. The fractional and decimal odds are very easy to follow, as all you have to do in order to calculate your payout is to multiply your stake by the odds. For example, wagering $100 on a 1.56 selection (decimal odds) means that you’ll receive $100 * 1.56 = $156, which means that you’d turn a $56 profit if your prediction was right. American odds on the other hand are provided with an integer – a negative selection requires you to wager the amount listed in order to win $100, while a positive selection requires you to bet $100 in order to have a shot at claiming the amount posted on the site.
Cardiff: -165
Draw: +260
Fulham: +500
In this particular case, betting on Cardiff would require you to part with $165 in an attempt to win $100. On the other hand, if you opted to bet on a draw, you’d risk $100 to win $260, while betting on Fulham would provide you with a chance to claim $500 while investing as little as $100.
Over/Under Betting
Betting on Over/Under is also known as betting on totals or total goals and requires you to guess whether the number of goals scored by both teams will be higher or lower than the number provided by the sportsbook. Most total goals bets will set that figure at 2.5 – in such a case, you win an over wager if the teams score 3 or more goals and collect on an under bet if the total number of goals equals zero, one or two. Keep in mind that while totals are often believed to be somewhat luck-based, actually turning profit on this type of bet is considerably easier in the case of soccer than when dealing with other popular sports, such as basketball.
Parlay Betting
Parlay bets are also known as combination bets and are usually composed out of two or three straight bets – usually money lines. Those basic types of parlay wagers are called doubles and trebles respectively, while larger bets of this type or often referred to as accumulators. The main difference between placing a parlay bet and going for a series of successive 1X2 wagers is the payout condition, as every combination bet requires all its component parts to be covered in order for the punter to receive a payout. Simply put, making a single bad call means that the funds you invested will be lost. On the bright side, parlay bets allow you to win massive amounts of money when compared with other popular bets, which makes them best suited for the adrenaline-hungry bettors who enjoy all the high-risk, high-reward action they can get.
Futures Betting
Betting on soccer futures is another way of lining up those big wins, although going for a bet of this kind is a long-term investment. Unlike in the case of the wagers described above, your goal won’t be to predict the outcome of a single match or a series of games – if you bet on soccer futures, your objective will be to guess who’s going to win important sporting events and dominate the most popular leagues, such as Premier League or World Cup. It’s also important to remember that most soccer futures bets are placed before the start of the season – but keep in mind that many online sports betting sites allow placing such wagers even after the games begin. As you’d expect, predicting who’s going to reach for the championship at the highest level of competition is not exactly an easy task, so the odds range from rather advantageous to ridiculously high – in some cases, betting on the underdog might result in a 700:1 payout as long as your team manages to win.
Proposition Bets
Most of the bets that haven’t been covered above fall into this category. Simply put, propositions bets provide you with an opportunity to wager on a very specific outcome or event, such as whether a particular player will manage to score a goal during the first half or not. While proposition bets tend to be somewhat gimmicky, they are an excellent way to spice up a live in-play betting session, particularly if you’re watching the game with your friends at the local pub.