Football Betting Guide
Here in the UK, football is in our blood and that's why millions of us Brits follow the action and place bets on matches throughout each season.
With so many different options, football fans are spoilt for choice. From Premier League or Champions League to other leagues around the world and international games, football betting is available for thousands of matches each year at BetMGM.
We’ve created this extensive football betting guide that covers everything from the basics of how to bet on football to the factors you should consider while making picks.
Intro to football betting
Being the most-watched sport in the UK, football is also one of the biggest in terms of sports betting. This means fans have many options when it comes to what teams and games they can pick, as well as the types and sizes of wagers they want to make.
In short, however, bets can be split into two main categories. More traditional football bets are all based on picking which team will win or if you think there will be a draw. These remain the biggest markets, but the more exotic wagers are growing in popularity too, such as whether both teams will score, which player will knock one into the back of the net first, or the number and type of cards to be shown.
To access all the betting options, you simply browse our site, select the wagers you want to make, and confirm it. Then, all that’s left to do is watch the action unfold on the field.
Football betting markets
There are many football betting markets to sink your teeth into. You’re not restricted to individual matches either. Through the outright football betting markets, you can bet on which teams you think will win some of the most epic and prestigious trophies in the sport. This can be a great opportunity to find value if you can successfully predict an outside winner from early in the season.
Premier League and Other National Competitions
Being the biggest football league in the world, the English Premier League is one of the most popular and prominent betting markets in the UK. You’ll find odds on practically every bet type for every single match throughout the season. This is only the beginning, though. Fans can also find odds for English Football League games, and domestic tournaments like the FA Cup and The EFL Cup.
International Leagues and Tournaments
Fans of international competitions aren’t left wanting either. You’ll find odds on a wide range of different bet types for the most thrilling club and national competitions like the UEFA European Championship and UEFA Champions League. Foreign leagues like La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga are also covered on our site.
Types of football bets that can be placed
The betting options just keep coming for football fans. In addition to all of the leagues, cups, and tournaments from across the UK, Europe, and the rest of the world that you can bet on, you have a huge choice of bet types. The options sometimes vary across leagues but are typically a combination of these bet types:
- Win / Lose / Draw - You predict the outcome of the game, picking which team will win or whether there’ll be a draw.
- Handicap - Similar to a standard win / lose / draw bet but a point spread is used to level the playing field in games where one side is a clear favourite. With handicap bets, a team must win or lose by a set number of points for the bet to payout.
- Futures - A futures bet is on an event that will happen sometime in the future. These are usually used for the outcome of leagues, such as which club will win the Premier League or the FA Cup, but they can also be for which side will get promoted or relegated or finish in a top-four position.
- BTTS - A both teams to score bet is a wager that poses that both sides in a match will score at least one goal. It doesn’t matter if one side or the other wins or if the game ends in a draw, all that matters is neither goalkeeper is going home with a clean sheet.
- Shots on Target - This proposition bet is a wager on how many shots there will be during the game that either go in, or would have gone in if they haven’t been deflected, caught, or otherwise saved by the keeper.
- In-Play Bet - Traditional wagers are made before a game starts and are decided once it’s finished but in-play betting can be placed while the match is live, allowing you to pick things like which player will score next or which team will be awarded the next free kick. You can also cash out bets early to lock in a win if you think things could begin to go south.
- Accumulator - Accumulators (sometimes called parlays or accas) are several bets combined into one. This allows you to bet that team X will win match 1 and team Y will win match 2. For the accumulator to pay out, all individual bets must win, but if they do, the payout is much larger.
Understanding Football Betting Odds
Here in the UK, it is traditional for betting odds to be displayed in fractions. This can make it easy to work out your winnings since you simply multiply the top by the bottom. So, if you place a bet at 1/4 odds, you’d receive £4 for every £1 you wagered, plus your original stake. If you prefer, you can switch to fractional or American odds instead. The odds themselves will not change but the way they are displayed will just be different. For example, those same 1/4 odds would be displayed at 1.25 in decimal format and -400 as American (moneyline) odds.
Factors Affecting Football Matches
Football games may only have three possible outcomes; win, lose, or draw, but the likelihood of any of these occurring is influenced by a whole range of different factors. Therefore, as a bettor, you must take a lot of different elements into consideration when deciding on your picks.
Team Form
Games do not take place in isolation. Teams that have been enjoying a string of good form will be riding high going into their next match, confident they can win again. The same is true if they have a good history of beating their opponents in previous games. The opposite is true for teams that have bad form.
Player Injuries
Teams may be greater than the sum of their parts, but key players can make a disproportionate difference to their side’s performance. Them being absent due to injury or not being back at their best post-return can mean games may be harder to win.
Weather
The weather is always the same for both sides, but it can still favour one team over another. For domestic games, this may be less of an issue because players will already be used to competing within that climate.
However, for international games, a team travelling from a cold climate to a hot one may struggle to perform in the heat as well as their rivals who do it day in and day out. The same works in reverse, as well as for altitude.
Home-Side Advantage
While not a guarantee of success, teams that play at home have a statistical advantage over their opponents. This can be down to the larger home crowd cheering them on more, the shorter travel distance to the stadium, or the intimidating nature of some team’s stadiums on their rivals.
Football Betting Terms You Need to Know
As you become more up to speed with how to bet on football, you’ll find yourself coming across words, phrases, and acronyms that may seem a little confusing at first. There’s no need to fret, however as they are easy to understand and our guide to football betting terms below will have you speaking the lingo in no time.
- Match odds - The odds that are being offered on the outcome of an individual match. Here in the UK, you’ll typically get three fractional odds, one for each team to win and one for a draw.
- BTTS - BTTS stands for ‘both teams to score’, which is a wager on whether both sides will score at least one goal and will payout regardless of the outcome of the game.
- Handicaps - Handicap bets are more common in American sports but have made their way into football. They create a level playing field by requiring a team to win or lose by a set number of goals for the bet to pay out.
- First goalscorer - This is a wager on which player will net an allowed goal first in the game.
- Cards - Cards bets are wagers on how cards are used by the referee in the game. They can include the number of cards, which player will receive one, and what colour will be shown.