Soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and there is no close second. There are hundreds of leagues internationally, and that means betting on soccer is more prevalent than any other sport worldwide. You can bet on soccer in places like Tajikistan, Moldova, Angola, and Paraguay, so this is the sport for you if you’re an action junkie. Soccer betting is available year-round since different leagues play at different points in the calendar, providing bettors with a plethora of options.
Types of Soccer Betting
Moneyline Betting
There is moneyline betting available in every sport, and soccer is no different on this front. With moneyline betting, you are simply wagering on which team will win the match. However, because there are often draws in soccer, this type of betting is not as common in soccer as it is in other sports. If you bet on a moneyline in soccer, you are taking the draw out of the equation, and the wager only counts if one of the two teams wins.
Three Way Betting
This is the most common way to bet on soccer by a mile. In three-way betting, you are betting on one of three options. You can bet on either of the two teams involved to win the match, or you can bet on the match to end in a draw. These bets are settled at the end of full time, so if a match is tied and goes to extra time, that does not factor into this wager.
A three-way line provides bettors with juicier odds than you would receive by just betting a moneyline. The added factor of the draw makes it so that a bet on a team to win in regulation pays out much better than a moneyline bet, and you have the added option of being able to bet on a tie. You always have the option to bet on multiple results too, so if you think an underdog has a good chance to earn a result, you can bet on the draw and the underdog on the three-way line.
Total Betting (Over/Under Betting)
When you bet on a total, you are betting on how many goals will be scored in a game. Totals are relatively static, and you will discover that 95 percent of NHL games have a total between 5 and 6 with occasional numbers of 4.5 and 6.5 on the edges.
Totals aren’t as heavily bet as moneylines, but they do tend to receive more action then pucklines. Overtime and empty net goals play a big part in determining winners, so that’s something to keep in mind when making these wagers. The juice is usually pretty even, but there are times where you will see one side shaded as high as -150 before the total moves.
Asian Handicap Betting
Although spread betting has been around for a long time in football and basketball, the concept only came to soccer in the late 1990s. Asian Handicap betting is an offshoot of spread betting, in that you are betting on a team to win or stay within a certain number of goals. However, there is a major difference between betting the spread and Asian Handicap betting. Asian Handicap betting uses half-goals and quarter-goals, essentially leading to two separate bets.
In Asian Handicap betting, you will often see two separate numbers listed. These numbers will be separated by a half-goal, meaning that you are betting on quarter goals. This seems confusing so let’s use an example.
Let’s say you were settling in for some Premier League action, and you had a strong feeling that Liverpool were going to wipe the floor with Norwich City. Liverpool would likely be a sizable favorite per the Asian Handicap odds in that match, so you might see the Reds listed as -1.5 and -2 against the Canaries. That line means your bet would be split with half of the stake being placed on each number. Half your money would be placed on Liverpool -1.5 and the other half would be placed on Liverpool -2. If Liverpool won by two, you would win half the bet, while the other half would be a push.
Over/Under Betting
As with other sports, you can bet on the total number of goals to be scored in a match. Soccer is low scoring, so most of the totals you will see are 2 or 3, but there can be some vast differences between leagues. Serie A is known for its defense, so it’s not uncommon to see a total as low as 1.5 in Italy, while the Bundesliga is one of the highest scoring leagues in the world so over/unders of 4 aren’t unusual.
Futures Betting
There are multiple forms of soccer futures betting available. The most straightforward futures wager is betting on a team to win its league, but you can also bet on which teams will advance to the Champions League and which teams will be relegated. There is promotion betting available for lower leagues too, and some online sportsbooks offer betting on how many points a team will finish with at the start of a season.
