Soccer betting is one of the largest sports to bet on world wide. This is mainly due to the fact that there are so many high profile soccer leagues all around the world, as well as international play which features the World Cup; the largest soccer tournament out there. When it comes to soccer, some of the most popular leagues to bet on are the English Premier League, Spain La Liga, and Italy Serie A, but there are so many more. When it comes to betting soccer there are a few different ways that you have the option of doing it, and we’ll cover each one here as well. We’ll also give you a break down of betting on the World Cup, as well as individual leagues.
Straight Bets on Games
Straight bets are the most common type of soccer bets. A straight bet is when there are odds set on both teams, and also odds on betting a tie (through regulation). The odds will vary quite a bit depending on which team is favored in the game, and you could see odds on a team even ranging up over -1000, depending on the match-up. Some soccer matches (mainly the World Cup) will add a goal spread, similar to a point spread in other sports. In this situation it will have one team who is heavily favored over another and the goal spread could range anywhere from 1.5 to even 3 or 3.5 sometimes depending on how heavy of a favorite the team is. We’ll give an example of both here:
- Manchester United (-120) vs. Manchester City (+285) or the Tie (+225)
So what this means is that Manchester United is the favorite, and you would have to bet $12 to win $10. If you bet on Manchester City you would bet $10 to win $28.50, and if you bet on the tie you would bet $10 to win $22.50.
- Brazil -2.5 (-120) vs. Canada +2.5 (+110)
Futures Bets
Futures bets are very big in soccer, whether it be picking the team who will win the World Cup before it happens, or the winner of one of the big soccer leagues world wide before the season. Each future bet will offer odds on the specific teams, and can range anywhere from a team actually being a favorite, to a team being a huge underdog. The best way to get an example of a future bet is to look at one of the upcoming league. Let’s take a look at the odds of each team to win the Spain La Liga:
- Athletic Bilbao: +15000
- Barcelona: -125
- Espanyol: +50000
- Levante: +150000
- Malaga: +50000
- Racing Santander: +75000
- Rayo Vallecano: +250000
- Real Betis: +200000
- Real Madred: even
- Sevilla: +6600
- Sporting Gijon: +75000
- Valencia: +2500
- Villarreal: +5000
So as you can see from the odds above, Barcelona and Real Madrid are the front runners to win Spain La Liga. If you were to bet on Barcelona you would bet $12.50 to win $10, and Real Madrid you would bet $10 to win $10. Looking at how much of a difference some of the teams odds are, the highest odds come from Ray Vallecano who are +250000. Betting on futures bets can be a great pay out as long as you find strong angles on the bets that are available.
Prop Bets
Prop bets for soccer are broken down into two different types of props, game props, and player props. Game props typically cover how many goals one specific team will score, or when they will score the first goal (what time of the game). Player props are things like which player will score first. The most common type of prop bet is a game prop, and a bet like how many goals a specific team will score has odds that vary based on how the betting is going. Here’s an example of both a game prop and a player prop:
Game Prop: Chelsea vs. Arsenal- Will Both Teams Score in the Game?
- Yes: -150
- No: +110
So in this bet, if you were to bet that both teams would score, you would bet $15 to win $10, and if you were to bet that both teams would no score, you would bet $10 to win $11.
Player Prop: Who Will Be The First Player to Score for Manchester United?
- Dimitar Berbatov: +250
- Wayne Rooney: +350
- Javier Hernandez: +500
- Michael Owen: +700
Player props like who will score first for Manchester United will offer many more players than just those listed above, but the odds are definitely much higher than most prop bets as well. So if you think that Michael Owen will score the first goal for Manchester United, you would only have to bet $10 in order to win $70.
» Betting on the World Cup
The World Cup is the largest soccer tournament in the entire world, and features 64 of the top soccer teams in the world. The tournament is only held every four years, with 3 years of qualifying and getting prepared for the tournament before it actually takes place. The World Cup begins with a group stage where each group has 4 teams, and all four play each other; with the top 2 from each advancing on to the elimination round. Those final 32 teams play through an elimination stage all the way down to the final 2, and that sets up the World Cup Final. The World Cup is one of the most bet on events in the entire world, and draws attention from all over the world. Its location changes every four years as well.
» Betting on Leagues
As previously mentioned, the leagues all across the world, such as the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, and Italy’s Serie A all have league’s that run throughout the year, and also have end of year tournaments to crown their winner. The league’s all do their set ups a bit differently, but the general idea is that teams will play 38 games and then head into the off season tournaments. Each league has games that are played weekly, and each of those games are done by picking the winner with odds varying by which team is favored in the game.