With soccer being the world’s most popular sport with millions of fans, it’s no surprise that soccer betting is so appealing. However, a complete understanding of how soccer betting works is essential if you want to win frequently. The best way to master the topic is by consulting professionals. The experts from LeafletCasino.com have put a set of recommendations specifically for such occasions. If you're a beginner who's looking to make your first bet, we suggest you choose recommended websites and follow these soccer betting tips for profitable results.
Find the Right Soccer Betting Websites
A quick Google search for the best soccer betting sites rings up thousands of examples. To help you wade through them, we’ve done all the heavy lifting when it comes to finding the right sports betting site by evaluating the many metrics that make a particular website rise above the others. These include:
- Types of soccer bets on offer should include the most popular betting markets, including single-game wagers, futures, and parlays.
- Football betting promotions, bonuses, and rewards include free bets, enhanced prices, and the return of your first bet if you lose.
- Banking methods for deposits and withdrawals, like credit and debit cards, as well as newer payment methods, including Skrill, PayPal, and cryptocurrencies.
- The website’s safety and security features are backed by a reputable gaming licence and top-notch data encryption.
- Customer service and support should have friendly and knowledgeable staff available 24/7 with live chat.
- The website’s useability encompasses a simple-to-navigate interface and a clean, intuitive, user-friendly design.
Benefit from Soccer Betting Promotions
Because all sportsbooks are constantly on the lookout for both new and returning customers, they are happy to reward players with generous promotions and bonuses. Using these offers wisely potentially increases the size of your bankroll and also allows you to bet on football and win. Let’s take a look at the most common ones:
- Welcome Bonus: This is the bread and butter of virtually all online sportsbooks. Typically, they consist of a matched bonus. For example, the offer might be 100% up to CA$500. So, if you deposit CA$500, the sportsbook adds an extra A$500 for a total bankroll of CA$1,000.
- Risk Free Bets: If this is your first time placing a bet with a sportsbook, then a risk-free bet is a great way to alleviate apprehension. If your first bet should lose, the sportsbook refunds the amount as a site credit or free bet.
- Loyalty Bonus: In order to keep you engaged and coming back, many online bookmakers offer incentives. These are often part of a points system, with points redeemed for free bets, other bonuses, or prizes.
- Loss Bonus: Otherwise known as Cashback, some sportsbooks reward you with a small percentage of your bets back in cash but don’t expect more than 5%.
- Reload Bonus: A reward for subsequent deposits into your sportsbook betting account, usually between 10% to 100% of the deposit amount. Alternatively, you might get a fixed amount of money.
Learn Types of Soccer Bets
During a soccer match, there are bets on almost anything, from the number of goals scored to the player earning a red card. Below we’ve listed some of the most common soccer betting types.
- Match Winner or Moneyline – Simply predict which team will win. May feature boosted odds with a bigger payout.
- Win-Draw – Similar to the Math Winner, but with a draw option.
- Double Chance – Choose 2 out of 3 or 5 outcomes correctly.
- Handicap – Sophisticated betting on win margins.
- Final Score – Guess the score at the end of the match.
- Halftime – Predicting the halftime score.
- Parlay Bets – Multiple bets combined in a single bet.
- Prop Bets – Betting on specific occurrences during a match, i.e. number of corners.
A common mistake by amateurs new to betting on soccer is assuming that different sportsbooks will treat the same bet equally. For example, some bets are graded up to 90 minutes, with any goals coming in extra time disallowed by some bookmakers, yet not others.
Follow Trends
Many sports bettors believe that trends are another important constituent of soccer betting. They’re not wrong, but be careful about putting too much emphasis on historic outcomes. Looking back at a game from two teams meeting 10 years ago is only going to be revealing up to a certain point. Consider how often clubs rotate players, coaches, and managers. On the whole, recent events are of greater use to you than those from a decade ago.
Check Soccer News
Looking at the soccer news, updates, and press conferences before a match usually reveal insights that could be essential when placing your first bets. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll get a better idea of the team’s line-up and news on any injuries. Also, personal stories off the pitch affect a player's mood and concentration. But in an era of social media, with every player competing for clout, it’s easy to be sucked in by a media-hyped story that has no real bearing on the team's performance or winning chances.
Conduct Your Research
Although it’s impossible to predict exactly what’s going to happen on match day, a deep dive into all aspects of the teams, weather conditions, home or away games, and historic outcomes, can show beginners a pretty good indication of the outcome. This involves detailed research into the soccer teams, individual players, fitness, the manager, place, and tactics. You’ll also need to take into account each team's motivation, as they may fight extra hard to avoid relegation.
With all that said, examining cold numbers and totals are not able to compete with watching a team play. A category of real-life information that statistical analysis can’t grasp will be on display. It’ll give you a feel for how the team functions as a single coherent entity, along with how individual players react to certain situations.
Choose The Right Events
Picking the correct competition has a monumental effect on potential betting profits. In soccer, there are matches ranging from friendlies to international meetings like the European Cup Winners Cup and the World Cup. The level of betting is going to be very different between these. After all, it all revolves around the level of competitiveness. Perhaps a player who represents his country is going to put in a greater effort because there's more at stake.
Avoid Emotional Decisions
If, as with many soccer fans, you’re passionate about your favourite team, it’s difficult to separate your heated emotions from the cooler head that’s required in order to make bets with real value. So, though your own wish is for a win against a stronger team, the probable conclusion may be a loss. In this example, you see how easily emotional sports bettors lose their shirts backing their favourite soccer teams. Betting is about odds and stakes. When you bet on soccer, only make well-informed decisions. Letting your sentiment and passion cloud the picture will certainly lead to losses.
Final Thoughts
Soccer betting encompasses a huge number of different betting markets. With so many choices at any single football game, it’s a good idea to stick to what you’re comfortable with. Unfortunately, there’s no fool-proof way of beating the bookies. But you can improve your chances of winning by studying the odds, form, history, and playing conditions beforehand. Also, grab yourself a bonus. Keep in mind that to take soccer betting to the next level, you should be searching for value within the bets, as opposed to simply following the crowd.