Taking a Closer Look at Football Betting in the UK

Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, December 29, 2023

While horse racing may be the so-called “sport of kings” in the UK, it’s a close second to football as the most popular and bet on discipline. Remember, competitions like the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League are among the five most popular events in the world among bettors.

In-play football wagering is also increasingly prevalent on these shores, with approximately 76.8% of the UK soccer audience now wagering regularly on matches while they watch and as they unfold. But how can you get started with football betting, and what are the most important wagering tips to consider?

Getting Started – Exploring the Most Common Iterations of Football Betting

Before we explore some insightful tips and betting strategies when wagering on football, we’re going to take a much closer look at the most common wager types and iterations. There’s certainly a huge range of markets available online, many of which apply to individual matches and can be placed either pre-game or in-play!

• Match or Moneyline Betting: We’ll start with the most popular and straightforward football bet. Referred to as the win, moneyline, or 1×2 bet, this simply requires you to back the winner of a particular match or wager on a draw. You can even remove the tie from the equation with the ‘Draw No Bet’ option, which refunds your stake if a particular match ends all square. If you pick well, your bet will be successful and will be paid out at the published odds.
• Handicap Betting: The win bet is often short priced and relatively inflexible, so you may want to create additional value through handicapping. This enables you to apply a virtual handicap to a betting favorite, allowing you to back them to win at enhanced odds. For example, you can currently back Man City to beat FC Copenhagen in the first leg of their round of 16 UCL tie at the prohibitive price of 2/7. However, by applying a –2.5 goal handicap to the Citizens, you can back them to win at 37/19. So long as City wins by three goals or more in this instance, your bet will come in!
• Both Teams to Score (BTTS): You can also access even-money betting markets online. One of the most popular is BTTS, which enables you to wager on whether both teams will score or not in a particular game. Typically, such outcomes are evenly matched and boast relatively low prices, but your bet will either be right or wrong and this improves your chances of success. You can analyze recent goalscoring form and similar datasets to make more informed selections.
• Over/Under on the Total Goals Scored: This is another even-money marketplace, and one that’s focused on the total number of goals that will be scored in the game. In this market, bookies will set various thresholds as betting lines (such as 2.5 goals), and after selecting one, you’ll have to wager whether the actual number of goals scored will be over or under this sum. Once again, this market can be navigated by analyzing each team’s goalscoring form and data, while also drilling down into any differences that exist when sides are playing home or away.

Successfully Navigating These Markets – Here’s Our Expert Betting Tips

These markets represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to football betting, where you can access a huge range of wager types that offer variable odds, implied probability and risk-reward profiles. Ultimately, you’ll have to cultivate betting strategies that suit your chosen wagers, but we’ve prepared some universal tips to help you get started!

#1. Remove Emotion from the Betting Process

As we’ve already touched on, more than 75% of football fans regularly wager in-play and as they watch games. It stands to reason that many of these supporters will be betting on their favourite team, whether they’re at the game and wagering on their mobile or doing so from the comfort of their own home.

Regardless, while there’s an obvious thrill to backing your favourite team to win, this can translate into emotive betting that may prove detrimental to your bankroll. Instead, it’s better to bet using your head and with an analytical mindset, as this helps you to identify the best selections and seek out value in potentially undervalued odds.

If you do bet on your favourite site, commit to analysing the form and relevant datasets as you would ahead of any other wager. In short, simply ensure that all bets are well researched and informed, and based on your insight, the value offered by published odds and the implied probability of a particular outcome occurring.

#2. If You Do Use Handicap Betting, Do So Sparingly

While handicapping or spread betting can unlock potentially higher returns, this is a niche wager type that should be deployed sparingly and selectively. More specifically, it should be used to create value in wagers where you’re backing a favourite to beat an underdog, as this improves the available odds without undermining your chances of the bet coming in.

You must also take care to set the right level of handicap, as this can range from –1.25 goals to –5.5 goals across most football betting markets. While the odds will continue to rise as the handicap is increased, this also heightens the level of risk, so you should set handicaps that strike the ideal balance between optimising value and minimising risk.

#3. Use Knowledge, Team News and Injury Data to Your Advantage

Unlike most types of casino betting and games of chance, sports betting enables you to improve your chances of winning by deploying skill, knowledge and insight. You may have particular knowledge of a specific team or competition, for example, and leveraging this affords you a genuine competitive advantage.

This can be boosted further by seeking out real-time team news and pre-game information, especially data pertaining to injuries and suspensions. Not only can these datasets help to inform your choice of outcome and market, but they may enable you to seek out additional value in published odds.

You may also want to rely on head-to-head data when placing match bets. After all, this can also unlock additional insights that may have been missed by bookies, as some sides hold a quality or historical advantage over their rivals and are automatically more likely to win.