Football is the world’s most popular sport and it is also the best to bet on in terms of the broad range of games and the enormous number of betting options available.
The advent of technology has made it possible to bet on thousands of games every week, throughout the year. And this is by no means confined to just betting on the match winner.
You can bet on the first goal scorer, the last goal scorer, the number of corners, or the half-time score. The number of yellow cards is another option, and is one of the many more weird and wonderful options.
There is no other sport that comes anywhere close to soccer when it comes to the sheer amount of bets you can place.
Data has helped make Football the best sport to bet on
Data has been a big driver of this. Previously it was too risky for bookmakers to offer markets on obscure leagues from around the world. So fans were confined to betting on the top leagues that were well covered.
But companies now scout matches across the globe, recording every goal and tackle, and pump it into algorithms that deliver probabilities.
Bookmakers now feel confident to offer lines on the Armenian second division and the Chinese fourth division. The leading bookmakers now offer customers the chance to bet on more than 700 leagues spread across more than 100 countries.
The amount of data available to fans also helps them make decisions about how best to approach these games.
There are sites offering a detailed breakdown of recent head-to-heads between two teams. They give you all the information you could hope to arm yourself with, on how strong each team is in defence and attack.
Alternative markets are great to bet on football with
Even if you do not feel comfortable saying which team will win, you can find something tempting. If it is two dull teams that play conservative football, you might look to under 2.5 goals, or under 3.5 goals.
If both teams like playing attacking football and leaving gaps at the back, back both teams to score. Alternatively, if one team is weak defensively and up against a talented striker, back him to score at any time.
Then there is all sorts of handicap betting, and proposition betting on different markets within the game, like corners.
Check out the list and rating of over 200 online sports betting sites and review them yourself, and you will see excellent online betting sites offering a gigantic range of different lines for you to bet on, whittled down to the nth degree.
The technology applied to football is also superior to other sports. Live betting on football matches is offered continuously throughout the game.
Live streaming is also popular for Football Betting
You can live stream the match on a bookmaker’s website. Having all the stats popping up as you bet.
What makes betting on football potentially more difficult than other sports, is that it is low scoring and susceptible to last minute changes. There is also the risk of one team having a player sent off. By which time all planning goes out the window.
And, unlike most sports, there is the chance of a draw, so the three-way lines stack it against you. But you can use handicaps or bet options like draw no bet and double chance to negate that.
At the end of the day, the best sport to bet on is the one you know the most about. As soccer is the world’s most popular sport, it makes sense that it attracts the most betting action. And it is a self-perpetuating cycle as bookmakers devote more resources to it.