Which football markets are easiest to win?
Football betting is a massively popular form of wagering. Furthermore, there are a myriad of different types of bets that you can place on the game. This includes outright bets, pre-match bets and in-play bets when matches are in progress.
However, landing winners when football betting can be deceptively tricky. Even a seeming ‘sure thing’ bet can turn out to be anything but when you consider the vagaries and volatility of a typical football game or tournament. So, is there anything you can do to help you pick the football markets that stand a better chance of success and avoid the ones that are trickier than they appear?
In this article, we will take you through some popular types of football bets and give you some of the options you can consider that offer a better chance of winning.
Popular Football Betting Markets And Possible Alternatives
Full-Time Result
One of the most popular bets in football is a bet on which team will win the match, or if the game will finish in a draw. Not only is this bet very popular, it can also be a tricky one to land as there are three possible outcomes (home win, away win or draw).
Better Chance Bet? - Double Chance or Asian Handicap
A great alternative to the standard Full-Time Result bet is either the Double Chance or Asian Handicap markets. Let’s explore what these bets are in more detail.
Double Chance
A double chance bet offers you the option to back either team to win combined with the draw option, or you can eliminate the draw option and back either of the teams to win. The bet effectively doubles your chances of winning compared to the Full Time Result bet as you back two of the three possible outcomes of the match. This means you cover 66.6% of the possible outcomes with your bet, as opposed to 33.3% with a traditional Full Time Result bet.
Asian Handicap
The Asian Handicap bet essentially reduces the potential outcomes of the match in question down to just two, eliminating the draw option by awarding a handicap that includes half a goal to the team you back.
The handicap may be a positive handicap (such as +0.5 goals) for a team that is less likely to win the match. Conversely, a team that is more likely to win the game may have a negative handicap (such as -0.5 goals) applied. You place your bet on either of the options you see as being the best bet and when the full-time result is known, the handicap for your selected team is applied to their score. Your bet is then decided on the full-time result with the handicap applied.
This bet essentially cuts down the Full Time Result bet from a three-selection bet, to a two selection bet increasing your chances of picking the winning option from one in three, to a 50/50 bet.
First Goalscorer/ Last Goalscorer
First and Last goalscorer betting is hugely popular, but it can be a tricky market to land regularly. Even the most regular goalscorers for the top teams may not score the first or last goal in a game that often. But there is a more flexible option.
Better Chance Bet? - Anytime Goalscorer/Each Way First Goalscorer
Anytime goalscorers offer lower odds on goalscorer betting but offer the chance to be paid out if the player scores at any point in the game, which is a much more flexible option. Some sites, such as bet365 Sport for example, also offer Each Way First Goalscorer betting, which offers a very similar bet but as an each way market covering the player to score first and also at any time with two unit stakes.
Football Accumulator
Accumulators are hugely popular bets but can be very difficult to land, even for those bets with just three or four selections. Those with many more selections are very difficult to win with any degree of regularity. However, there are options to accumulator bets that offer you a better chance of a return, if you are prepared to cover more lines with the bet.
Better Chance Bet? - Full Cover Bets
Full Cover Bets are bets which comprise of multiple selections, but where the punter backs either all, or some, of the different combinations of bets from those selections with an individual unit stake. A three-selection full cover bet is called a Trixie and it covers the following outcomes.
- Selection A and Selection B to win
- Selection A and Selection C to win
- Selection B and Selection C to win
- Selections A, B and C all to win.
So as you can see, one of your selections in this Full Cover Bet can lose, and you could still land a return. However, you do need to bet four times your unit stake to cover this bet. So instead of placing a £10 accumulator, you could place a £2.50 Trixie bet which would cost the same £10 but offer more flexibility with your returns.
Scorecast
A scorecast bet is one of the longer odds betting options for punters. It combines predicting the correct score of a football match, with predicting a player to score in that game. While this may seem to be an relatively simple bet to predict, the fact of the matter is that it is a very difficult bet to land, hence the good value odds on this bet. However, there are some other combination bets which offer the customer a much better chance of a return.
Better Chance Bet? - Match Result & BTTS or Over/Under 2.5 Goals
One of these is backing the Match Result (which has three options) with either Both Teams To Score or the Over/Under 2.5 Goals markets (both of which have two options). Regardless of whether you back Match Result & Both Teams to Score or Match Result and Over/Under 2.5 Goals, you will always have just six selections to select from.
- Home Team to Win and Both Teams to Score - Yes or Over 2.5 Goals
- Home Team to Win and Both Teams to Score - No or Under 2.5 Goals
- Away Team to Win and Both Teams to Score - Yes or Over 2.5 Goals
- Away Team to Win and Both Teams to Score - No or Under 2.5 Goals
- Draw and Both Teams to Score - Yes or Over 2.5 Goals
- Draw and Both Teams to Score - No or Under 2.5 Goals
This is considerably fewer than a standard scorecast bet and thus increasing your chances of picking the correct combination. By utilising these betting options, combined with meticulous research, you can give yourself more chance of landing your football bets more regularly.
More about betting opportunities :
- How does live betting work?
- What is spread betting?
- What is Bet Builder?
- What is the Double Chance bet?
- What is the under/over market in sports betting?
- What is the Both Teams to score market?
- How does Virtual Sports Betting work?
- How to win your live betting?
- What are free bets?
- What is a Bonus and How Does it Work?
- How to make a living from sports betting?
- How to Bet on the Stock Market?
- How does football grid work?
- What is no risk matched betting?
- How to boost your winning with enhanced odds?
- What is an odds boost and how does it work?
- Do any Bookmakers offer the chance to bet on and play fantasy sports?
- What are free games and which are the most popular offered by Bookmakers?
- Sports Betting - Should you bet on shorter odds options?
- What is Dutch Betting?
- How does a Trixie bet work?
- What is a Yankee Bet?
- What does NASCAR betting consist of?
- How do we place bets on Aussie Rules?
