What Are The Most Popular Football Bets And Why?

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Alongside horse racing betting, football bets are the most commonly made wager in the UK every year. Millions of people will have at least one wager a year on the most popular sport around the world.

Major events such as a World Cup or European Championship can swell that number in the years when the finals of these events take place. Annual major competitions, such as the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and Football League Cup will also draw lots of interest.

While making football bets is popular, the sheer breadth of bets available means that there’s a huge choice of markets.

So in this article, we’ll examine what are the most popular football bets and why.

Tournament Outright Winner

Why is it popular?

How many times have you heard fans chant that they are “going to win the league” or “going to win the cup”? Well, with this outright winner betting market on a stated tournament, such as the Premier League, FA Cup or Champions League, it is easy to back up those words with a bet.

Many people like to predict the winners of the four professional leagues in England each year (Premier League, Championship, League One and League Two) while others prefer to make a single bet on their team to win the big one!

This bet has paid out big money in the recent past when 5,000/1 outsiders Leicester City won the Premier League in the 2015/16 season and it is these odds and the hope that your team could go all the way which makes this such a massively popular bet with fans, especially at the start of the season.

Full Time Result

Why is it popular?

Betting on the result of a game is probably the most natural of all the football bets. We all have an opinion on what team will win a game. Part of the fun is disagreeing with your friends, or a betting site, about which team will win. And then ideally being proven right!

Betting on the outcome of a game is also good fun because there are just three possible outcomes. A home team win, an away team win, or a draw. So it is not a complicated bet and you can do a little research to help you pick which one of the options is the best one to back.

Full Time Result selections are also often used in multiple-selection bets such as accumulators and they are very popular in this form of bet too.

Both Teams to Score

Why is it popular?

Goals are the currency of football and fans want to see them, ideally going in for their team! So it is only natural that people who are football fans first and foremost would enjoy a bet on a market that would see goals going in.

This is an appealing bet as the average game sees around 2.5 goals scored in it and usually it means both teams find the net. Hence, it can feel like this bet has a better than average chance of success.

This means that the odds on this bet tends to be shorter than on other bets, but many punters will combine these selections into an accumulator or similar (as we will see later in the list).

First/Last/Anytime Goalscorer

Why is it popular?

Goalscorer betting is a very popular bet on any football match. It is also a trickier bet to land than many people realise, often assuming that it will often be the main goal scoring threat that scores the first or last goal in a game, when stats show that this is not always the case.

First and Last goalscorer betting appeals to bettors who want better odds on their bet but are willing to accept a much higher risk that their bet may not win. The Anytime Goalscorer bet is a far less volatile option but offers lower value payouts if it wins.

Football Accumulator

Why is it popular?

A football accumulator is a fine example of a low risk/high reward bet which may have only a slight chance of success, but if it does win, you can win a considerable amount of money.

Accas, as they are also called, are massively popular all over the world and are multiple selection bets usually from common betting markets (Full Time Result, Both Teams to Score, Over/Under 2.5 Goals) where punters add several selections to their bet slip and then bet on all those selections winning.

If all the selections win, then the amount that can be won, even for a relatively small stake can be considerable. Many people view this type of bet as rather like a ‘lottery’ entry, where they make a very high odds bet for a small amount, in the hope that they’ll beat the odds to land a win and it is this which makes them so popular with punters.

Over/Under 2.5 Goals

Why is it popular?

Football games average around 2.5 goals over the course of a season, give or take a few tenths here and there depending on the league being contested. As such, the Over 2.5 Goals mark is rated as a good 50/50 bet for most punters as some games will have 0, 1 or 2 goals scored, while others will have three or more scored.

As this is a natural middling point for goals in the game, it is a popular bet for customers that like a good chance of a win. Plus you can research these games and learn more about the two teams competing to gain an insight as to whether goals are likely, or unlikely to be scored in the game, further enhancing your chances of landing a win.

Scorecast/Anytime Scorecast Bets

Why is it popular?

Combination bets are always popular football bets and this is certainly one of the most popular types. Scorecast bets can include a combination of the following types of bet:

First Goalscorer & Full Time Result
First Goalscorer & Correct Score
Anytime Goalscorer & Full Time Result
Anytime Goalscorer & Correct Score
Last Goalscorer & Full Time Result
Last Goalscorer & Correct Score

It is however the first two bets that are by far the most popular with the First Goalscorer and Correct Score option being the most used, often due to the generous odds available on this bet with many of the top bookmakers.

To Win the PFA Player of the Year

Why is it popular?

There are two major Player of the Year awards in the UK. The Football Writers and the PFA Player of the Year. For the latter, the result comes by way of a vote of all the professionals taking part in the game at all pro levels in England.

As such, many players feel the PFA award holds more prestige as it is voted for by their peers. Over the course of the season, as players start to shine with their performances, punters may well feel that they can back a player early in the season at a much better price for this market.

For example, if there is one player who has scored 8 or 9 goals more than the next striker in that division, or another player who is consistently performing superbly for his team, these players are attractive options to back in this market throughout the campaign.

Double Chance

Why is it popular?

If there is a particular game that you want to bet on, but which you feel torn between two results, then the Double Chance bet offers you the opportunity to cover two out of the three possible full time results with a single bet.

Here you can back the home team to win and the draw, the away team to win and the draw, or even the home team or away team to win.

These are generally shorter priced bets and tend to be used by punters who will wager more than the average punter in order to make a higher value return. Perhaps by betting £1000 to win £200 for example.

Total Goals

Why is it popular?

This is a similar bet to a Correct Score bet in many ways. However, unlike a correct score bet, you only must predict how many goals will be in the game, rather than how many goals each team will score too.

Often there are the most common selections available, 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 goals but larger numbers of goals may be offered as 5+ or similar. Again, this is a market where research can pay off as you can learn about the scoring habits of teams playing and infer from that whether a game is likely to have lots of goals or not.

Full Time Result & Both Teams to Score

Why is it popular?

A combination bet which combines a prediction on the final result of a match, home win, draw or away win with a bet on whether both teams will score, or will not.

The combination of the two markets means that you can often get markedly better odds than simply backing the full-time result market alone. Especially if you are backing a strong team in the game whose odds will tend to be on the shorter side.

Both Teams to Score and Over 2.5 Goals

Why is it popular?

Combining two popular bets is always a good way to increase the odds on a selection and when you think about it, Both Teams to Score and Over 2.5 Goals is a bet that goes together like Gin and Tonic, or Peaches and Cream!

If you are backing both teams to score in a game, then you need at least two goals to be scored. If that happens, then you are just one goal away from landing the Over 2.5 goals market. But if you think that the game will finish in a 1-1 draw, then you can go with the Under 2.5 goals market.

This is less flexible than the Over 2.5 Market as it covers just one scoreline (1-1), so this is why most bets on this market go on the Over 2.5 goals option.

Tournament Leading Goalscorer

Why is it popular?

Goalscorers are amongst the most coveted of football players, often being sold for vast sums of money at the highest level. As such, their goals are a very appealing market to bet on and of those markets, the outright leading goalscorer bet is a hugely popular one.

The bet is especially popular for big tournaments, such as the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 or Serie A where the top players play domestically. You can also find plenty of punter’s betting on this market in other tournaments too especially the World Cup or European Championships.

Add to this the fact that usually most seasons sees just a relatively small number of players likely to be in with a chance of winning this honour, does make it appealing to punters as their realistic options are fewer.

To Be Promoted/Relegated

Why is it popular?

If a team is in a division where they can be promoted, or relegated, then these bets are often appealing to punters. They offer a greater opportunity to win as the team they back needs to only finish in a promotion spot, or a relegation spot, to win the bet. They don’t have to win the division for the punter to be paid out.

For top divisions around the world, you can also bet on similar markets such as teams to finish in the top four, or in the Champions League qualification spots (which could expand in England this season from four to five).

Given that the aim for every team at the start of the season is to try and win their division, or at the very least stay in it, these markets generally prove to be popular outright bets with football fans.

Asian Handicap

Why is it popular?

Although perhaps more associated with American Sports, Handicap betting is growing more popular in soccer betting too. Especially for leagues where just one or two teams tend to dominate and win many of the games.

This type of betting where a team can be handicapped by having a negative goal value, or helped by given a positive goal value, can make betting on seemingly one-sided games more interesting and as such, the odds offered will be more appealing.

Card Betting

Why is it popular?

Referee’s handing out yellow, or even red cards, can be one of the major incidents in a game, especially when it is a red card meaning a team is reduced by one player.

With certain players more prone to landing cards than others, punters find betting on these players to pick up bookings in games can be profitable. This can be especially the case if you use them as part of a Bet Builder bet.

Part of the appeal of these bets is that you can sometimes get good value odds on the market.

There’s also a whole raft of betting based on booking points, where a yellow card is allocated a certain number of points, and a red card a larger number and punters can bet on the amount of points a team or match will generate.

These are by no means the only football bets available. Sites such as bet365 Sport, William Hill, Vbet and 1xbet all offer an extensive range of markets across a massive choice of games.

This is partly the attraction of football betting. There are so many different options you can usually find a market that you think offers great value on any game!

What Are The Most Popular Football Bets And Why?

Tournament Outright Winner

Full Time Result

Both Teams to Score

First/Last/Anytime Goalscorer

Football Accumulator

Over/Under 2.5 Goals

Scorecast/Anytime Scorecast Bets

To Win the PFA Player of the Year

Double Chance

Total Goals

Full Time Result & Both Teams to Score

Both Teams to Score and Over 2.5 Goals

Tournament Leading Goalscorer

To Be Promoted/Relegated

Asian Handicap

Card Betting

More about Betting Methods