On a global scale, soccer betting is one of the most popular forms of sports betting activities that takes place. Many Americans would be surprised to know that in Europe, soccer betting is the equivalent of professional football wagering in the United States. It’s extremely popular. Why is soccer betting so popular? If we were to compare other sports with soccer, soccer has the highest occurrences for weak team to beat a strong team down especially in English Premier League. In the world of soccer betting, like in real life, it is important to define a goal and work towards it.
Soccer betting is similar to wagering on professional baseball or the National Hockey League, in that it uses the money line, but there is one major difference. In soccer betting, not only can you place a bet on either team, you can also wager that it will be a tie game. Since you can wager on a tie, that means if you bet on a soccer team that team must win the game or you lose your bet.
Soccer Betting TIP #1: Back teams that know how to score goals.
If you’re risking hard-earned cash on a bet, at least back a team you can count on to score. Try and avoid encounters between mediocre teams who sit in the middle of the league table. Often these matches are most unpredictable: a home win, away win and draw are all feasible results. An alternative is to look for powerful, high scoring teams that have no trouble finding the back of the net. These are often the elite clubs of a league: Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Barcelona etc. But this is what most amateur punters do, so the bookies will almost always offer poor odds on the best teams.
Soccer Betting TIP #2: Bet against extremely weak teams
Every league has one or two hopeless sides who lose every weekend. These bottom-dwellers are sometimes given too much credit by the bookmakers. Look for a situation where a decent or even below average club is playing at home against a dreadfully bad away team (one of those clubs that’s 0-1-9 on the road for example). The bookie will often set the odds on the home side slightly below even money, say at 1.75 when it should really be much lower, like 1.50. Similarly the Asian Handicap will be -3/4 ball when it should be at least -1. If you can identify the whipping boys of a league, this is exactly the sort of situation where it’s profitable to bet against them.
Believe it or not, luck can play a role in this type of strategy. Talented teams make their own luck and find a way to win (how many times have we seen Juventus or Chelsea sneak a 90th minute goal and win 1-0?). On the flip side, weak teams are often unlucky and the bounces just seem to go against them.
Soccer Betting TIP #3: Look for unusual home and away form
Playing on home turf is a big advantage in most football leagues. Support from the thousands of screaming fans gives a boost to the home club and intimidates the visitors. Teams noticeably struggle in away games, and even top clubs can’t replicate their home form. Of course, the bookies know this as well as anyone, which is why the odds are shorter on a team playing in their own stadium.
Soccer Betting TIP #4: Bet the Draw
A lot of punters have a hard time predicting draws, so it’s not surprising the draw isn’t the most popular type of bet out there. It’s much more fun rooting for a win anyway. So why bet on a stalemate? Because it pays well! Draws shouldn’t be the most frequent outcome you pick, but there are times when it makes sense to back them. Try and find a match where both teams will have a tough time breaking each other down. One way of doing this is looking for matches between an in-form mid-table side playing at home against a top-table away side. For example, match-ups from the 2005-2006 season that fit this profile might be Bolton vs. Liverpool, Lazio vs. Juventus, or Villarreal vs. Real Madrid. The visiting team has the quality to escape the game without losing, but they also have trouble scoring against an in-form home side. Both teams in this situation are happy to settle for a draw, and that is quite often the result. Another quick and easy way to identify potential draws is to study the Asian Handicap odds. Look for games where the handicap is set to (0) or level ball. This implies both teams are relatively evenly matched and the bookies don’t want to offer a head start to either team. Games like this tend to draw more often than you might think.