Betting on other things than the winner

Certain betting sites make themselves stand out by specifically focusing on offering a wide array of odds across different markets. For example it’s now possible to bet on how many free kicks Cristiano Ronaldo will take, or if Luis Suarez will bite someone during the course of the match.

Although it is important to note that the number of varying betting markets differs game to game, largely depending on the popularity of a match. For example, a Premier League match is more likely to have a wider amount of betting options than say, an international friendly between Gibraltar and Luxembourg.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common and popular types of bets punters like to make aside from betting on the match winner.

Asian Handicap

At first glance Asian Handicap betting can seem quite complicated before you get to understand the basics, but it really isn’t. To put it simply, with Asian Handicap betting you have two options to bet on - to bet on one team or player, or to bet on the other.

Where Asian Handicap betting differs from the traditional form of three option betting, i.e. to bet on the home team to win, to bet on the away team to win or to bet on a draw (1X2), is that both teams or players in contention are given a handicap. This undoubtedly makes things a lot more interesting.

For example, if a team are strong favourites they may given a handicap of -1 or -2 before the game starts. This effectively means they would begin the game 1 or 2 goals down against their opposition, meaning they would need to score more goals in the match to effectively win the game according to your bet.

Double Chance

Double chance means that you will bet on two out of three possible outcomes in a match, e.g. a home win (1), a draw (X) or an away win (2) - usually written as 1X2 in the match odds section on betting sites.

For example the combinations you could choose to bet on will look like this:

• 1X (a home win or a draw)
• X2 (a draw or an away win)
• 12 (either a home win or an away win)

Playing double chance will give much lower odds, but for matches where you’re uncertain between two outcomes, playing double chance is a great option to take.

Exact Result

Betting on the result means that you will be betting on the exact result of the match, i.e. the score of the match. This differs to betting on the winner because there are a wider number of potential outcomes, but this will see the odds rise dramatically.

Over/Under Goals

Betting on the amount of goals scored in a match has long been a popular alternative bet to make to betting on the winner. The most common way of making this bet will be to bet on there being over a certain amount of total goals in a match, or under a certain number of goals in a match.

You’ll often see this written as a decimal point, e.g. over 2.5 goals in a match or under 1.5 goals in a match. The decimal point is there to avoid confusion. If you bet on there being over 2.5 goals in a match it means it has to be 3 goals or more scored.

It’s possible to bet on the total number of goals scored in a match, taking into account how many both teams score added together, or to bet on the amount of goals scored by a single team in the match.

The growing number of betting markets that are becoming available means that punters can put their match knowledge to the test in a number of different ways. This means games can become more interactive, and stats based bets are now more widely available than ever.

We recommend that these type of bets can be better for in-play betting and live-betting in order for you to see how the match progresses in real time.

We’ll give you a run down of what we think are some of the best options for your betting.

Next corner/throw in

Betting on which team will win the next corner or throw-in is a fairly random affair and should really be avoided. But if you’re dead set that this is your kind of bet then we recommend it’s better to bet on who will win the next corner.

Corners are harder won and less random than throw-ins. Winning a corner in a football match also to some extent relies on a team attacking to get to the by-line for the ball to go out. Therefore, it follows that the more attacking team in the game is more likely to a win corner.

Amount of yellow cards

Betting on the amount of yellow cards is another possibility for punters. It’s always good to check a range of different stats before placing your bet. How many cards does the match referee usually give out? How many cards does each team usually get? Who are the players in each team that get awarded a yellow card and how many of them are there?

Both teams to score (BTTS)

Both teams to score in a match is an extremely popular bet to make. There are only two potential outcomes - either both teams score or they don’t. This is a good bet to make if you think it’s going to be an open match or you expect teams to play more free-flowing football.