We all know football is the “beautiful game” but that doesn’t just apply on the pitch. Nope, the same goes for gambling on it.
You see, sports betting is a practice enjoyed by droves of people across the world — no matter the culture or place. Any and all sports can be wagered on, from the usual suspects such as baseball or horse racing to unorthodox ones like table tennis and eSports.
However, it’s football that really takes the cake when it comes to wagering. Of course, some of that stems from its global popularity, but also the sport is just flat-out conducive to betting plenty and often.
As you surely know, football is a year-round sport. In between the months of September and June, the top-flight leagues compete almost non-stop. This includes the likes of the Egypt Premier League to the Botola Pro 1 of Morocco. Then during those league’s offseasons, international competitions such as the Africa Cup of Nations or FIFA World Cup fill up the calendar.
This unique dichotomy creates an ample opportunity for football bettors. Literally, every week, there’s hundreds of matches around the sport that can be gambled on. Hundreds. The same can’t be said about a number of non-football sports that are more sporadic.
Beyond the sheer amount of football games that can be wagered on a weekly basis, there’s a lot of bet types, too. Of course, there’s the classic wagers such as three-way moneyline (a gamble on simply which team wins or if the match ends in a tie) and over/under (how many goals will be scored total).
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Seriously. Between futures and prop bets, the football-gambling possibilities are seemingly endless.
For those less-versed in the world of football wagering, props are in-match “side bets” usually not tied to the direct win-loss outcome. This can include which player will score the game’s very first goal or whether a red card will be doled out or not.
Whereas futures, as the name suggests, are long-term bets. These typically center around a team’s outcome in a competition or individual player performance.
As a futures bet example, think which player will be named African Footballer of the Year or if Egypt will advance to the World Cup knockout round.
And then there’s in-play betting. The rise of the Internet at the beginning of the century exploded the popularity of live wagering, particularly in football. This wager type allows you to stake a bet whilst a football match is ongoing — rather than just before it starts or at halftime, which was previously the norm.
The back-and-forth nature of football is perfect for in-play wagering. Every miss, every card-inducing tackle, and every injury affects the live odds over the 90-minute match.
Taken altogether, this variety — both in matchups and betting options — makes football a betting juggernaut. If you want in on the gambling fun, and possible money-making opportunity (if you win), it’s incredibly easy to do online nowadays.
Look, the Internet is absolutely flooded with sportsbook options. In fact, that’s actually problematic because newbie bettors struggle to tell a good one apart from a bad one.
However, there’s a few factors you should weigh heavily when selecting an online bookie. Chief among them is the betting menu itself.
Like we said before, professional football games, both at the club and national team level, are absolutely abundant worldwide. Of course, you want to hand-pick a sportsbook that offers betting for all those under one roof. What you want to avoid is having one bookie for, say, La Liga wagers and an entirely different one for the South African Premiership Division. This is an unneeded hassle, believe us.
Other variables to account for when choosing an online betting destination are bonuses/promotions, quality of odds offered, customer service, among others. At the very least, pick an online bookmaker that checks each of these boxes off.
So that’s football betting in a nutshell — an absolute haven. If you’re a diehard fan of the beautiful game, which you probably are if you’re reading this, betting on it will only increase your interest in it.
