- Fact-checked by Josh Miller
- Edited by Diana Westfield
If someone asked us how to bet on football in one line, we’d say stop asking who’ll win and start asking whether the price is fair. When you back Liverpool at home at 1.40, you’re really saying they’ll win that game more than seven times in ten. Sometimes that’s true, sometimes it isn’t, and spotting the difference is the hobby. Below is a walk round the markets you’ll see on any match, with our honest take on each.
How to bet on football: the main markets
Match result (1X2). Home win, draw or away win, decided at 90 minutes plus stoppage time. Extra time and penalties don’t count unless the market says so.
Double chance. Two of the three results in one bet, like home or draw. Lower odds, fewer losing Saturdays. The CasinoCalcs double chance calculator shows what you give up.
Over/under goals. Total goals in the match, usually on the 2.5 line: three or more wins the over. The total goals calculator turns expected goals into the chance of any line.
Both teams to score. Yes if each side scores at least once, whatever the result. Popular for good reason: you can follow it without caring who wins. See the BTTS calculator.
Correct score, handicaps and the rest. Correct score pays big because it’s hard (1-1 is often the single most likely score, and it still only lands about one game in nine). Asian handicaps are for people who hate draws, because one team starts a goal or half a goal up and the draw can’t happen; the Asian handicap calculator explains the quarter lines that confuse everyone.
How does betting work behind the odds?
Try this on any Saturday fixture: take the home, draw and away prices, turn each into a percentage by dividing 100 by it, and add them up. You won’t get 100. You’ll get something like 105, give or take. The extra is the bookmaker’s margin, and it’s how they make money regardless of the result. Popular markets on big matches have thin margins; obscure markets and bet builders have fat ones. The bookmaker margin calculator shows you the figure for any market, and how betting odds work covers fractional, decimal and American prices.
Singles, accas and bet builders
A single is one bet on one outcome. An accumulator links several, and every one has to win. The prices multiply, which is the appeal: five teams at evens pay 31 to 1. The chance multiplies too, though, and so does the margin. Five legs each carrying 5% leaves you about 22% worse off than fair, compared with 5% on a single. The acca calculator shows both sides of that.
Bet builders are the fun one, a win, over 2.5 goals and your striker to score, all on the same game. They’re great for a laugh. They’re a poor way to make money, though, because the bookmaker prices the combination however it likes, and it likes a fat margin.
Placing your first bet online
Only sign up with a bookmaker licensed in your country, which in the UK means one regulated by the Gambling Commission. Get the ID checks done on day one, because a bookie that’s happy to take your deposit gets very fussy about paperwork the moment you try to withdraw. Tap a price to add it to the slip, type your stake, check the returns figure, confirm. Most bookmakers let you set deposit limits and time-outs in your account settings, and it’s worth doing before the first bet, not after a bad weekend.
Football is more fun with a stake you can lose without noticing. BeGambleAware.org offers free support if it gets harder than that.