Probably the most international and popular sport in the world is soccer, so as you would imaging,
betting in soccer is extremely popular as well. Differently from sport leagues such as the NBA, NFL,
NHL and MLB; soccer has top performing leagues from all over the world. Every country has their
own professional league, obviously some are more prominent than others.
We’re sure you’ve heard of Real Madrid and Barcelona, right? Well, they are part of the Spanish
League called “La Liga”. Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham?
They are part of the Premier League in England. How about we go to South America and talk about
Boca Juniors or River Plate? They are part of the Argentine “Primera Division”. So, as you can see,
we have huge teams from all over the world competing not only in their domestic leagues, but
also international tournaments such as the Champions League, Europa League and the Copa
Libertadores.
In the international stage, we have the one and only World Cup, where teams from all over the
world compete against each other to achieve the highest accolade a country can get. We always
get the usual juggernauts such as Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina, France which basically means
the entire countries are not only rooting for their national team, but hoping their well-placed
sports bets make them some money on the side.
How do I bet on soccer?
When it comes to placing wagers on soccer, it’s a tad different from your regular sports in the
United States, and by those, I mean the obvious ones. You can still bet on the outright winner of a
game, a goal line (which is similar to a spread line), and you can be the over/under of total goals
scored in a game. The same goes for future bets, prop bets, parlays, if bets, round robins.
Most all online sportsbooks offer a wide variety of soccer bets, so don’t worry about feeling lost or
overwhelmed, just keep reading further down and you’ll see its actually quite easy. Also, just as a
fun fact, everyone outside the United States calls this sport Football, so if you ever see Football
odds at an online book, they might be referring to soccer.
Moneyline Soccer Bets
Let’s start off with the more popular type of betting on soccer, which is the moneyline bet. There
is a particularity in soccer which is a bit more unique, and that is that games can end in a tie (draw)
pretty often. Whereas in Basketball, if both teams end up with the same score, they go to
overtime until there is a winner. In the NFL, games can end up in a tie, however, its pretty
uncommon for it to happen.
For moneyline betting in soccer, you can choose between three outcomes: Team A wins, Team B
wins or Team A and B end in a Tie game.
Let’s roll with an example, let’s say Real Madrid is playing against Barcelona. The odds makers
have placed Real Madrid as the slight favorite at -130, Barcelona is a slight underdog at +120,
which means that the moneyline on the Draw is favorable at +140. Keep in mind that the bigger
mismatch will make it more improbable for the game to end in a tie, as the big favorite has a very
high chance of winning the match.
Goal Line Soccer Bets
This is basically a spread line bet, very similar to a baseball run-line. Usually in soccer, games don’t
have too many goals, so the goal lines are usually either 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 or 2.5.
For example purposes, if Real Madrid is favored against Barcelona, they might have a goal line of –
1.5 goals, which would make Barcelona a +1.5. So, if you place a wager on Real Madrid on the goal
line, in order to win the bet, they will have to win the game by more than one goal, meaning that if
they win 2-0, 3-1, 4-2, etc, the bettor will win the bet. If you choose Barcelona on the other hand,
they have the chance to not only win the game by any score, they can also end the game in a tie,
or lose by one goal. Interesting right?
Soccer Bets on Totals
This is exactly like every other sport where you bet on the over or under of a game. The
sportsbook establishes a total goal count, and you have to choose if you think both teams will
score more or less than that in order to win the bet.
As a tip, make sure to always investigate a bit on each team and see if they are more offensive or
defensive, if they have any players on their team currently on a hot streak, or if there are any
major injuries on the squad.
Soccer Player Prop Bets
Similar to every sport, games are dictated by athletes that generate stats along the way. So as
usual, you can place bets on if Cristiano Ronaldo is going to score more than a certain number of
goals, if Leo Messi is going to have a certain amount of assists. This is always fun because you can
ideally place a bet on a game but focus on a particular player, or hook a bunch of combinations in
a parlay and see if you get lucky enough to get that payout.
Soccer Future Bets
These are great opportunities to make bets for specific tournaments such as the Champions
League, the World Cup or domestic leagues across the world. Here are a couple of examples of
Future Bets in soccer you can place:
World Cup Future Bets
- Who will be the Golden Boot winner for the World Cup?
Harry Kane +750
Kylian Mbappe +850
Karim Benzema +1400
Neymar +1400 - Who will be the World Cup Winner?
Brazil +450
France +550
Argentina +700
Spain +750
Champions League Future Bets
- Who will be the Champions League Winner?
Real Madrid + 450
Manchester City +450
Paris Saint Germain +700
Bayern Munich + 750
Benfica + 1400 - Who will be the top goal scorer in the Champions League?
Erling Haaland -120
Karim Benzema +250
Kylian Mbappe + 250
Mohamed Salah + 500
These are some examples of types of Future Bets you can place before the tournament starts or
even during the tournament. Just make sure to keep an eye on these odds as they are constantly
changing around depending on what happens related to them.
All in all, betting on soccer is super fun and puts a little more entertainment on a game that
sometimes lacks a loaded scoring game like basketball and football. For more information about
sports and their specific types of bets, make sure to continue exploring everything that
OnlineSportsbookMarket has to offer.
