Football

Football Betting

Football is one of the most historic and iconic sports in the world with billions of fans worldwide it's generally considered to be the largest online betting market accross the United Kingdom as well as the rest of Europe. One of the most popular sports betting football leagues in the world is the English Premier League, and here at TheCasinoDb.com you can find an up to date list of all upcoming premier league fixutes and sports betting offers.

History of Football

Soccer as the Americans call it is known as Football on this side of the pond we call the Atlantic Ocean and is one of the oldest sports in the world. 

Football Origins

Ask any Englishman "Who invented Football?" and the answer you will get is always the same...us, of course! But is it true? Well the short answer is yes and the story starts over 100 years ago way back in 1863 when Football was divided into two distinctive branches, association football and rugby football. At this point the Football Association commonly known as the FA was formed as the worlds first Football governing body.

However this may not be entirely accurate, dig a little deeper and you will find that the origins of the beautiful game go back centuries across multiple continents. The earliest recorded entry describing a game akin to Football is dated back to the second centuary BC in a Chinese military manual.

In this historic document is a description of a game known as Tsu Chu which consisted of kicking a leather ball through and opening of 40cm whilst fending off attacks from opposing defenders with no hands permitted. 500 years later and the Japanese began playing their own form of the game known as Kemari which is still played today. It's a game that's described very closely to keepy uppy where the aim of the game is to pass the ball to each other in the air with no bounces.

It seems as though there were multiple and separate evolutions of the game of football and 1500 years later the split from rugby and football in the United Kingdom gave rise to the most popular sport in the world.

Popularity of Football

It really doesn't matter where you are from in the world Football is a sport you will have at least heard of. That's pretty impressive in itself but where does football stand in comparison with other popular sports? 

The best source of information we could find on this were the published viewing figures for the 2010 World Cup which showed that 3.2 Billion people tuned in worldwide with 2.2 Billion watching for 20 minutes or more. These are truly astounding numbers showing that almost half of the global population got involved and justifying Football's claim as the most popular sport in the world.

Betting on Football

Betting on football has been a favourite pastime, particularly for Brits and it has been around for quite a while now. Following the end of the WWII the first high street betting shops were opened and until 2009 there were about 16,000 bookmakers’ shops throughout the UK.

Towards the end of the 20^th century it became technically possible to make payments online and that enabled the establishment of the first online betting operators. Many of the existing UK and international bookmakers also went online and everything changed. Punters started preferring online betting over betting at the high street betting shop. After all, it is faster, simpler and a lot more convenient.

When the first smartphones appeared it became possible for people to bet using their mobile phones, which made things even simpler. Nowadays many people place wagers on their smartphones and tablets, and they can do that no matter where they are. 

Popular Football Betting Markets

Statistics shows that the global betting industry was worth over £500 billion in 2013 and about 70% of the total revenues come from football betting. Football is by far the most popular sport on the planet and it is also the most popular sport among punters.

The range of betting options that are offered for football matches and the range of leagues and other competitions that are included in the bookmakers’ offer are also quite impressive. Most major bookmakers offer over 200 betting markets for football matches, especially if the match in question is a high-profile one.

Match betting is the most common type of betting, also known as 1x2 or W/D/W. It is betting on the outcome of the match, there are three selections – home win, away win and draw. If the match can go in extra time and penalties that is not taken into consideration, just the regular 90 minutes. In addition, halftime/fulltime is another popular option, here you predict the outcome both at halftime and at the end, and there are 9 possible options, like home/home, home/away, home/draw, etc.

Both teams to score is one of the most commonly placed wagers, and it is pretty self-evident that you bet on whether both teams will manage to score or not. Yes and No are the available selections. The over/under market is on the total number of goals and the most popular option is 2.5, you will bet on whether there will be 3 goals or more, or two or fewer. The limit can be set at 1.5, 3.5, etc. and the odds will be set accordingly.

Moreover, match winner and total number of goals are also combined in one market. For example you can bet that the home team will win and that the total number of goals will be above 2.5, or that the game will end in a draw and there will be fewer than 2.5 goals.

These are might be the most popular options but the best thing about football betting is that there are a lot more markets available, you could bet on literally anything that has to do with the match. Betting on the total number of corners, yellow or even red cards is possible, and you can bet on things like will there be a goal scored in the first 5 or 15 minutes. Moreover, you can also bet on the performance of individual players, like will someone manage to score a goal, two or a hat trick and multiple other options.

Often bookmakers offer special markets for particular matches, like will an individual player be sent off or even more quirky and unusual markets. There is an endless range of possibilities when it comes to football betting. 

Top Leagues and Competitions

As we mentioned, a pretty vast range of football leagues and competitions are offered for betting. The top European national leagues, as well as the Champions League, League Europa, the World Cup and the Euro are the most popular ones and the lion’s share of the revenue falls to those competitions.

Most people in the UK and worldwide bet on the English Premier League. Every match of the English Premier League, as well as the pre-match friendlies are available for betting and the number of markets per match can exceed 100 or even 200. Most bookmakers have different pay out limits for different bets. Wagers placed on the Premier League matches offer highest pay outs compared to other competitions. For example, if the maximum prize for a bet on the Premier League is £500,000 the limit for a bet placed on the Championship Division might be only £250,000.

Bookmakers confirm that the betting volume usually rises during the World Cup or another major tournament like the European Championship. Even those who don’t bet frequently often like to place a wager on the World Cup Final or the final match of the Champions League. For example, more than £1 billion was wagered with British bookmakers during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and those figures can only grow in the future.

Punters also like betting on the other top European national leagues, like La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1, Seria A, the Dutch league, the Portuguese League and the Scottish Premier League. Furthermore, the Cup competitions are always popular amongst punters, especially the English FA Cup as well as one-match competitions like the Community Shield, or the European Super Cup.

In addition to standard match betting, punters also like to place so called outright wagers. These bets are settled in the more distant future. For example, before the beginning of the Premier League season, you may wager on which team will be crowned Champion in May, or whether a team will be relegated, secure a top 4 finish, etc.

Special Markets and Bet Types

Due to football’s popularity, bookmakers often offer special football betting markets, such as transfer markets and manager markets. You may bet whether a player will leave his current club, or what might be his next club. You can also bet which manager will be the next one to get sacked, or which manager will take control of which club.

When it comes to bet types, you may place a single bet on just one selection, a double, a treble or an accumulator (acca), where you bet on multiple selections and all have to win, or a system bet, where you combine multiple selections but not all selections have to win.