The simplest and most obvious type of football, (or soccer as some prefer to call it), bet is a straightforward back bet on the team you think most likely to win. Many serious punters study previous form before committing to a bet so as to achieve a better chance of success. It is probably best to consider mostly the last six matches played by the team you intend to bet on, and from this you can get an idea of how well they are playing generally, plus how many goals they have scored and conceded in their recent matches. Some bettors look for previous shots on targets statistics as well although these are more difficult to find.
Quite often you will see one team priced up as a clear favourite, and this suggests of course that they have a high chance of winning. In the present season in the UK Manchester City are on a roll, scoring over two goals in most matches and winning almost all of them. This means however that the odds to win their next match are extremely low, say about 1.3 and there are some who say that this type of bet does not represent value, while others will say that a win is a win and still makes a profit. It is also possible in such situations to simply lay the opposing team on an exchange in case your team has an off day and can only manage a draw. By laying the underdog you are covering the draw as well as the home team win. The downside here is that the odds you can get are even less favourable since you are in effect splitting your bet between two outcome. If you are really confident of your team winning you might even bet with a handicap against them which gives you better odds.
Another way of looking at such a match is to bet on goal scores rather than a team since such a hot favourite would be expected to score quite a few goals. Thus you could bet for over 1.5 goals in the match, or even over 2.5. To get even better odds you could use the correct scores market on an exchange and dutch several high scores like 2-0, 3-0, and 4-0. To dutch means to split your total stake between two or more outcomes proportionately in relation to the odds of each so that you get a profit whichever result comes in, assuming that one of them does of course. Most will dutch to achieve an equal outcome across their selections but you can adjust your stakes to give a bigger profit on your perceived most likely outcome.
There are plenty of other markets to choose from when betting on football. You can bet on the corners market, whether or not there will be a red card shown, first half goals, half time/ full time result, for a particular player to score first or score anytime, a double chance bet, or a handicap bet as some of those available.
A popular bet is the over 1.5 goals to be scored bet since the odds are reasonable at between 1.2 to 1.6 and the strike rate quite good if you research your teams carefully.
So we are spoiled for choice when it comes to football markets, but, as with many things in life, experience can help considerably when making choices. Thus it is wise to bet with smaller stakes when starting out and until you are fairly confident in your ability to check out a certain market or type of bet.
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