Types of Football Bets Guide

There will always be some bet types that certain people will prefer over others. However, if you’re looking for bets that are consistently available and straightforward to understand then the different types of bets you can place on football below are perfect to start with.

Match Result (Win/Lose/Draw) 

The oldest bet in the book, the match result bet (also called a moneyline bet or WLD) is a bet on which team will win, lose, or draw. There will always be an underdog and a favourite in the betting market.

Total Goals

Another popular type of football bet is the total goals bet. This bet doesn’t require you to pick a winning team, but rather to predict exactly how many goals there’ll be in the game.

Over/Under

You can place over/under bets on various types of bet, including total goals. This bet is where you wager on if the total number of goals will exceed a number set by the bookmaker. If you think it will then you bet on the over, if you think it won’t then you bet on the under.

You can also place over/under bets on corners markets and even red and yellow cards.

Parlays (Accumulators)

For some people the best type of bet for football is the parlay, or accumulator. This wager combines multiple bets into one, offering you a bigger payout but with a higher level of difficulty. This bet can be made up of all types of different bet, but it’s most commonly made up of several match result bets.

In order to be paid out, all of the parts of the parlay bet must be correct. Even in a seven leg parlay, if just one leg isn’t correct, you lose everything.

Points Spread

The point spread bet is one of the types of football betting that’s a little harder to understand, but can be a good place to find value. This type of bet involves evening the playing field by setting a margin that a team needs to win by.

For example: Manchester City is playing Chelsea, with Manchester City the heavily backed favourites. The point spread for this game might be 2, with Manchester City at +2 and Chelsea at -2.

If you bet on Manchester City to win by the Point Spread, they would need to win by more than 2 goals for it to be considered a victory. So if the result was 3-2 to Manchester City, your bet would not pay out, as the goal difference is under +2 to Manchester City.

With the most popular types of football bets explained, let’s move on to some of the less common options.

Live Betting (In-Play Betting)

Live betting is less a specific type of football bet, but rather a different method of placing your wagers. Not all sites offer an in-play betting section, but if they do, this allows you to bet on football games that are already underway.

Live betting is exciting and fast-paced, but it can be easy to get carried away. With this method of betting it’s even more important to take only calculated risks and not be tempted to chase losses.

Prop Bets

Prop bets, or proposition bets are bets that can be placed on any single event happening. This is usually not related to the final outcome of the game. The following things are common examples of prop bets:

• A player getting a red card
• First team to score a goal
• A particular player to score a goal
• A particular player to get sent off

Futures Bets

Futures bets are any bets that are on the outcome of an entire tournament, league, or series of games. They’re generally placed before the tournament starts. For example:

• Which team will win the English Premier League
• Which team will win the World Cup
• If a team will make it to the semi/quarter finals

Corners Bets

There are all different kinds of corners bets that you can place on football. All of them revolve around the number of corners in a game, for example:

• Corner match bets: the total number of corners in one game
• Over/under corner match bets: whether the total number of corners will exceed the over/unders

Both Teams to Score

This is a simple wager, but it can be a safe one if you’re predicting a high scoring game. It’s simply a bet on both teams scoring at least one goal in that one match.

Correct Score

This is the sort of bet that’s better left to the professionals, but it can be a high paying one. It’s a bet on the exact score of the game at full time.

Half Time Full Time

You can place most of the different types of bet that we’ve outlined above to happen just by half time. This is known as a half time bet. You can also place wagers on an outcome at half time and at full time.

For example: Arsenal will be up by a goal at half time, but it will be a draw by full time.