Football Betting
Football remains the most popular sport played globally and in the UK it is second-to-none from a betting perspective. The modern game dates back to the 19th century with the English Football League established in 1888. The origins of football betting can be traced back to the early 20th century whilst the introduction of online betting sites has transformed the football betting landscape over the past three decades.
The launch of the Premier League created a huge spike in interest in English football and it is now the most-viewed domestic league in the world. This has in turn seen unprecedented growth in football betting to become a popular pastime for tens of millions of bettors each week in the UK alone. Whilst the Premier League remains the most popular competition for football betting in the UK, there are countless other leagues and competitions that attract bettors en masse. Below we check out some of the most popular events for both avid and casual football bettors.
The Premier League
The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world with an estimated global audience of more than 4 billion people. Betting on individual games or placing accumulator bets has become a staple part of a Saturday afternoon for many. Back in 2016, Leicester City pulled off one of the greatest sporting upsets of all time when winning the Premier League title despite starting the season as 5000/1 outsiders with many bookmakers.
As well as predicting match results, some of the more popular football betting markets include first/anytime scorer, under/over goals and half-time/full-time predictions. Bet builders are also becoming increasingly popular, allowing bettors to bet on numerous eventualities within the same match. Bet builder markets can include player shots, fouls, cards, passes and many more.
Europe’s Big Five
Whilst the Premier League is way out in front when it comes to viewing figures, England’s premier club competition is often regarded as one of Europe’s ‘Big Five’ leagues. Alongside the Premier League La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy), Bundesliga (Germany) and Ligue 1 (France) make up the ‘Big Five’. Like the Premier League, they are viewed by hundreds of millions of football fans on a weekly basis and with it, a considerable amount of money is wagered on domestic matches in each of these competitions. Many online betting sites offer live streaming of football matches across Europe which has enhanced the popularity of live, in-play football betting.
English Football League (EFL)
The English football league pyramid is the envy of countries around the world with three hugely competitive professional leagues sitting just below the Premier League. The Championship, League One and League Two consist of 24 teams each and provide some of the most entertaining and unpredictable matches on the domestic football calendar whilst you will often see a full complement of midweek fixtures in addition to the traditional weekend matches. A huge number of accumulator bets will be placed on teams across all three divisions on a weekly basis. The most popular accumulator bets include ‘Match Result’, ‘Both Teams To Score’ and ‘Under/Over 2.5 Goals’.
UEFA Club Competitions
Away from the domestic leagues, football clubs across Europe often compete in one of three continental cup competitions run by UEFA. The Champions League is Europe’s elite club competition whilst the Europa League and Europa Conference League attract a huge amount of interest. The Champions League final attracts a global TV audience of in excess of 400 million and generates a huge amount of interest amongst regular and casual bettors.
Although the finals of all three competitions are often staged at the weekend, the group and knockout stage fixtures are traditionally scheduled to take place simultaneously midweek. This offers plenty of midweek accumulator opportunities whilst match result predictions offer single and multiple betting opportunities.
International Football
While domestic football is perhaps a punter’s ‘bread and butter’ nothing quite compares to top-class international football. The FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championships, Copa America and Africa Cup of Nations are amongst the biggest sporting events held globally. The 2022 FIFA World Cup final reportedly attracted 1.5 billion viewers worldwide and the tournament on the whole generated hundreds of millions of pounds worth of bets in the UK alone.
Major international football tournaments garner an unprecedented amount of interest in the outright betting markets with the tournament outright winners and Golden Boot markets amongst those most bettors are keen to place a wager. These international tournaments tend to offer numerous fixtures daily, especially during the group stages. This high volume of daily fixtures offers plenty of match betting opportunities with match results, correct scores and anytime goalscorers the most prominent pre-match markets whilst in-play betting peaks during these tournaments with so much free-to-air football available to view during the competitions.