How Does Soccer Betting Work?

Soccer is the most bet on sport globally with millions of dollars being traded each day. The explanation of “how does soccer betting work” is not really a simple one as there are hundreds of different types of bet available. For the purpose of this guide we will look at the most popular bet in soccer, The three-way money line which is also known as 1X2 betting. From there we can expand into the different types of soccer bets and what they mean.

In any soccer game, there are three potential outcomes; Home team win, travelling team win or a tie. The premise of this betting type is that you make a decision on the most likely outcome for any given game and place your bet on that result. This is therefore considered to be a three-way line.

In most cases, you are placing your bet against the bookmaker, be that in a casino sportsbook or at an online sportsbook. In the same way, you make a decision on the likely outcome of an event, the bookmakers are creating the lines based on their opinion of the various outcomes or more likely, using sophisticated algorithms to determine the true probability of each likely outcome.

How to read soccer betting lines?

Every soccer match will be capped by the bookmaker based on the probability of the three possible outcomes. The below image highlights how an online sportsbook will display the soccer money line:

The three highlighted bets show Brighton to win at home, Bournemouth to tie their match at Norwich and Wolverhampton to win on the road at Southampton.

First we head to the American Express Stadium in Brighton. In this scenario, we have decided that Brighton will win this match. To decide whether this is a bet that we want to make, we need to assess the risk vs reward. When reading the soccer lines, you look at positive numbers and negative numbers. A negative number indicates that this outcome is most likely. The number is showing you the amount you need to stake to return a profit of $100. Where the number is positive, you are seeing the how much profit you will make with a $100 bet.

The sportsbook in this case have capped Brighton at -134 meaning that you will need to place $134 to make a $100 profit. In the example below, we place $10 which would return $17.5 should Brighton win. The $17.5 is made up of the original $10 stake plus $7.5 profit. Going back to the original point the risk is $10 with the reward being $7.5 for Brighton to beat Aston Villa at home.

What Is a Draw in Soccer Betting?

In any soccer game, unlike in football, the draw is a very likely outcome from the game. When scores are tied at the completion of the match, this is what you call a draw in soccer and in a three-way money line bet, the draw is an option. Looking back on our example from a round of EPL match ups. we have selected Bournemouth on the road to get a tie against Norwich. The sportsbook has this at +260. The below show that in placing a stake of $10, should this result come in, the payout is $36 including your $10 stake – a profit of $26.

Does Extra Time Count in Soccer Betting?

Unless otherwise specified by the sportsbook that you have placed your bet with, soccer bets are settled on regulation time plus any injury or stoppage time added. It is only usually knockout tournaments that extra time is added to the match and it is important to look at what you are placing. For obvious reasons, if you are including extra time or penalty kicks within your bet, this will become a two-way line as the only possible outcomes will be home team win or away team win. Draw or tie is eliminated from this format. Wording on this varies between sportsbooks hover it is pretty common terminology for the bet to be team to; go through, qualify, progress. Team to win or lose is usually reserved for the three-way line bet that is settled at the end of regular time.