Soccer - Betting Guide


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After joining Liverpool FC for a massive £35 Million, Andy Carroll failed to impress much. Now his future at Liverpool might be a little unclear...
Andy Carroll - Liverpool FC

With players like Rooney, Beckham, Ronaldinho and many more currently gracing the world stage, soccer (also called football) is more popular than ever. Since the first official international in 1872 at The Oval between England and Scotland, the game has become the national sports of many countries around the world, with many youngsters aspiring to be like their heroes of the game.

There are many soccer leagues around the world, some of these include the Bundesliga (Germany), Serie A (Italy), La Liga(Spain) and Ligue 1 (France) with the most popular probably being the Barclays Premier League (England), boasting teams like Arsenal, Manchester United (also known as Man U), Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and many more very popular sides playing in the league. What probably grabs the most attention about these teams in the various leagues, is the amount of money that is thrown around for players. In a recent 5 year re-signing for a player (won't mention any names :-) ), an amount of £35-million was bandied about, which equates to around £135'000 a week!!

A normal soccer game is 90 minutes, divided in two halfs of 45 minutes each. Depending on the amount of stoppages during each halve, extra time can be added to each halve to then compensate for the stoppages. Each team consists of 11 players and a round ball is used. Each team member has a specific position, with these ranging from goalkeeper (also the only player who is allowed to handle the ball with this hands), wings, midfielders and strikers (usually the players that score the goals). Professional soccer tends to have a low goal score level (the 2005-2006 Premier League season's goal average per game was 2.48).

Usually during a final match (World Cup, League finals, etc.), when the match ends in a draw, two 15 minute extra time periods are added. If no goals are scored during this time, the game then goes to a penalty shootout where players from both teams take a shot at goal while trying to beat the opponents goalkeeper. Unlike during the game, penalty shooters are only allowed one shot at goal and are not allowed to try scoring again from any rebounds. Various other methods are also employed to determine the winner (golden goal, etc.), but the penalty shootout is the most popular.

Some of the bets available on soccer games include but are not limited to:

  • Scorecast

    This is a two stage bet, the punter has to correctly predict the first player to score a goal and the final score of the game in normal time

  • First/Last/Anytime Goalscorer

    With these wagers the punter has to either pick the first or last player to score a goal, or a player that will score during the duration of the match (Anytime)

  • Half Time/Full Time

    Again this is a two stage bet, the punter has to correctly predict the half time and full time score. Some sportsbooks have this wager as two seperate bets as well (half time and a Correct score bet).

  • Total Goals

    The punter has to predict the total amount of goals that will be scored. Usually the sportsbooks give a value and the punter has to bet on over/under the value.

  • Draw No Bet

    Here the punter has to wager on the team that will the encounter. If it ends in a draw, his wager is refunded.