A Complete Guide to Betting on Soccer

Have you ever wondered what the most popular sport in the world was? Wonder no longer because we have the answer you’re looking for! Soccer ranks number one in a variety of countries around the world, with their matches always attracting large audiences. Soccer blows all other sports out of the water.

Even in the United States, soccer is starting to grow in popularity. In fact, it was about twenty years ago that the World Cup was held there. Major League Soccer has become a genuinely good quality league, and many Americans watch overseas soccer. The English Premier League, for example, is covered extensively by NBC Sports.

Commonly referred to as football in most countries outside the US, soccer is also a popular sport for betting purposes. In fact, it attracts more betting interest globally than any other sports. This is perhaps not surprising when you consider just how many matches take place. There’s so many different leagues and competitions around the world that it would take forever just to list them all.

There are many reasons why soccer betting is so widespread, with one being that’s it’s quite simple to get started. With just a little bit of knowledge, it’s possible to have a good chance of making some money. There is, of course, a lot more to learn if you want to make consistent profits. This soccer betting guide can help. Both beginners and skilled bettors alike can find what they’re looking for here.

All About Soccer

We would never go as far as to say that you need to be a soccer expert in order to make money from soccer betting, but that doesn’t mean that knowledge isn’t important. Quite the opposite actually, knowledge is powerful in the world of betting. The more you know, the easier it will become to make educated decisions.

That’s why we’ve compiled our “All About Soccer” section. This section will tell you everything you need to know about soccer. Trust us when we say, this WILL be worth your time. By taking some time to do your research, you can get the most bang for your buck when betting on soccer.

Here’s a glimpse into what’s covered, along with a link to the section.

• History of the Game
• Rules of the Game
• FIFA & Other Governing Bodies
• Major Clubs
• Major Tournaments & Leagues
• Top Players & Managers

Soccer Betting for Beginners

Soccer betting isn’t overly difficult, even for beginners. In order to get started on the right foot, though, there are a few things you need to know. That’s exactly why we put together this thorough step by step guide for beginners.

Learn the Basics of Sports Betting

You can skip this step if you’re already an experienced bettor, although even then it won’t hurt to refresh your memory on some of the basics. If you’re completely new to betting, then this is a very important step. It’s one we can help with too, as our beginner’s guide to sports betting serves as a comprehensive introduction. It features several articles covering all the basics, and everything is explained in a very easy to understand way.

Know The Different Types of Soccer Bets

One of the great things about soccer from a gambling perspective is that there’s a wide variety of different wagers that can be placed. There are far more options than just betting on which teams will win matches. Although this means there will be plenty of opportunities to make a profit, it also means that there are a lot of different types of bet that you need to be familiar with. This article should cover everything you need to know.

Decide Which Betting Markets to Focus On

How do I choose? Have you every asked yourself this question in regards to what you should bet on? With so many soccer leagues and competitions around the world, there is NO easy answer. It can be tempting to use a variety of different wagers on a variety of different leagues, but this is rarely the right approach. Unless you have a lot of spare time, and an encyclopedic knowledge of world soccer, it’s easier to simply focus on just a few betting markets. Read this article to learn more!

Understand Key Factors Affecting Soccer Matches

This is where things start getting intense. The next step is to start thinking about how to actually make betting decisions. Understanding the various factors that can affect soccer matches is essential, but you also have to able to assess the potential impact of things like current form, overall quality and schedules. This is the only way you can make informed judgements about what is likely to happen. This article will provide you with the resources you need to excel in this area.

Avoid the Basic Mistakes

It’s no exaggeration to say that learning what NOT to do is just as important as learning what you should do. The majority of people who lose money from betting on soccer do so because they make basic mistakes that are easily avoided. If you can avoid these mistakes yourself, then you’ll immediately be in a much better position to make money. At the very least, you’ll lose less often.

Read this article to discover the most common betting mistakes and tips on how to avoid making them.

Online Soccer Betting

There are a few different ways to bet on soccer, depending on where you live. If you live in the UK, for example, then visiting the local bookmaking shop and betting in cash is a viable option. Telephone betting services are available in most parts of the world as well, and there are even more obscure options available in other countries. While all of these options are fine, we have yet to mention the very best way to place your bets, and that’s through an online betting site!

Online betting offers many advantages over the traditional ways to place wagers. It’s quicker and more convenient for starters, and there are usually many more betting options available such as betting on the World Cup. Then there’s the bonuses and rewards on offer, which can be pretty valuable. If you’ve never bet online before, then please take a look at our guide to getting started. This will tell you everything you need to know.

All right: now that you know how to get started, it’s time to pick which site you’re going to use. There are numerous sites to choose from, which means we have to be selective. Not all sites are of the same standard, and they’re certainly not all reliable and trustworthy. For the best possible experience, you’ll need one of the best sites. We’re here to help! Take a look through our list of leading soccer betting sites that meet a variety of key criteria.

Basic Soccer Betting Tips

Always Have a Budget & Bet Responsibly

Soccer is unpredictable. Betting on it is difficult. The one thing you do have control over is how much money you invest into it. Set a budget, and don’t ever bet with money you can afford to lose. We put this advice at the top of our list for a reason; we know how valuable it is!

It doesn’t matter how good you are, or think you are, you should always have a clear budget for betting with. You should also have some defined rules for how much of this budget you’ll stake on any one wager. This is known as managing your bankroll, and it’s a vital skill for all forms of gambling.

Stick to What You Know

There are a myriad of soccer leagues and competitions around the world. We consider ourselves very knowledgeable on the sport, but even we don’t have any idea exactly how many there are. And we certainly wouldn’t want to bet on any of the leagues and competitions that we don’t know anything about. Many people do though, and it’s a mistake.

It might be tempting to back a team that you’ve never heard of when they’re playing another team you’ve never heard of, although we can’t really imagine why you’d want to. Regardless, it’s not something you should be doing. Betting on teams within leagues your familiar with is difficult enough. Let’s not make it even MORE grueling.

You’ll get far better results when concentrating on leagues and competitions that you’re familiar with. You shouldn’t be afraid to expand your knowledge and learn about other leagues and competitions around the world, but don’t start betting on them until you’ve gained some insight about them.

Ignore Tipsters

There are hundreds of self-proclaimed soccer betting tipsters, possibly even thousands. Twitter in particular is full of them. Only a very small percentage of them could genuinely be considered experts though. It’s hard to distinguish between the two. The majority of these tipsters rarely provide useful advice, but instead they just give suggestions for what to bet on. There’s no harm in what they do, but they’re not really offering a valuable service. We haven’t discovered any that win often enough to make their tips worth following on a regular basis.

No offense, but following tipsters is the lazy approach anyway. You’ll do much better in the long run if you learn how to form your own opinions about what to bet on, based on solid reasoning. This is the direct path to success.

Read Blogs & Forums

We’ve just stressed the importance of forming your own opinions, so this tip might seem slightly contradictory. We’re not referring to betting blogs and forums here though, we’re referring to blogs written by soccer fans and forums where fans discuss their teams. Reading these can be very enlightening, and help you learn a lot more about individual players and teams as a whole.

With the vast amount of blogs and forums out there, it’s impossible to read them all. There’s a lot of poor quality content that should be ignored anyway. But there are some very good soccer bloggers who offer real insight into the game, and many forums that feature knowledgeable posters whose opinions are valuable.

Invest Time as Well as Money

If you take your betting seriously, then it’s fair to consider the money you stake as an investment. Investing your time is also important. It’s not enough to just spend a few minutes each week looking at the upcoming fixtures and then selecting a few wagers to place. Even if you’re only betting for fun, putting in more effort will benefit you.

We’re not suggesting that you spend hours and hours analyzing every possible aspect of every possible game. That’s not strictly necessary. However, you should certainly spend a reasonable amount of time doing some research into the relevant factors, and trying to identify the opportunities which provide the most value.

Soccer Betting Strategy

In addition to the above tips, this betting guide also has a dedicated strategy section. This will improve your soccer betting skills, which will in turn give you a greater chance of making some money. Please note that none of the strategy advice we offer is guaranteed to turn you into a winner, but it will certainly help.

Our strategy section features some basic strategy advice which is primarily aimed at beginners and recreational bettors. It’s not very complicated, which makes it a good place to start if you are new to betting or just starting to take it more seriously. The advice will help you to approach your betting in the right way, and teach you about the thought processes you need to go through.

We have some more advanced strategy advice too, for those that want to expand their knowledge even further. The following are some of the most popular strategy articles in the section.

Please read the following page for a more complete look at all the strategy advice we have to offer.

Analyzing Performances, Styles & Stats

We’ve already mentioned that you don’t have to be a soccer expert to make money from betting on the sport. You can experience some level of success if you just follow the simple tips on this page, learn some of the strategy involved and spend enough time trying to find the right betting opportunities. There are no guarantees of course, but if you do all that then you’ll already be ahead of most people who bet on soccer.

If you want to give yourself the very best chance of success, however, you’ll need to take it a step further. This will involve learning how to analyze teams’ performances and the various different playing styles. You’ll also need to learn how to analyze a wide range of different statistics too. Ideally you should already have a very good understanding of the game for this, but that’s something you can work on as you go along.

We cover this subject in more detail in the following section of soccer betting guide.