How Do Football Betting Markets Work?

If you are a football fan, chances are that there would have been at least one time that you may have bet on your favorite team to win! Casual betting aside, do you know how the football betting market works? Let’s find out.
The Online Betting Market
According to Statista, the go-to statistics site, the current online gambling market is valued at about $46 billion dollars, and by 2024, that number is expected to be $94 billion dollar. And did you know that the majority of bets that are made online are actually for sports betting? And, of that, 60% of all sports betting is on football?
But that’s the legal betting market we’re talking about. According to BBC, the actual market size is much, much larger – between $700 billion to $1 trillion!
Since football is a massively popular sport the world over, it is not uncommon to see more than 100 betting markets open for any single game – and they are all online! With so many betting markets available for punters, the key is choosing the right one to make your football bet.
The Major Betting Markets in Football
If you want to make a bet during a football game, then you may have heard these terms thrown around – FT betting, 1X2, double chance, and so on. Let’s find out what they mean.

• 3-Way Betting

This is by far the most popular type of bet punters enjoy making. It is also the simplest. There are 3 ways to bet – the home team wins (1), the away team wins (2) or the match is a draw (X). That’s why this type of bet is also called the 1X2 bet.

• Double Chance

Also referred to as DC, punters need to choose 2 of 3 probable outcomes. This improves your chance of winning and also lessens your odds. The combinations of the bets are:

• 1 or X (i.e., either the home team wins or the match is a draw)
• 1 or 2 (i.e., there is a definite winner and no draw)
• 2 or X (i.e., the away team wins or the match is a draw)

• Over-Under

This is a more difficult bet to make. You need to bet on the total number of goals made by both teams in a match. Usually, you get to choose a 2.5-goal limit, which means you need to choose whether there will be more than 2.5 goals in the match or less than 2.5 goals in the match. So, if you bet Over, you have bet that the teams will score 3 goals or more. And if you bet Under, then you are expecting the teams to score 2 or less goals in the game.

• BTTs

BTT stands for Both Teams to Score, and is also commonly referred to as the Goal-Goal/No-Goal market. Simply put, you will be betting on whether the teams will score goals or not. Betting is very simple; you have two options – Yes or No. So, for example, both teams end up with a goalless draw, then the No option wins.

• Total Goals

In this market, you need to predict how many goals will be scored in the match. To make it easier for punters, you don’t have to choose an exact number (though there are many who do). You get a range from which to choose.
The most common ranges are 0-1, 2-3, 4-6, and 7 or greater than 7 goals.

• Asian Handicap

This is a bet that is found mostly in Asian betting markets, but is gaining popularity in European markets now. In Asian handicap bets, the outcomes of a bet are just two. Either you win or you lose.
How it works is that there is a goal handicap put on the weaker of the two teams, and that handicap has to be exceeded by the better team in order for your bet to be confirmed.
So, if you bet a -1.5 handicap on your favorite team, it means your team needs to score at least 2 goals to win.

• Half-Time Full-Time

Also simply called HT-FT, you need to predict the results of both half-time as well as full-time in the match. This means that you have a total of 9 combinations from which to choose.
Other Types of Betting Markets in Football
For those punters who like to spice things up, there are also special betting markets in football. You can choose to bet on the exact score, which player will score, how many corners will there be, how many red or yellow cards will be issued in the match, and whether penalty kicks will be awarded during the game.
With football betting becoming more and more popular, the permutations and combinations on betting markets are increasing every day.