A Comprehensive Guide to Online Sports Betting

28th February 2019 / Julian

If you prefer to stick to the old-fashioned high street option, think again. Welcome to the wonderful world of sports betting online, and an endless number of markets enabling you to place your wagers on everything imaginable, 24/7.

The Right Bookmakers

Start your online sports betting adventure by choosing a bookie which operates in your currency. Otherwise not only will you need to calculate the odds, but you’ll be constantly working out the exchange rate too (which may be less than favourable), and your financial provider may make extra charges for overseas transactions.

Also check out the deposit and withdrawal methods on offer to be sure that your favourite is available. Most cover the standard cards and bank transfers, but perhaps you prefer using e-wallets – and look out for those specialising in cryptocurrencies if you’re big on bitcoin.

If fast cash is a priority, read the small print on processing duration and time frames, as these can vary a fair bit across the market.

The Odds Explained

If you’re unfamiliar with the mysterious numbers and symbols involved in placing a bet, let’s take it back to basics, starting with fractions: if you see two numbers separated with a slash, those are your odds.

Through this you can work out how much you win, versus how much you spend. The first number is the winning amount, while the one to the right of the slash is the amount you need to stake to get it.

So for example, bet £10 on Tottenham Hotspur to win at odds of 6/2 and you’ll get £40 (£10/2 x 6 + £10).

The other method you’ll see, is decimalisation. Decimal odds – also known as European odds – show the return on a 1 unit stake and involves a dot instead of a slash.

So for example if you bet another £10, but this time it’s Real Madrid with 4.5 odds to win, you’ll get £45 (£10 x 4.5).

In this respect decimals are so much easier and frequently found in footie.

Match Specifics

There are three basics types of odds to be found in online sports betting UK for any football match:

The home team to win.
The match to draw.
The away team to win.

The home team’s victory odds are listed before the away teams (not so in American Football, so watch out if you wager on both, or use international sportsbooks).

But of course who will win the game is pretty straightforward and with the minutiae of football enthralling the masses, it figures that bookies offer far more options.

These options are referred to as the betting markets and here’s where it gets really interesting.

The goal outcomes are one of the obvious options, so if you see Liverpool versus Chelsea 2-1 8.50, that’s refers to the decimal odds of Liverpool winning 2 goals to 1 (make sure you don’t confuse the ‘-‘ with the ‘/’ of the fractional odds system). The smaller the odds, the better chance the bet has of winning, although you’ll win less too.

Betting Market Options

You needn’t limit yourself to a full match bet either, spice it up with some half time/full time wagers.

Here you take a guess (albeit an educated one) as to who will be in the lead when the half time whistle blows, as well as who takes the final victory. This ups the ante as you’d have to get both right to get the cash, but then the odds make them nice earners if you’re right.

If you hear the term Asian Handicap, this doesn’t refer to golf, but rather the handicap given by the bookie to one of the teams, while taking away from the other.

Punters then have to predict which team will win after the handicaps have been taken away/added. Another goal scoring option is to bet on who will get them in.

Accumulator bets

These kind of bets are available on all sports, albeit with different rules to cover specific events and sport types.

It’s true that these offer some generous rewards with a small financial commitment, but if they really are so bountiful and relatively risk free, why isn’t everyone doing it all the time?

In order to place an accumulator bet, you’ll first need to make a minimum of four selections which are then all grouped together to form one single wager (multiple selections beneath this are referred to as doubles or trebles – not triples).

The caveat is that they must be independent from one another, otherwise it would just be too easy and the bookmakers would all be broke.

To make your money, all of these selections need to come up winning, or your wager is lost. So while the risk is low in terms of the amount of cash you need to lay out in the beginning, the risk is high in terms of landing the payout due to the considerably high odds.

And the Bets Go On…

There are so many great options now, and online gambling makes it especially easy, opening up a wider variety of ways to wager than ever before.

If you love football, then placing some bets is a no brainer, there’s nothing as exciting as watching a match knowing you’re invested beyond the love of your team.

Plus watching random players, teams and leagues that you’d never have bothered with before takes on a new lease of life, injecting a whole load of fun from many different facets of a match.

Here are our very helpful betting advice articles:

Betting on different kind of sports:

If you are new to online sports betting or want to add an online bookmaker to your betting accounts portfolio, read our comparison of bookmakers ratings and bookmaker reviews to find the best online bookmakers.

Visit Bet365

The tip is based on the personal opinion of the author. No success is guaranteed. Please gamble responsibly. 18+

* All mentioned odds were valid at the time of writing. Betting odds are subject to fluctuations. Please check the current odds with the respective bookmaker!

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Category: Betting Advice