Soccer Betting

We generally like to advise our new bettors to bet on the leagues they know the most about.

Betting on a league you know nothing about is a little like stumbling around in the dark.

So rather, start with the soccer leagues you know, and once you’ve found your feet, you can move onto researching, and eventually betting on some of those lesser known leagues.

The different outcomes (such as match winner or over/under), can be difficult to choose between if you’re new.

Generally, we say follow your instincts, but never forget that a little bit of research can go a long way.

Off the bat, if you were to see Arsenal vs. West Ham, you may see Arsenal given shorter odds for winning (which means the bookie will think they have the higher chance of winning). Historically, you may be inclined to bet on Arsenal.

But if you do some research, you may find that Arsenal are struggling, have a lot of injured players, and are really battling to keep any sort of home form.

West Ham on the other hand could be firing on all cylinders, full strength, and could have an away record that makes the likes of Arsenal shiver.

In this case, the smart bet may be to go for West Ham.

So the balance of instinctive feelings, and hard facts can help you choose which outcome to select.

That is totally dependent on how much money you’re willing to spend.

In the beginning, especially when you’re learning, a R10 stake is enough, because in most cases it’s not the end of the world if you were to lose ten bucks.

Once you’ve become a little more calculated both with your bet making and risk taking, you can start increasing your stake a little.

Generally, the more sure you are, the more you can put down, but be careful. Never put down more money than you’re willing to part with.

Generally, once you’ve clicked on the confirm button, your bet will be placed.

If, however, you’re in an area with poor internet connection, and aren’t sure whether your bet was placed after you confirmed on your bet slip, you can give the tab labelled “Open Bets” a click to see if the bet has been placed.

Information about your bet will remain there until the bet is closed (the event has come and gone).

In this market, you are essentially placing a bet on the number of goals that will be scored in the game.

So for example, you may see some options saying over 2.5. If you were to bet on this option, you are betting that by the time the game reaches 90 minutes, there will have been more than 2.5 (so 3) goals scored in the game.

The goals don’t need to come from 1 team. If you kept this Over 2.5 option, and the game would end 2-1, you would win your bet.

The same concept can be applied to the “Unders” side of the market (you bet on “Under 2.5”, and if the game ends with less than 2.5 goals (no more than 2) you would win your bet).

Quite simply, bet on the team that you believe will score first in the game.

Tip: This market is great to bet on if you have access to live streaming, or a television set that you can watch the event on.

Again fairly simple, bet on the team that you believe will score the next goal in the game.

Another market that really comes alive when you are betting live. Live streaming, and watching the game are great sources of data for this market.

A handicap is a slightly more complex market, but we are convinced that you’ll get an understanding of it if you were to bet more on it.

With Handicaps, you are essentially giving one team a head start over another. When you bet on the handicap market, you are betting that a team will score more than a certain number of goals.

So for example, if you were to bet on Man City in -0.5, you would only win your bet if they were to score more than 0.5 goals (so 1 or more). Technically, they’re starting with a minus goal

If they don’t, you would lose out on your bet.

So essentially, you are betting on a team to score more than a certain number of goals. If they do, you win, and if they don’t, you lose.

Asian Handicap is one of the more complicated betting markets to get an understanding of. It’s not too common amongst betting sites in South Africa. In fact, only Sunbet and Supabets offer this market in SA.

In Asian Handicap, the concept of handicap betting is taken a step further. This will all get quite theoretical, but we’ll do our best to explain it as best as possible.

With Asian Handicaps, goals are split into “quarters” (like with normal handicaps, you’ll see -0.5, with asian handicap you will see -0.25, or -0.0;-0.5 (these mean the same thing)), and therefore, the stake that you put down is split into two stakes.

So if you elect to bet on an Asian Handicap, and select “Man City - 0.0; - 0.5” (or -0.25), and they were to win by 1 goal, both those split stakes would win, and you would win your bet.

We are aware that it’s pretty complicated, but to get a better understanding, we recommend playing with Sunbet’s Asian Handicap tool, it will begin to make far more sense.

Live streaming is one of the best features that can boost your soccer betting experience.

Some betting operators offer live streaming for their users, which at the end of the day is the best tool for informing your betting strategy.

You can draw data from watching the event roll out in front of you eyes, which no other betting feature can offer.

The truth, however, is that securing this feature is rather expensive, and tough to maintain, so soccer betting platforms rarely offer coverage of the best leagues.

This is no problem though, as there is plenty of value in those lesser known leagues.

Cashout is another offering that generally falls under the list of features attached to live betting.

Cashout allows you to do two things with your bets. Each of which essentially ensures longevity with your betting.

We can break these two things that you can do with cash out into two broad categories: cutting your losses and securing your profits.

Scenario A: Cutting your Losses:

You place a bet on Burnley to beat Newcastle, but after 70 minutes, they’re two goals down, and they’re looking absolutely hopeless.

You may be inclined to use the cashout feature to get some (but not all) of your stake back.

So if you bet R10 on Burnley winning, and you wanted to use the cash out function, you would be getting back anything from R7.00 to R9.00. Cash out offers differ, and tend to lessen as the game gets closer and closer to the 90 minute mark.

Scenario B: Securing Your Profits

In this scenario, you have made a fictitious bet on Brighton to beat Wolves.

They’re currently 1-0 up after 75 minutes, but Wolves are stringing together attack after attack, and are close to equalising.

You may be inclined to use cash out in this scenario, as doing so will mean that you are able to secure at least some of your potential winnings, and remove the risk of potentially losing your bet altogether.

Either way, cash out is a great tool to ensure that your bets last, and is one of the most popular features in soccer betting.

Bet builders are another standout feature that can take your soccer betting to the next level.

Bet builders are fairly similar to multi bets, but they differ in the fact that they allow you to add multiple selections to your bet slip for markets within the same game.

Take a look at the table below to get a better idea:

We touched on multi bets slightly when we spoke about bet builders, so here we’ll speak a little more on the perks of using multibet functions.

For a very quick refresher, multi bet functions allow you to add more than one selection to your bet slip.

Multi bets are a great way to take a small stake and turn it into incredible potential winnings.

The catch? The more different events you add to your bet slip, the less likely you’ll see that bet win (based on probabilities).

Doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Especially considering some of the features and bonuses attached to winning multi bets!

This part of the process is crucial.

Make sure that you’re either able to keep an eye on the game on the telly, or make sure that the game you’re looking to bet on is being offered by the site’s live streaming feature.

Otherwise, you’re always able to use the site’s mini virtual feed and in-game stats to keep track of scores and other valuable info.

When using cash out, it’s the decision making that’s key, ahead of anything else.

If you see a bet going a way that you didn’t want it to go, make a decision.

Either hold on, or use cash out.

If you’ve decided to use cash out, click on the open bets tab on the betting site

Once you’ve clicked on open bets, you can go ahead and click on cash out.

The site will let you know of the amount you would be entitled to when you cash out.

• Note: betting sites tend to offer very different cash out offers, so always keep an eye out for whether or not cash out is being offered for the particular event. Sometimes you can only do this once you’ve placed your bet.

As we have mentioned, this kind of promo is pretty standard amongst soccer betting sites in South Africa.

We have deicided to enter this one into the list because a 200% stake is pretty impressive.

This is how it works:

Terms & Conditions:

• You’ll need to email promotions@gbets.co.za to claim your winnings.
• Only match result bets qualify.
• The promo only applies if one of your selections doesn’t come off.
• Unfortunately, Free Bets don’t qualify for this promo.

Sign up with Gbets to view the Promo.

With World Sports Betting, you can get a voucher on correct score, halftime/full time markets if the game ends in a goalless draw.

The maximum amount that you’d be able to receive is R1000.

In order to apply for your voucher, you’ll need to email promotions@wsb.co.za with the following specifications:

• Subject: 0-0 Money Back
• Include your Full Name,
• Include your Account Number or Username
• Include your ticket number

Sign up with World Sports Betting to view the promotion.

One of the biggest issues when it comes to soccer betting, is that when you’re betting on a team to win, and they score the winning goal after the 90th minute, you are considered to have lost your bet.

Sunbet addresses this in some way with their half stake back after 90 minutes promo, wherein if your team loses after the 90th minute, they will return half your stake.

Sign up with Sunbet to view the promotion.

The reason we have added this to our list of top tips is because using multi bets or bet builders is a great way to turn your stake into absolutely massive winnings.

It’s easier said than done, because with every selection you add to the bet slip, the probability of you winning your bet reduces slightly.

That being said however, if you do win, you will win big.

Once you have a good hold over betting on the match result, you can look to start diversifying your bets, and you can start looking to bet on other markets.

Some really fun markets to bet on are first goal and next goal, overs/unders, and eventually, handicap betting too.

As you begin to feel more confident and comfortable, you will come to realise that these markets no longer feel intimidating, and more approachable.

Always always always do your research.

Research is the difference between a good bet and a bad bet. If you’re betting on the favourite just because they’ve got a bigger and better reputation without analysing the team’s forms, homeground advantage, injured players, and the like, you may find yourself losing your bet.

Make use of different sources of information. Some of the better resources that you can consult for statistics include: Soccerway (just google soccerway) and Total Corner (also just a term you can google).

While the big leagues can be fun to bet on because of how well known they are, betting on some of the lesser known leagues can be excpetionally profitable.

The reason for this is that odds are determined by experts, and big betting operators are more inclined to send their very best experts to these games, and usually, they get the odds spot on.

On the lesser known leagues however, they are more inclined to make a few more errors, giving you the opportunity to take advantage and make some really great returns.

Many make the mistake of betting on a variety of leagues, and simply go with who they think will win without doing enough analysis.

Proper winning analysis takes time, effort, and lot of dedication, making it exceptionally difficult to reach a level of mastery when it comes to understanding the ins and outs of different leagues.

So pick one. Pick one that’s lesser known with high potential value. Like the Australian A-League, or the Icelandic 4th division.