Those who like to watch football often also like to bet on their favorite team or on their victory. Especially in recent years, when Tipico, bwin and similar providers have conquered the German market, football betting has become much more popular. Many bet with their hearts on football and put their money on the team they are also a fan of at the same time. Others, however, bet with their heads and pay close attention to how likely the outcome they are betting on is, without being guided by any loyalty to specific teams.
Whether you are betting with passion or to test your analysis or your financial gain, in any case, you need to know what bets you can place on football and how they work. You can learn about various portals where you can place bets.
Types of football bets
There are different variations of football betting, not all of which offer the same risk and probability of winning. Some variations are also less complicated than others. Basic to all football betting are single bets. In addition, there are still very common combination bets and system bets. These three types of football bets will now be presented respectively.
Single bets
Single bets are perhaps the oldest bets in sports or betting. At the same time, they are also the easiest bets, which may be related to their age. A single bet works in such a way that you have to correctly predict the outcome of a single match. For example, someone bets that team A will win or that team B will win or that the match will end in a draw. In a more advanced form of the single bet, you can also predict what score or goal difference the match will end with.
Possible profit
With single bets, calculating the profit is very simple, because you just have to multiply the stake by the odds to find out the payout. If you bet 10 euros and the odds are 2.50, you will receive a payout of 25 euros if the tip is correct. Of these 15 euros is the net profit, while with the remaining 10 euros you simply get your stake back. Compared to other types of bets, the risk of a single bet is quite low. In return, however, the potential profits are not as high as with combination or system bets.
Offering
You can place a single bet with almost all established bookmakers on all football leagues. Only Tipico requires you to combine at least three outcomes into one bet when betting on lower leagues or non-established fringe sports (i.e. definitely not football), so single bets are not possible here for all events.
Combine bets
A combination bet is a little more complicated than a single bet. It is basically a series of individual bets placed one after the other. The way a combination bet works is that you have to name certain outcomes on different events. These all have to happen independently of each other in order for you to collect your winnings. Otherwise, the entire bet is lost, no matter how many times you were right with your bet.
Potential profits
With a combination bet, calculating the potential winnings is a bit more complicated than with a single bet. But even here, it is not magic to calculate the potential winnings once when you place the bet and thus calculate the risk. To do this, multiply the probabilities of the outcomes by each other and by the stake. With odds of 2.5 as well as 2 and 1.5 a potential winnings of 75 euros can be achieved with a stake of 10 euros.
This is the same as placing bets one after the other and each time choosing the payout of the previous bet as the stake. However, the risk here is quite high, since you already lose your entire stake with one wrong tip in the combination. The more tips with higher odds you combine in a combination bet, the higher the risk.
Offering
An offer for combined bets is available at almost all sports betting providers. As already described above, Tipico only allows customers to place combined bets on lower leagues as well as on marginal sports and does not allow single bets in these cases.
System bets
With system betting, you can bet on the outcome of different events at the same time, just like with combination bets, but the risk is significantly lower. In this case, the relationship between odds and risk is adjusted so that you have a lower risk with similar odds. However, because system betting is quite complex in its concept, it is also relatively new and less well-known among people who don’t like to place bets as a hobby.
Possible profit
As already mentioned, system betting has a relatively complex structure. Here you place several combination bets in one go. This is easier and faster than placing them all separately. For example, you can bet that a specific team will win in each of four selected football matches. In system betting, you have four triple combination bets. The amount you bet is divided evenly between the individual combination bets.
In an example calculation it looks like this: Team A wins their game at odds of 1.5. Team B wins their game at odds of 2. Team C wins their game at odds of 2.4. Team D wins their game at odds of 2.7. You bet forty euros, so a total of ten euros on each possible combination bet. If two teams lose, no combination bet will be placed. But if, for example, only team B loses, you still get 1.5 x 2.4 x 2.7 x €10, so €97.20. Of this, €57.20 is the net profit – and you had much less effort when placing the bets than with four single combination bets.
Offering
System betting is available from almost all sports betting providers. There are also no limits here – you just have to be aware that the stakes here quickly become quite high. Otherwise, system betting convinces with a great time saving compared to individual combination bets.
The fiction of safe bets
Players always try to come up with a system with which they will definitely not have losses in the long run. Such constructions of a safe betting system are also advertised from time to time when a player has had success with it for a while. However, in the long run, they rarely prove to be true. It is true that you can make low-risk bets, especially if you are always well informed and make smart bets. But in football, it always depends on luck to some extent. Therefore, there is no question of placing a single bet with a sure profit or creating a system to avoid long-term losses. You have to rely on your luck for every bet, despite your knowledge.
What do people often bet on?
The most common bets are placed on well-known teams, as this is the best place to assess the team. This also applies to bookmakers who calculate odds, which is why, as a rule, the odds are more likely to be reliable for established teams and leagues. So, for example, bets are often placed on games in the first division of Spain, France, Britain or Germany. But the Champions and Europa League are also very popular. Not to mention the European and World Championships, where many people bet very early on who will win the tournament.