Which Football Betting Markets Are the Best?

Online football betting continues to evolve and as its popularity increases, the same can be said for the range of available bet types that users can take advantage of.

Of course, lots of punters still like to stick to the basic match winner or total goals wagers, but there are more adventurous football enthusiasts out there who enjoy taking a deeper look at some alternative markets.

Asian Handicap

This isn’t exactly a new way to bet on football, as professionals have been paying a lot of attention to Asian handicaps for decades.

With this type of bet, the bookmaker eliminates the draw option, and implements a handicap which is high if there is a big perceived difference in terms of quality between the two teams, or can be a smaller handicap if it’s expected to be a close game.

It is measured in quarter-goals, so examples of a handicap spread could be 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, etc.

If the handicap is to a quarter decimal point, that means that half of your stake goes on each of the numbers .25 either side of it.

Player Tackles

A far less complicated than Asian handicap but equally enjoyable market to bet on is player tackles, which you can wager on pre-match for most top-flight games.

The lines and odds are determined by how many tackles each particular player usually makes per game, but sharp bettors are able to find value on some occasions, especially when someone is coming up against an opposition player that likes to dribble a lot, or if, perhaps, a player is playing a bit deeper or in a more defensive role than usual - like Steven Gerrard did towards the end of his career.

Man of the Match

Paddy Power and Betfair, both of which are among the best football betting sites you can use, each have the option to bet on the WhoScored Man of the Match.

This is an appealing market because it means you can highlight a player to heavily impact a game without necessarily scoring or assisting.

WhoScored’s player ratings are determined based on stats, so you can’t really argue with the winner, but some other betting sites do actually allow you to wager on the Man of the Match as decided by the television broadcaster.

Player Shots

You can now bet on how many shots a player will have in a game, and you may also be able to wager on how many shots they register on target.

It’s even better when you can include these selections in a bet builder along with other player props like tackles, cards, assists, offsides, and more.

The usage of Opta for such stats ensures that all bet settlements are accurate and fair.

Booking Points

This is a nice alternative to simply betting on how many cards a team or game will have.

Yellow cards count for 10 booking points, and red cards are worth 25 points.

You can back the over or the under on the total booking points line for an individual team, or a match overall.

Overall Verdict

The sheer volume of different football betting markets available now makes it much more interesting than it used to be.

Asian handicap is perhaps still the best for big money players, but the various player props are where you can actually find value and potentially catch the bookies out.