3 Best Soccer Betting Strategy Options – How to Bet on Soccer

Check out SportsMemo's guide to soccer betting strategy. Learn how to bet on soccer and then discover three excellent soccer betting strategies!

The world's most popular sport, betting on soccer has been around for decades on the eastern hemisphere but with the legalization of sports betting in the United States on the other side of the line, it may come off as intimidating to someone who has never seen soccer markets.

In addition to its popularity, soccer is the most widely bet sport worldwide, and there are a plethora of ways to bet an individual game.

With different types of competitions and leagues with different rules rotating through a calendar year, there’s plenty to chew on and bet on. Below is a quick how-to for soccer betting in addition to presenting three successful soccer betting strategies – having a soccer betting strategy when you bet will help you make more intelligent bets!

Remember! Sportsmemo offers soccer betting picks in our free soccer picks and premium expert soccer betting predictions sections all year long.

The Most Common Soccer Betting Markets

Three-Way Money Line/90 minutes/Regular Time

The most common six-pack of soccer markets customers will see on a daily and weekly basis is the 'Regular Time' or 90 minutes market. This is a three-way line, meaning there are three options when selecting: Team A, Team B or Draw. 90 minutes soccer wagers are official at the completion 90 minutes of play plus injury time.

Any extra period(s) or penalty kick shootouts are not part of these wagers. If a customer selects a team to win but the score is 1-1 after regular time, the customer does not get their money wagered back, and it is considered a losing bet, due to draw being an available option.

Draw No Bet/Two-Way Money Line

Draw No Bet is a wager that eliminates the prospect of the draw. This is considered a two-way line with the draw option being taken out of the equation. Because there are only two choices compared to three, the odds will look differently to the 90 minutes money line market mentioned above.

If a customer selects a team to win but the score is 1-1 after regular time, the customer does get their money wagered back, and it is considered a void or push bet.

Handicap or Spread Betting

Like football and basketball, soccer also offers their version of spread betting, mainly referred to as a handicap. The team selected must cover the spread, which in this case is goals. This is a way for sportsbook operators to close the gap between mismatched teams, which often happens during global tournaments. For example, Brazil is -0.5 goals and Peru is +0.5 goals.

If the bettor selects Brazil, and they win 1-0, a bettor wins their bet because Brazil won by more than 0.5 goals and 'covered'. If the bettor selects Brazil and draws with Japan 2-2, the bet is graded as a loser because Brazil did not cover the 0.5 goals.

Conversely, if the bettor selects Peru and draws with Brazil 2-2, the Peru selection is graded as a winner because the final score with the +0.5 goals is technically 2.5-2.

Totals Markets

The totals market is a simple two-way selection regarding the total goals scored in the game. This slightly varies compared to other sports such as football, baseball, and basketball, as those totals markets usually have -110 odds attached to them.

With soccer being a low-scoring sport, the different between two goals and three goals is quite significant, so the odds attached will be different from the -110 standard for other sports.

Soccer Betting Strategy #1: Utilize Alternate Bet Types For Better Odds

Soccer has some unique challenges in terms of betting markets when it comes to some of the top-quality teams facing lower quality opponents. In other sports, the difference between the best team in their respective league to the worst team isn't as drastic as soccer.

For example, when a Manchester City club is playing the worst team in the Premier League, or when Brazil gets matched up with an opponent in a worldwide tournament such as a lowly-ranked Anguilla team, there are alternate markets to look at instead of avoiding the game altogether.

Sportsbook operators offer a large variety of prop betting options outside traditional money line odds, which can have an impact on your soccer betting strategy.

These alternative markets are sometimes the only option when the difference in talent is drastic. For example, if Brazil is -500 against Anguilla in a national team matchup, a customer has a few alternate markets to choose from to get the odds somewhat digestible.

Picking Neymar to score and Brazil to win may be as low as -300 compared to the original -500. Another selection could be Brazil to win the first half and win the second half if a dominant performance is expected between the two.

If the match plays out how the sportsbook operators expect it to, combining Brazil props that create a narrative of them dominating can help knock an otherwise unattractive betting odds number.

Soccer Betting Strategy #2: Bet on the Underdog Sparingly

More casual soccer bettors reveal themselves when large tournaments such as the World Cup are on. Customers that do not regularly wager on soccer throughout the year will wager on soccer for the first time when the worldwide events are center stage.

These are also the times when the mismatches show up the most. Although it does happen, it is infrequent that the weaker sides in these tournaments advance very far, so it is not the best strategy to hatch onto a dream story or scenario even if there is a flash in the pan result or two.

If there is reason to take an underdog in these types of matches, finding an alternate market such as the underdog team to score first, may be profitable.

Instead of the less quality team outperforming a powerhouse for 90 minutes, all that is needed is a brilliant run or a magical strike to go on the board early. It’s a healthy soccer betting strategy.

Soccer Betting Strategy #3: Live Bet Favorites With Slow Starts

The above soccer betting strategy scenario lends itself to taking one of those powerhouse teams if they for some reason go down early in the match. There is certainly a difference for a team to be outplayed for 20 minutes instead of 90 minutes.

If there is a -500 favorite, and they go down 1-0 and the first half is close to ending, it may be discouraging to wager on them considering they haven't had many scoring chances in one half.

But more often than not the powerhouse teams come through, and customers can find windows of opportunities even though they have a sluggish start.

SportsMemo Has Soccer Picks!

Remember! Sportsmemo offers soccer betting picks in our free soccer picks and premium expert soccer betting predictions sections all year long.

Looking for more free sports picks and sports betting tips?

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