Football Betting Options: Fixed-Odds & Spread Betting

Football is the world’s most popular sport and billions of people enjoy watching the action that unfolds on a weekly basis. Many of them love to bet on football matches, as it often enhances the excitement of watching the action unfold and it also gives them a chance to turn their expertise into a profit. The most common form of football wagering is fixed-odds betting, but spread betting provides punters with an intriguing alternative. These are the top spread betting alternatives to the classic fixed-odds options that many football fans already know and love:

Winner Betting

Betting on the result of a match is by far and away the most popular wager for football fans. The odds compilers will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the two teams and then assign a set of football odds to each outcome: home win, draw and away win. Punters back the result they anticipate, knowing they stand to earn a pre-determined profit if their selection proves to be correct.

The alternative is to check out the Win Index market in the football spread betting. In this instance, a team is given 25 points for winning the match, 10 points for drawing it and 0 points if they lose. Our traders will assign a different spread to each team. Let’s say Liverpool are playing against West Ham at Anfield. You might see a Win Index of 16-17.5 on Liverpool and 6.5-7.75 on West Ham, telling you that Liverpool are the clear favourites.

You can either buy at the higher price if you think the team will win, or sell at the lower price if you think they will struggle. If you bought at 17.5 on Liverpool and they won, you would earn 7.5 times your stake as profit, as they would be assigned 25 points, which is 7.5 above the price you bought for. If they drew, you would lose 7.5 times your stake, as the 10 points they would be given is 7.5 below the price you bought at. If they lost the game, you would lose 17.5 times your stake.

If you sold at 16 on Liverpool and they drew, you would earn 6 times your stake. If they lost you would earn 16 times you stake, but you would incur a loss of nine times your stake if Liverpool won the match. The key difference when it comes to spread betting is that generally the potential for profit and loss is greater than fixed-odds betting. For many punters, this makes the whole process more exciting. You can also check out the Match Supremacy Index as an alternative to the Win Index.

Total Goals Betting

Another hugely popular market involves betting on the total number of goals that will be scored in a particular game. This is a fantastic option if you do not know what the result will be, but you feel it will either be a tight, tense affair, or an open, high-scoring encounter. When it comes to fixed football odds, you can bet on over or under 1.5 goals, 2.5 goals, 3.5 goals and so on, with a different price assigned to each outcome. Once again, you know exactly how much you stand to win or lose.

The alternative is to look at the Total Goals Index in the football spread betting. Our traders might price up the total goals market in a particular game at 2.65-2.85. You can then either sell at 2.65 or buy at 2.85. If you sell, you will hope for a 0-0 draw, as that would earn you 2.65 times your stake. If just one goal is scored, you earn 1.65 times your stake. If two goals are scored, you earn 0.65 times your stake. If there are three goals, you lose 0.35 times your stake, while four goals sees you lose 1.35 times your stake and so on.

If you buy, you will hope for as many goals as possible. If it finishes 5-4, with a total of 9 goals, it would be 7.15 above the price you bought for and you would make 7.15 times your stake. One great advantage of this bet is that it keeps you interested to the final whistle.

If you choose over 2.5 goals in the fixed-odds betting and one team goes 3-0 up after 20 minutes, you would be delighted, but your bet would have already settled. If you had decided instead to buy on the Total Goals Index, you would keep cheering on the strikers, as every additional goal that flew in would boost your overall profit.

Corners Betting

The process is identical for betting on corners. You might decide to bet on over 10.5 corners or under 10.5 corners in a football match at our fixed-odds site. Alternatively, you could find a spread of 10.3-10.8 and choose either to sell at 10.3 or buy at 10.8. The more right you are, the more you win with spread betting. Whereas, with fixed-odds betting you know you only stand to (potentially) lose your stake, whereas spread betting your stake is used as a win and loss multiplier.

There are also some alternative football spread betting options on corners that you might like to explore. They include X Corners, where we multiply the home team’s total corners by the away team’s total corners to arrive at the result; or Corners Squared, where 9 corners in the match would settle at 81 (9 x 9), 10 corners, results in a total settle of 100 and so on. You can also bet on the time of the first corner, team corners, first-half corners and more.

Handicap Betting

Many punters like to give one team a handicap in order to gain more value from their bet. This is particularly popular if one team is the clear favourite. You will find a more attractive set of odds when betting on a team with a -1, -2 or -3 handicap than you would by simply betting on then to win the match. There is also a great alternative when it comes to spread betting.

You might see Arsenal given a Win Index of 16.5-18 to beat Burnley. You might then see a price of 10.5-12 on Arsenal -1 in the Handicap Index, and a price 5-6.5 on Arsenal -2. If you think Arsenal will win by three or more goals, you could buy on Arsenal -2 at 6.5. If they pull if off, you would earn 18.5 times your stake, as opposed to earning 7 times your stake by simply buying Arsenal in the Win Index. The Match Supremacy Index is another interesting alternative to handicap betting, because the more your chosen team wins by, the greater the pay-out you receive.

Goalscorer Betting Markets

Predicting the first goalscorer, last goalscorer or anytime goalscorer in a particular match is also hugely popular among football fans and those who bet on the fixed-odds.

A really exciting spread betting alternative is the Player Goal Minutes market. Let’s say you think Jamie Vardy will have a great game against Everton. You might find a Goal Minutes spread of 12-15 on him, allowing you to sell at 12 or buy at 15. If you think he will struggle and not score, you can sell at 12, but if you think he will score multiple goals or potentially score late in the game, buy at 15.

If he scores one goal on 20 minutes, you would be 5 over the price you bought at and earn 5 times your stake. A £10 bet would earn you £50. If he only scores once and it comes on 12 minutes, you would be 3 below the price you bought at and lose £30. If he scores on 25 minutes, 72 minutes and 88 minutes, his total goals minutes would be 185, as each goal time is added together. You would therefore be 170 over the price you bought at and earn 170 times your stake.

This is just a snippet of what is on offer and there are literally thousands of great fixed-odds and spread betting football markets up for grabs and the good news is Sporting Index offers both! – You can find all the latest football spread betting and football odds here.