Betting on football is very simple. Once you have selected a betting site (we recommend any of the above sites) all you need to do is then choose a market, choose a bet and set how much you want to place. Most betting sites will give you a forecast of how much you will win depending on your stake so you can get an idea of your exact returns.

If you are new to betting on soccer then diving into a big betting site such as Bet365 and seeing over 100 markets on a single game can be a little intimidating, if not a little confusing. There are so many betting opportunities it’s sometimes hard to keep track. Below we have listed some of the more popular betting markets for football along with a simple explanation.

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Match Betting – The most popular and simplest of markets. Simply pick the outcome of the match by betting on a win, lose or draw for either team.

Half Time/Full Time – This market allows you to pick the result at half time and then again the result at full time.

Draw No Bet – The draw no bet market basically eliminates the draw as a result. If the game ends as a draw then your stake is returned.

Number of Corners – The market will allow you to bet on the total number of corners in a match. More often than not you will get 3 brackets to pick; a less than x number, between x and x, and greater than x.

Sending Off – Pretty simple, select if there will be a red card in the match, usually a straightforward yes or no is suffice.

Correct Score – Select the correct score of the game at the final whistle.

Over or Under Goals Market – A favourite for many punters is selecting whether there will be over or under a certain amount of goals in the match. Usually between O/U 1.5, O/U 2.5, O/U 3.5 and O/U 4.5

Next Goal – this market will turn live at the start of the match and you bet on which team you think will score the next goal.

Clean Sheet – You can choose, if any, which team will keep a clean sheet in the match.

Goalscorer Markets – You can choose between the first goalscorer of the game, a player to score anytime in the game or a player to score the last goal of the game.

Scorecast – The scorecast market allows you to select a player to score anytime and a team to win by a certain score line. Both must be correct win the bet.

Handicap Betting – Handicap betting allows you to level the playing field between the teams by applying a goal handicap. The handicap is added or subtracted from the final scores for each team. So if it were Arsenal (+1) v Manchester City (-1), Arsenal would need two more goals than Man City to win (eg: 4-2). If the match ended 3-2, it would be a draw.

Asian Handicap Betting – Asian Handicap Betting eliminates the posibilty of a draw by applying a handicap containing a fraction such as +/-1.5. In this scenario if it were Liverpool (+0.5) v QPR (-0.5), Liverpool would need to score one more goal than QPR to win, any thing else would be a win for QPR. There is no draw in this market.

Goals Galore – Goals Galore is a relatively new market that involves selecting games in which you think both teams will score. Only certain games are eligible for this market, and it is only available as an accumulator of three or more matches. The payout is relative to the number of matches selected.

Football betting rules can vary from each bookmaker. Before we get into some of the more general and across the board rules, we would recommend that if you have a query or are unsure about something then to contact your bookmaker for a final ruling.

The majority of football betting rules are actually pretty tough to break. If something seems out of place then the bookmaker will likely inform you before you cause and infraction.

It’s worth noting that many online bookmakers have pay-out limits for football betting. These range each bookmaker but can vary from £300,000 maximum pay-out up to £1milllion on a single bet.

All markets take into account injury time and stoppage time in football. So if you back a market which stakes ’90 minutes’ then this will include added time. It will not include extra time or penalty shoot outs and bets will have been settled after the initial 90 minutes.

Games which have been abandoned or postponed will generally be seen as void and your stake returned. Where you have these games as part of an accumulator bet, the games will simply be removed from that accumulator and the odds adjusted accordingly.