posted April 22, 2008 at 14:15 in Soccer Props

The North American online sports betting community loves betting on football, more specifically on the NFL. Let us face it – it is unofficially a national sport, if you will. However, with the NFL season over, and the coming NFL season scheduled to start in the fall of 2008, many NFL betting enthusiasts in North America are left bereft. For those die-hard sports bettors there is always the option to dabble with betting on MLB, NBA, NHL or even Golf, Tennis and the UFC – all of which are excellent sports betting alternatives. However, for all you footballers wanting a little more football action then let me just put this out there for you: betting on football is available year-round at BetUS Sportsbook. Get out! “How come,” do you ask? Well there is this other “Maaajah” worldwide sport that you may have heard of, also called football, but you may recognize it better as ...wait for it....drum roll please...”Soccer.” Cue: ahhhh!

Now in North America there is the Major Soccer League (MLS), which is alright and all and the recent import of a “proper English gentleman” David Beckham, at an exorbitant price tag by Los Angeles Galaxy, was a move by the team, pulling out all the stops, to elevate their Leagues international prestige. On a global scale though, soccer betting (or football betting, as it is known everywhere but in North America) is one of the most popular forms of sport betting activities that unites peoples around the world in their common passion for the sport. In fact, it may surprise you to know that in Europe, betting on soccer is the equivalent of professional football betting in the United States. Uuuber popular! And fans of the sport have various betting options available to them – from betting on Soccer Leagues in the form of the English Premiership, Spain Liga, Italian Serie A, Bundesliga and much, much more to betting on major competitions like Champions League, UEFA CUP , Euro Cup and FIFA World Cup... and much, much more....

So why should you bet on Soccer? Well if the year-round nature of the sport and the wide assortment of betting options is not reason enough, then the following may give you some added incentive.

At first glance, it may be intimidating to bet on soccer, what with all the different teams, soccer leagues and competitions available to choose from, a novice bettor may not know where to start. But before you get wary of all the soccer betting options, forget the teams, leagues and competitions for a moment. Let’s talk about soccer odds and soccer lines first.

The foremost thing you need to know is that soccer betting is similar to betting on baseball or the NHL, in that odds makers use the money line to set soccer odds. But there is one significant difference between the three; that is, in soccer betting, not only can you place a wager on either team, you can also bet on the draw.

Example of a Soccer line: Manchester United -150 Chelsea +400 Draw +250

In this example, if you wager on Manchester United, you will risk $15.00 to win $10.00. If you bet on Chelsea, you would win $40.00 for every $10.00 you risked if your team wins. If you lay your money down on the draw, then you stand to win $25.00 for every $10.00 risked.

Another example of a Soccer line: Liverpool +135 Chelsea +185 Draw + 220

The above example is a money line you would never see in baseball or hockey – both teams are underdogs. The reason for this is the strong possibility of a tie match.

Other Soccer betting options:

It is no secret that when North Americans bet on the NFL, their preferred method of betting is on the spread and the over/under. Well it may please you to know that bookies offer spreads and over/under odds on soccer as well.

On many soccer matches, bookies will offer total (over/under) odds, so that a bettor can wager over or under a certain number of goals scored in a match. Typically, the number for these types of bets is 2.5. Therefore, a bettor betting on the over would need three goals to be scored to win his bet, while a bettor betting on the under could have no more than two goals scored in a match to win his bet.

Future betting is another option available in soccer betting, typically used in competitions. When betting on futures, a bettor is betting on a team to win outright a competition (lift the coveted silverware they are vying for) or to win a matchup in the knockout stage of the completion that requires more than one round (known as legs in soccer) to determine the winner.

Several soccer matches will have proposition bets available, such as the team to score first or the time of the first goal and so forth. Proposition bets are for knowledgeable soccer bettors who know well the soccer teams they are betting on. If you are a novice soccer bettor, you may want to hold off on these for a while.

So there you have it, the basics of soccer betting. I am sure you will agree with me that when taken in the right context, betting on soccer is not so intimidating after all. The practice is the same as with any other sport you may be familiar with betting on and if you are familiar with the basics of sports betting, you should have no trouble plunging into the plethora of soccer betting options

So the only other thing left to do is a little bit of research on the teams, soccer leagues and competitions. For those of you die-hard sports betting fans, I am sure you will not shrink away from doing a little bit of homework, particularly when you can not only perpetuate your love of football betting throughout the year, but also make a lot of money doing it.

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