How to Bet on Soccer Games: A Complete Soccer Betting Guide
How to Bet on Soccer
Soccer is one of the most popular sports to bet on, with sportsbooks offering a wide range of betting markets for leagues and tournaments around the world. Whether you're betting on the Premier League, MLS, Champions League, or the FIFA World Cup, understanding soccer betting odds and markets can help you make more informed wagers.
This guide explains how to bet on soccer, including moneyline bets, totals, player props, futures, parlays, and live betting.
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Soccer Moneyline Betting
Typically when you think of moneyline, you think of betting on Team A or Team B to win. With soccer, sportsbooks typically offer a three-way moneyline market: Team A, Team B, or Draw.
Because draw has moneyline odds listed, even if the team you bet on doesn’t lose and draws, it’s graded as a loss rather than a push. Since there are more options for how a match can be decided compared to a two-way market, however, bettors will get better prices when there’s three options versus if there were only two.
The other thing to keep in mind is if the match is in a knockout or elimination game of a major tournament. The three-way moneyline market (Team A, Team B, or draw) only applies to the first 90 minutes of the match plus stoppage time.
So if Team B advances on penalty kicks or scores the game-winning goal in extra time, draw would be the winning soccer moneyline bet since the game was tied after 90 minutes plus stoppage time.
If Team B had scored the game-winning goal two minutes into stoppage time, Team B would be the winning moneyline bet since stoppage time scoring counts for this market.
Soccer Totals Betting
If you want to focus on how many goals are scored in a game, betting totals is for you. You can either wager on the over or under of a game’s total, which is why this market is also often referred to as the over/under.
Let’s say you bet the over on a total of 2, and Team A beats Team B 2-1. Since the match finished with 3 goals, your over bet has cashed. On the flip side, if you bet under 2 and it ends as a 0-0 draw (or 0 combined goals), your under bet has cashed. Now if the score ended up being 1-1, that means 2 pushed and you would get your original stake back.
Soccer Team/Game Prop Betting
One popular soccer market is “Both Teams to Score” or BTTS. It’s just like it sounds, you either bet on “YES” or NO” for both teams to score. If you take YES, you need both teams to score in the first 90 minutes plus stoppage time. If you choose NO, either one or zero teams can score in the first 90 minutes plus stoppage time to cash your bet.
Other props available include total corners (where you can bet over or under a team’s number of corners in a match) and correct score (where you bet on what the final score of a match will be after 90 minutes plus stoppage time).
Soccer Futures Betting
A soccer futures bet is when you bet on something that takes place in the future or will be determined later in the season compared to the current slate. For popular leagues like the Premier League, La Liga or Major League Soccer, you can wager on futures markets such as winner and top goal scorer.
For major tournaments such as the World Cup, Euros or Copa America, there are futures available like tournament winner, group winner, top goal scorer and much more.
Here is a list of soccer futures available at Fanatics Sportsbook for MLS:
Best Soccer Team Markets to Bet On
Both Teams to Score
This is exactly what it sounds like, by betting on both teams to score, you are betting on both sides to score at least one goal in the match. The result could be 1-1, 2-1, 2-2, 3-3, or any other combination, as long as both sides contribute to the scoring. You can also back both teams to score no, which is essentially betting on at least one of the two teams not to score in the match.
Corners
Many sportsbooks have a wide range of corner markets for soccer, including total corners, team corners, and most corners. To pick a corners bet, look at recent corner data for each side, as well as formations. Teams that attack from their wide areas a lot tend to generate more corners.
Cards
Likewise, you can bet on cards in soccer, with popular card markets including total cards, team cards, and most cards. Again, it’s important to look at recent card counts of both sides, as well as card counts in the head-to-head games. Another key point to research when picking a cards bet is referee stats, some referees are stricter than others, which could lend itself to a cards bet.
Best Soccer Player Prop Markets to Bet On
Player Shots / Shots on Target
This is perhaps the most popular player prop market for soccer bettors. Betting on player shots or shots on target can be an entertaining and profitable way of betting on soccer. As expected, attacking players are often priced short for shots and shots on target, and there can be excellent value in taking defenders and midfielders to register shots.
Player Fouls
Player fouls is another popular player prop market, with many sportsbooks offering a range of both players fouls committed and player fouls drawn lines for soccer. The best way to pick a player fouls bet is to analyze player matchups and look at recent foul data of each player. For example, if Chelsea’s left winger has drawn a foul in each of their last four games and their direct opponent has committed multiple fouls in recent matches, it might be worth betting on the Chelsea player to be fouled once again.
Anytime Goalscorer
Player to score markets are popular options and tend to offer higher odds than both player shots and player fouls lines. There are several options in the player to score markets, including player to score first, player to score anytime, and player to score 2+ goals. Player to score bets are often combined into multi-game parlays.
You can bet on anytime goalscorer soccer lines at Fanatics Sportsbook.
Goalkeeper Saves
This is a newer market, but a strong one that can provide plenty of value when soccer betting. Betting on goalkeeper saves can be an excellent option when there is a clear mismatch between two teams, and there isn’t much value in betting on the favorites on the moneyline.
For example, Man City might be heavy favorites to beat Burnley at home, but there could be some value in Burnley goalkeeper saves as an alternative bet.
Player Cards
Player cards are another popular soccer market that can offer strong value, especially when combined into same-game or multi-game parlays. It can be difficult to predict a player card, hence why the odds on these markets tend to provide more value. The best way to research player card bets is to look at player fouls committed and player fouls won data over recent matches and seasons.
Other Popular Soccer Markets to Bet On
Live Betting
Live betting is where you place your soccer bets while the match in ongoing. Typically, soccer bets are placed pre-match, but live betting allows you to wager bets after the game has started – you can bet on a wide range of team and player prop markets with live betting.
Same-Game Parlays
Same-game parlays are a fun and popular way to bet on soccer. Same-game parlays are made up of multiple selections, often a mix of team and player picks, from the same event or game.
A same-game parlay for a USAMNT game might look like this:
USA to Win
Both Teams to Score
Christian Pulisic to Have 1+ Shots on Target
Weston McKennie to Receive a Card
Multi-Game Parlays
Similar to same-game parlays, multi-game parlays are made up of bets across two or more soccer matches. Again, they can be solely team markets or player prop markets, or a mixture of both.
A multi-game parlay might look like this:
New York City FC Moneyline
Philadelphia Union Moneyline
Real Salt Lake Moneyline
Minnesota United vs San Diego FC - Tie Moneyline
You can bet on same-game parlays and multi-game parlays at Fanatics Sportsbook.
What to Consider Before Placing Your Soccer Bets
Team News
This is perhaps the most important factor to consider before placing your soccer bets. You might like a team to win on paper, but after a deeper look, you see that they are missing several key players through suspension or injury.
Best Odds
To get as much value as possible from your soccer bets, it’s vital to shop around for the best odds. The odds on both team and player bets can vary widely across sportsbooks, so it’s important to do your due diligence to find which sportsbook is offering the strongest odds. Fanatics Sportsbook offer competitive odds, so can always be relied on for all of your soccer bets.
Team & Player Form
Before placing your bets, it’s important to look at how your selections have been performing of late. You might like a team's chances of winning, and after taking a deeper look, see that they are winless in their last five matches.
Likewise, you might like a player to have a shot on target, which may not have landed for several games. Doing additional research like this can also help you find new betting angles and locate valuable information.