Online betting

Betting on football is slowly eroding into betting on horses as the nation’s favourite sport on which to gamble. There are over 9,000 betting shops across Britain and betting on horse racing is the number one sport for amount of money bet and actual number of bets placed. But online betting is a different story. Typically, turnover on horse racing represents about 40-45% of total turnover, the same as football among internet betting companies.
The demographics between offline betting customers and online betting customers account for this difference. Younger, more technically aware people tend to bet online, while those that physically enter off- course betting shops tend to be older, more established gamblers – and these tend to bet more on horse racing.
The increase in football’s percentage of total turnover is a direct result of four key developments over the last ten years.
Firstly, older fans of betting on horses and dogs are quite literally dying out – and this increases football’s percentage.
Secondly, the proliferation of televised football matches has brought more interest over more days of the week than say, a decade ago.
Thirdly, the relaxation of laws regarding bookmakers advertising on television and radio has meant firms can sell their products, services and special offers at key times (i.e.) in an ad break five minutes prior to a big game kicking off
Finally, the internet has meant that both football match/team/player information and betting odds/options have become more accessible than in previous decades.
Some will not remember the days when you simply couldn’t bet on just one game of football, but it’s a relatively short time ago, maybe 16 years, that the game had to be a live televised match for you to be allowed to bet on it. Now you can bet on any match in this country or virtually anywhere around the World.
Over 80% of bets on a football match are on which team will win the game, and only about 5% on what the correct score. There are so many other options that you can also place a bet on that are all derivatives of goals, corners or cards. 888sport offer over 100 individual different markets on every match.
Correct score football betting seems to be quite a difficult market on which to place a bet as there can only be one correct score every match, but each year the most popular score lines tend to repeat themselves. It is very unusual in the Premier League, for instance, that 1-1 or 2-1 doesn’t top the list of most actual scores at the end of the season. 1-0, 2-0, 0-1 and 0-2 come next with 0-0 accounting for roughly 8% of total.
Football betting on the internet is now very popular and over the last few years betting live in play, as the match is in progress, has significantly increased in popularity among football betting customers. As events happen on the pitch, sports betting companies change their odds. For example, when a team scores the first goal of the match the odds compliers, or rather nowadays a computer programme, then puts up the new prices for the match. This can range from the simple who will win the match betting, to the correct score of the match, to which player will score the next goal, which team will have the next corner or even which player will get the next yellow card.
Internet betting on football has never been so easy or popular and there are plenty of online bookmakers offering free bets to get new business. Free bets can come in the form of match up bets where you will get £10 free if you open a betting account with an online bookmaker and then place and/or bet £10 on an event, or free bets can just be given to regular customers as a thank you by the online betting company.