Having a little flutter on a football game can add to the excitement of watching the match. Earning a little extra cash when your team win is a nice bonus, or you can back their opponents for some small consolation if it doesn`t go the way you would have liked.
There are many types of bets that you can place, the simplest being picking the winning team, or predicting a draw. This option won`t give you much of a return on your cash however, as the odds are usually somewhere around even for this kind of bet, meaning that you will get £1 profit for each £1 of your stake. You can predict the outcomes of a number of matches to increase your return, but this obviously increases your risk as well.
First goal scorer is a popular type of bet on football matches, for this bet you predict which player will score the first goal. This will give you a better return as there are at least 22 possibilities, although some are, of course, less likely than others which is reflected in the odds. You can also bet on a specific score, or combine the first goal scorer and the actual score to give you an even better return when you get it right. If you are betting on the score, be sure to check the definition as some bookmakers define this as the score at the end of the game, whilst others will use the score after 90 minutes and not take the extra time added for matches that must be decided into account.
Another option is to predict the time of the first goal and this too can be combined with other bets to increase your return. Many bookmakers offer special bets on big games, or special combinations for a group of matches such as England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales all to win if they are playing on the same day or weekend
Deciding what or who to bet on is the hard bit. It is always difficult to separate what you want to happen from what you actually believe will happen. Betting against your team may feel traitorous, but it can also earn you a bit of cash if it goes the wrong way.
Listening to friends is always risky, but at least you can blame someone else if you lose. There are many professional tipsters that will charge you for their predictions, but also plenty of newspapers and online sites where you can get free footy tips so paying for them seems like a waste of money unless you find a tipster with psychic capabilities. In the end anything can happen so go with your gut instinct and have fun!
