By:Jens
2009-10-14

Betting on football matches on betting exchanges can be a bewildering experience to the novice gambler. There are almost limitless options available for the punter to avail themselves of in their quest for a winning bet.

The simplest bet available is probably the match odds. These are expressed as a decimal which may confuse some punters who are used to fractional odds, however many exchanges, such as Betfair, will provide you with the odds as a fraction if you move your mouse over the price on show.  In this bet you have the three possible outcomes of the match, team A win, team B win or the draw with the odds shown for each outcome.

In addition to this bet you can wager on the correct score of the game, how many goals in total there will be in the game, what the score will be at half time, whether there is likely to be over or under 3.5 goals in the game, how many goals will be scored in each half, what the half time score will be, who will score the first goal, who will be leading the match at half time/ full time and indeed many others, some including special markets for key games.

However the betting exchanges also offer the punter a chance to gamble in many other ways. Asian handicap systems are now in place on many exchanges allowing punters to bet on the outcome of a match that perhaps didn’t offer good value previously. More companies, such as Betfair, are also providing the opportunities for punters to have multiple bets, such as doubles or trebles on certain games.

Another attraction to betting on football on the betting exchanges is that you can also lay against an outcome. So you no longer have to bet on a team to win, but you can bet against them winning by laying a bet against them.

The huge flexibility offered on betting exchanges for the punter to bet in the traditional sense on a huge variety of matches across the globe, but also to be able to experiment with betting in a variety of new ways, against other punters and without the need for a third party bookmaker, make football betting on betting exchanges the best way for a punter to maximise their chances of changing their stake into a healthy profit!