So you’d like to bet on European football (soccer)?  You’re not alone. Millions of Euros are put down on European
football matches every year.

 Thanks to online sportsbooks, anyone can get in on the action. It’s just as easy as playing Holdem at Full Tilt Poker.

Before you start though, it s a good idea to know just how European football betting works.

Betting on Football

If you’ve bet on American football before, you probably have an idea of how sports betting goes. In American football, one team is favored by a certain number of points. This number is called the point spread. If that team wins by more than that many points, a bet on that team wins. If it does not, a bet on the other team wins.

Another way of betting on American football is the money line. If Team A is -140 and Team B is +120, it means Team A is the favorite, and you have to wager $140 on Team A to win $100. Team B is the underdog, and you can bet
$100 on them to win $120. But these methods do not quite work for European football.

Betting on European Football

The problem with betting on European football is that goal differentials even for big mismatches can be quite small. Giving almost any team a two goal advantage is too much of an edge. This makes a point spread system unworkable.

The money line becomes a problem too because of the prevalence of draws. The solution is a European football
money line that takes draws into account.

European Football Lines

That being the case, a European football line looks something like this:

Manchester United -210, Draw +120, Chelsea +160.

This means that to bet on Man United you would have to wager $210 to win $100,  while a bet on Chelsea to win would net you $160 for a $100 bet. If you believe the game will end in a tie, you can bet the draw, which would
win you $120 for your $100 wager.

It’s important to remember that since you can bet on the draw, a bet on one of the teams will lose if the game ends tied; it will not be a push as it might be in some other sports where there is no draw option.