Best betting sites >> Online Football Betting Sites

You will also find that some sportsbooks cater for different football bettors in relation to the different markets that they offer and if you are someone who is wondering how to bet on football, don’t worry because it is all very straightforward.

For example, it could be that you have an interest in football matches which take place in the Iceland Urvalsdeild league, and whilst some sportsbooks will be happy to offer attractive odds in this market, some sportsbooks will not even consider these markets because they will state that there is just not enough interest.

So with that in mind, let’s take a closer look at which betting site is best for football and in particular, what you should look out for before you decide to open and fund an account at the best football website.

Football Betting Markets Explained

If you take a look at any Premier League football fixture, you will see that there are several hundred football betting markets to choose from.

Read that again: several hundred individually priced football betting markets that give you, the punter, the opportunity to pit your wits against the “old enemy”.

Gone are the days when the only football betting markets punters were interested in were those relating to who was going to win the match, as you are about to discover. Тhere are now so many opportunities for the astute football punter to put their football knowledge to good use.

• Match result – This is the market we all know and love. Also known as the 1X2, it is a simple bet on who will win the match. Let’s look at an example: Arsenal are playing newly promoted Coventry City in a Premier League match. Arsenal are the odds-on favourites at ½ (1.50), Coventry are available at 7/1 (8.0), and the odds for the draw are 4.1 (5.0). You fancy a shock result, so back Coventry for £10; if they win, you will receive £80, £70 profit plus your £10 stake.
• Both Teams to Score – This can be such a lucrative market; it is a simple choice, Yes or No. Chelsea are playing Nottingham Forest; you think Chelsea will win, but Forest will put up a good fight. So, you place a bet on “Both Teams to Score – yes”. Other markets are available within the main “Both Teams to Score” market. Result and Both Teams to Score being one of them.
• Over and Unders – This market began as over/under 2.5 goals, but there are now many more options available, over/under goals 0.5, 1.5, 3.5, 4.5 etc. This is a market that is very easy to understand: if you back over 2.5 in a match and the final score is 2 – 1 (3 goals), your bet is a winner. If the score ends in a draw at 1 – 1, your bet is a loser (2 goals).
• Correct Score – The odds on correct score betting are higher because they are harder to predict, so there is a case for saying that it would be advisable to use lower stakes and bet on low-scoring matches, 1 – 0, 2 – 1 for example. If you think that a Premier League match will end in a draw, it would be a good idea to place a bet on the 1 – 1 scoreline as just over 40% of matches that end in a draw have a scoreline of 1 – 1.
• Goalscorer Markets – This is a hugely popular market where you will often find a variation in odds, so it makes sense to shop around to ensure you get the best price possible. There are several options within the Goalscorer markets, including first and last scorer, player to score more than one goal, as well as player to score a hat trick. A prime example of this is the Double Delight and Hatrick Heaven offer from Betfred. If you back a player in the first goalscorer market, they score first and then go on to score again, the bet is settled at double the odds; if they go on to score a third goal (hat trick), the bet pays out at triple the odds.
• Handicap Betting (Standard and Asian) – Standard handicap betting gives one team a virtual head start, such as +1 goal, or puts the favourite at a disadvantage, such as -1 goal, with the draw still available as a possible result. Asian handicap football betting removes the draw in most cases, so you are generally betting on one team or the other. Quarter lines, including +0.25 and -0.75, split your stake equally across the two nearest whole and half-goal handicaps.
• Corners and Cards – The basis of corner markets is how many corners there are in a match, often in the form of overs and unders, but there are several other markets such as first half corners, etc. As for cards, over and unders also play a big part, as well as player cards and whether a red card will be awarded or not, Yes/No.
• Accumulator – Go into a pub in the UK on a Saturday afternoon, and it often seems like everyone is looking at their phone in anticipation that their Accumulator will come in. When you consider the payout on a £10 five-leg Acca with odds of 3.0, 2.5. 4.5, 4.5. 3.0 pays out £4,556.25, you can see why this kind of bet is so popular.
• Outrights – This is an extremely popular bet at the start of the season, and there are probably more outright markets than you first thought. Premier League winner, top 6, bottom 6, relegation, highest finishing team in each region, the list goes on. And if you can think of any specific outcome, there will probably be a market available for you to bet on.

All football betting has a large number of markets to get involved with, but it is the Premier League, Champions League, and international tournament fixtures that have the most.

Leagues and Competitions You Can Bet On

When you first visit the football betting section of a betting site, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming because of the sheer number of football matches that are covered. Don’t worry, though; it is all pretty straightforward and can basically be divided into three categories, so let’s start with the domestic leagues.

The first category is UK football, which includes Premier League betting, The Championship, Leagues 1 and 2, along with the lower divisions such as the National League and National League North and South and the Isthmian League. Scottish football also falls into this category, along with domestic competition, the FA Cup, EFL Cup, the Scottish Cup, amongst others.

The next category is the main European leagues and international competitions, so we are looking at the World Cup betting, the Euros, Champions League betting and the major leagues including La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. We have seen massive interest in European football betting over the past few years as savvy punters look for betting opportunities outside of the domestic leagues.

Finally, there are betting opportunities on the lower leagues from Europe and around the world on teams that you have probably never even heard of. A case in point is Iceland’s Úrvalsdeild. Are you familiar with FH Hafnarfjörður or KA Akureyri? No, neither were we until we started betting on that league, but the savvy punter will be able to find loads of betting opportunities in lower leagues like these.

Not all bookies cover these leagues, which is one of the reasons why it is always worth opening multiple betting accounts; it can be so infuriating if you spot a betting opportunity in one of these matches only to realise that the bookie you are using doesn’t cover betting in that league or competition. By the time you have found a bookie that does and opened an account, the odds have changed, and the opportunity is lost.

How to Sign Up and Place Your First Football Bet

If you have never opened a bookie account or placed an online bet before, don’t worry because it’s a piece of cake, so follow the football betting for beginners guide below.

• Choose a bookie to open an account with. Make sure they are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). Please note that every bookie on our site is fully licensed and recommended by us.
• Follow the simple steps to open an account, which basically involves entering your personal details, name, address, date of birth and telephone number, for example. A quick tip is to enter your name exactly as it appears on your passport/driving licence. So, don’t enter your name as Johny Smith if it is John James Smith on your passport.
• When you have entered your details, the bookie will carry out a check on your age and identity. If they can’t confirm this, you will be required to send in photos of your ID and a utility bill to confirm that you are who you say you are. This is a perfectly normal requirement by the UKGC and is called a KYC (Know Your Customer) check, and not the bookie being difficult.
• The next step before you deposit into your account is to set a deposit limit that you are comfortable with. This is put in place so that you never bet with more than you are comfortable with; we have this activated on every betting account we have.
• Deposit into your account using a debit card or a web wallet such as Skrill or NETELLER. Credit card deposits are not allowed in the UK.
• To make your first bet, choose your selection, click on the odds, and the bet slip will automatically open. Decide on your stake and place the bet.

As you can see, how to bet on football is a very simple process; our only other bit of advice would be to start with small win-only bets and small stakes whilst you are getting used to online football betting.

Football Odds and Why the Bookmaker Margin Matters

Punters often find Bookmaker margins a confusing matter, and we admit to our eyes glazing over when someone tried to explain it to us for the first time, so we thought that the best way to explain the best football odds to you is to give you an example. Before we go any further, though, always remember that the lower the margin, the better for the punter.

Liverpool are at home to Manchester United in a Premier League fixture. Liverpool are the slight favourites at 2.45, the odds on Manchester United are 2.75, and the draw is available at 3.40. To work out the bookies’ margin, divide 100 by the odds, which gives the following percentages and then add them up.

Liverpool 40.82%, Draw 29.41%, Manchester United 36.36%, which gives a total margin of 6.59%. That kind of bookmaker margin is typical of Premier League betting, where the average is around 4% – 9% for each match. The lower the margin, is what punters should be looking for because it will mean that the odds of at least one outcome are out of line, offering an opportunity to gain value.

Occasionally, you will find arbitrage opportunities with the best football odds, so if the total margin is below 100%, 96% for example, it would mean that a punter could place bets on every outcome of a match and make a profit of 4% whichever team wins the match.

Another way of taking advantage of a high bookie overround is to place an Accumulator using these superior odds because the value is stacked up with each leg.

So, there you have it, football odds explained, and as you can see, it is all pretty straightforward.

Use the Best Betting Sites for Football That Are Not Here Today, Gone Tomorrow!

When looking for the best football websites that are out there, it is easy to forget about the fundamentals and be blinded by the need to be able to bet at the very best possible prices. Let’s think outside of the box for a minute.

If you were a scammer and you wanted to open a sportsbook which offered the best football bets you would try and bypass being regulated by associations such as the Gambling Commission or the UK regulatory bodies and you would offer prices on football gambling, which are far more generous than any astute punter would be able to find elsewhere.

You would also run some Facebook ads which targeted people who are interested in how to bet on football, take their money and then run off into the sunset with your pockets full of unsuspecting people’s cash!

This scenario probably sounds to be a little bit far-fetched, but it is unfortunately not; there are some undesirable businesses out there who will go to great lengths to persuade the unwary punter to part with his or her hard earned cash.

It is therefore vitally important that you take the time to check that a sportsbook ticks all of the relevant boxes in terms of the regulatory bodies that it is a member of because you can be assured that checks will have been made to ensure that all of the strict requirements have been met.

It goes without saying that all of the best betting sites are extremely safe to bet with, but problems can arise if you start looking at offers from sportsbooks which give their contact details as the equivalent of a postal address in the back streets of Khabaristan!

Without further ado though, let’s take a look at the best football betting sites and why you should consider them for your football gambling requirements.

Licensing, Regulation and Responsible Gambling

As time has progressed, the UK Gambling Commission regulations as well as responsible gambling provisions have improved, and whilst we questioned some of their plans back in the day, we must say we are impressed with how things have turned out.

We are lucky in the UK in that all bookies have to be licensed in order to operate. But if you ever see a new bookie pop up that may have slipped through the net, scroll down to the bottom of their website and copy the UKGC licence number, and then go to the UKGC website and you will see a search option where you can enter the number to find out the details of the betting site. If no bookie can be found using those details, do yourself a favour and leave that particular bookie well alone.

Always remember, only place bets with UKGC licensed betting sites; if you stick to that simple rule, you won’t go far wrong.

Responsible gambling resources have also come on leaps and bounds; you will see a Responsible Gambling link on all UKGC-licensed bookies, which contains useful resources that will help if you are experiencing problems with your online gambling, or simply phone 0808 8020 133 if you would rather speak to someone.

We were pleased to see the ban on credit card deposits for online gambling is 2020 because, in our opinion, betting with borrowed money was a recipe for disaster. There is also the option of registering with GAMSTOP, which will prevent punters from logging in to existing accounts or opening new ones. It sounds extreme, but it can prove to be a lifesaver for some people.

Cash Out, Bet Builders, Early Payouts and Other Features Worth Having

You will find several features available when placing bets with UK bookies; some of these are better than others, so we will share our opinion as to whether these features are worth shouting home about or not.

• Cash Out – This is the feature where you can cash out a bet on a football match to either lock in a profit or limit a loss. We often use cash out betting, and as an example, if there are 10 minutes left to play and your selection is winning 1 – 0, if the cash out figure is acceptable, we will hit the button to lock in the profit. It is when the cash out is available on an Accumulator bet that it starts to get a bit stressful. If you have an Acca that will pay out £2k if successful, each leg is winning with 10 minutes to go, and a cash out figure of £600 is available, what do you do? If you take the cash out and the bet goes on to win, you will be disappointed, but if you let the bet run and a last-minute goal means that it’s a losing bet, you will be devastated! Decisions, decisions, but it’s all part of the fun of betting, isn’t it?
• Bet Builders – Bet Builder football bets are all the rage at the moment, with most bookies offering Bet Builder incentives in one form or another. To place one of these bets, click on the Bet Builder option on a football match and add various outcomes, for example, team to win, total goals, total bookings, etc. It is basically an Accumulator bet on the same football match. Be sure to check the minimum number of Bet Builder legs allowed for each bookie, especially if you are claiming a bonus.
• Early Payouts – This option was pioneered by the likes of Paddy Power and bet365, but numerous bookies now offer an early payout option in the form of the 2 Up early payout offer. Don’t get this mixed up with Cash Out because the way it works is that if you back a team to win a match and they go 2 goals up, the bet is paid out as a winner.
• Live Streaming – The majority of bookies offer live streaming on various European Leagues with the requirement that you need to have placed a bet of at least £1 on the match. Do check though as different bookies have different requirements. There is a delay of the real-time action, commonly a few seconds. Still, we have experienced delays of up to 30 seconds before, so we always use live streaming for entertainment purposes rather than using it to place a bet.

Some of these features are so good that they can be the deciding factor when it comes to choosing a bookie when the odds are the same. For example, we rarely place a football match-winner bet unless the bookmaker offers a 2 Up early payout.

In-Play Football Betting

Football betting markets go in-play as soon as the match starts. As well as 1X2 betting, you can bet on a wide range of other in-play football betting markets.

Before getting involved with live football betting, you should be aware that the odds can move very quickly as soon as something happens in the match. When a goal is scored, for example, the odds change more or less instantly, but when something seemingly minor happens that could have an effect on the outcome of the match, the betting market is suspended. This can be infuriating at times, but it is all part of the in-play football betting experience.

As mentioned earlier, it is not advisable to base any live football betting decisions on live streaming because of the time lag. Still, we often find that the Cash Out option can be useful as soon as a goal is scored or a red card is issued if your bet is in profit at that particular time.

Football Betting Strategy, Doing the Homework

We have always said that doing your homework for up-and-coming football matches is so important and will pay dividends over the course of a football season. We always start by looking at the most recent results, but a mistake that punters sometimes make is not putting the results into context.

For example, Leeds United may have lost three and drawn one of their last four matches, which on face value is a poor run of form, but further investigation may show that the four games were against teams at the top of the table. Each defeat was by a narrow margin, which puts a completely different angle on the form study.

The next part of our football betting strategy is to look at team selection and injury news when the line-ups are announced one hour before kick-off. It is not unusual to find out an influential player is injured at the last minute, so this can obviously affect the betting.

The next step is to treat any football betting tips with caution, stick to your original football betting strategy and resist the urge to bet on the team you support; we have all done this from time to time, and for us anyway, it usually ends in tears.

When it comes to placing your bets, you must stick to your staking plan. We swear by using 5% of the betting bank on each selection and evaluate when the betting bank increases or decreases by £100. As an example, if we start with a betting bank of £1000, we will be placing bets of £50; if the bank rises to £1100, each bet will increase to £55; if the bank goes down to £900, each bet will be £45. It doesn’t matter what size your bank is; you could have £100, and the same principle applies: 5% on each bet.

Another option that has proven popular over the years is the Kelly Criterion, which is basically a staking plan that calculates how much of your bank should be staked on a selection based on how likely you believe the bet is to win. The bigger the odds, the bigger the stake, so many punters use what is known as a half or quarter Kelly to reduce the risk.

Promotions Explained, Reading the Small Print

Only a few years ago, bookie bonuses mainly consisted of a welcome bonus, and that was just about it! How times have changed, because there are now so many promotions for existing customers; it is nearly impossible to take advantage of them all, which is obviously great news for punters.

• Free bets – Free bets are one of the most basic bonuses, common with welcome offers and reload bonuses. To have the free bets explained more clearly, an example could be: place a £10 bet and, once your bet has been settled, receive a £10 bonus. These bonuses are usually Stake Not Returned (SNR), which means the bonus is not included in the return if your bet wins. As with all bonuses, check the terms and conditions because there is usually a minimum odds requirement and the free bet is usually valid for seven days.
• Acca Insurance – When placing an Accumulator bet, we always look for an Acca insurance bookie. The way these insurance offers work is that if one leg of the Acca lets you down, you will receive your stake back as a free bet. Check the maximum bet allowed for this insurance as the condition can vary between bookies.
• Odds boosts – Most of the top bookies promote odds boosts on major sporting events and on selected football matches throughout the season. For example, the odds on Ollie Watkins to get a shot on target in the match between Aston Villa and Chelsea could be 1.30, but odds are increased to 2.0 for the odds boost. These boosts are popular with matched bettors as they can lay the best on a betting exchange and lock in a profit before the match even starts.
• Money back specials – Money back specials are not as common as the promotions that we have already looked at, but the way they work is to refund the stake on a certain event as a free bet. This could be a named player scoring, for example.

A word of warning before we continue though: don’t forget that bookies are trying to make money. So, if all you do in your betting account is take advantage of bonuses and promotions, you may find that your account becomes restricted in terms of how much money you can wager, or you may not be allowed to take part in any more promotions.

Everything You Will Ever Need with bet365

bet365.com are one of the most reputable sportsbooks on the market, so everything has been taken care of in terms of them meeting all of the regulatory requirements.

There is one extremely infuriating aspect of this sportsbook when it comes to football gambling, and that is because, in their wisdom, bet365.com refer to football as soccer!

Being based in Stoke on Trent they should know only too well that football is referred to as soccer across the pond, in the UK, which is by far their biggest market, football is football, end of story!

We can forgive them for that mistake because when it comes to the top UK football betting sites, bet365 will take an awful lot of beating.

When you first click on the ‘soccer’ section of the website, your first thoughts will probably be that there are numerous football matches which involve teams that you will have never heard of. It would be fair to say that whatever football matches are taking place anywhere around the world, bet365 will have it covered.

Even obscure matches are priced up to offer multiple markets so if you have any kind of interest in foreign and even ‘under 21’ matches, bet365 will have you covered.

If live football betting is of particular interest to you, bet365 always have a wide selection of live football matches on offer which are streamed live. You need to have an account and be logged in to be able to watch these live matches, the quality really is first-class, but you have to take into account that the live action is a few seconds behind real time.

bet365 are also famed for the ongoing bonuses which they offer for big matches throughout the season. They are always based on the same format which is that you have to place a pre-match bet on a particular match and this is matched with a live bet which must be placed once the match starts.

bet365 has always been regarded as one of the best bookies for football, but the fact that they can be quick to limit winning punters just has to be mentioned.

This is not unique to bet365 because you will find that the vast majority of sportsbooks take the same stance but when you realise that this sportsbook is often referred to as Bet £3.65 (because you are often limited to low stakes) it will give you an idea of how stringent they can be. If you are still not convinced about this casino, make sure the read our detailed Review of bet365.

Get Controversial with Paddy Power

Many punters consider the best site to bet on football games to be PaddyPower.com and there is no problem with that assumption, but if you take the time to follow their promotional campaigns, you will see that controversy should be their middle name.

Time after time they show offensive promotional material, but it definitely gets them attention so be prepared for more of the same. Who can forget the advertising campaign back in 2002 in which they gave odds of 4/1 and 2/1 on which one of two old ladies crossing the road would get knocked over first? (This was the most complained about advert in the UK in 2002!)

Ok, let’s put the bad taste to one side and look at why some of the best football bets can be found at PaddyPower.com

One of the main reasons is that unlike so many sportsbooks, they are not afraid to go against the grain with the odds that they offer if their oddsmakers have a particular opinion about a football betting market.

The most recent example of this was Paddy’s decision to pay out in February to customers who had bet on Arsenal to win the Premier League and on Celtic to win the Scottish Premiership, just two games into the 2025/26 season.

Things didn’t go as smoothly as expected because at one point it looked like Man City were going to pip Arsenal to the title and because of an exceptional season from Hearts, Celtic didn’t clinch the Scottish Premiership until the last match of the season, against Hearts; you really couldn’t make it up! Read more about the match in this article.

So, even though it wasn’t all plain sailing for Paddy, the publicity was priceless.

The website is remarkably easy to navigate so finding the market which you would like to bet on is no problem at all. Just like bet365, if there is a football match taking place, Paddy Power will have it covered, and it must be noted that the promotional offers that they have in place can be extremely lucrative.

One in particular which is a favourite with many people is the ‘2 up’ offer which has been in place for some time now, and features matches in the Premier League and La Ligue. The way it works is that they will pay out as a winning bet if your selection in the win-draw-win market goes two goals up, even if they end up losing or drawing the match.

The way that most astute gamblers approach this promotion is to back a team to win and lay off the bet on a betting exchange. This can be done on numerous matches, incurring small losses along the way but if the team goes on to lead by two goals, a profit is achieved.

Paddy Power offer several other promotions during the course of a season, so this is a sportsbook account which is well worth having in your quest to make bets from football gambling, just turn a blind eye to the promotional activities if they are not your cup of tea.

William Hill – an Old-School Bookie Who Have Embraced the Internet Age!

There is no doubt that if you live in the UK, you will have a William Hill shop on your high street, probably numerous shops.

When you take into account that William Hill are regarded as one of the best football websites, yet their operation began way back in 1934, it shows that they have embraced modern technology. Even though their website looks pretty basic, it is perfect for the job in hand, and it is so easy to find any bet that you are looking for.

For live football betting aficionados, there are plenty of betting opportunities, and you can plan your betting activities by clicking on the ‘WHTV Live Streaming’ tab to instantly see the up-and-coming live football betting opportunities which are available over the next few days.

It is worth keeping your eye on any promotions that pop up during the course of the football season, but it would not be an exaggeration to say that most of the William Hill promotions are based on the greyhound racing markets.

Tradition goes a long way with many punters when it comes to online gambling so that could be the main reason that William Hill is regarded as being one of the best football betting sites UK but that should not take anything away from the quality of the football gambling section of this website because it is very good indeed.

Everyone Has Their Own Preferred Best Football Betting Sites

The four football gambling websites which we have spoken about are all regarded as the answer to the question, which betting site is best for football, but everyone will have their own opinions. As long as you check that a sportsbook meets all of the requirements which are set out at the beginning of this review, you won’t go far wrong.

It is a good idea though to open as many of these top football websites as possible, especially if you are on a winning streak, as you will get restricted in the size of the bets that you can make.

Think about it, it will be no good to you at all if you want to place a decent sized bet at the last minute but when you try and place the bet you are horrified to discover that the maximum bet that will be accepted is £7.50! If you have other accounts already opened, it will just be a case of logging in, making a deposit and placing the bet.

If you don’t have any other accounts opened for football gambling, you could very well find out that in the time that it takes to open an account, the football match will have started, and the price could have moved against you!

With that in mind, it is highly recommended that you take some time to open a few sportsbook accounts from the best football websites that are out there, and you will be ready and waiting for any football gambling opportunities that come your way.

Football Betting FAQ