If you search “what is the most popular sport in Zambia” on Google, the result will be football. It’s the same across the board, no matter what statistic you look at. Interestingly, this is true for the majority of African nations.
Do you know what else is popular in African countries? Sports betting! If you put the 2 and 2 together, it’s apparent that football betting is the most popular form of gambling in Zambia and surrounding countries.
To honor that, we have a list of Zambian betting sites for you. But what if you’re not familiar with football betting? What if you don’t know how to read the markets?
Well, that’s where Masstamilan comes into play—considering this post a beginner’s guide to football betting markets. Once you’re through, you’ll know exactly what each market means and whether you should bet on it or not.
Masstamilan: What Is a Market in Sports Betting?
Before we dive into the more critical discussion on what football betting markets mean, we have to understand what a market is.
In betting terminology, a “market” is an outcome. If you follow sports, you might know that a team winning the match is not the only outcome. There are other areas to consider, like which players are scoring, how many players are getting warning cards, whether the team’s star player is playing or not, and so on.
With careful calculation and projection, these outcomes can turn into a market. It means a single match of football can give birth to many markets. It ultimately comes down to how the betting operators design their components for the Zambian punters.
The Most Common Football Betting Markets
Sports betting is nothing but a compilation of markets across a wide variety of sports. For the most part, football is considered the most popular sport for gambling all over the world. One of the main reasons behind this is the wide availability of events throughout the year. Check this video to learn more about football betting: <iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/LUIl3dS5kNE” title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” allowfullscreen></iframe>
The exciting thing is that the markets remain more or less the same no matter the tournament. So, if you know what each market means, you can practically bet on any match you want. Moreover, many football market concepts carry over to other sports as well!
1×2 Bets
1×2 is by far the most common and popular market for football. While other sports can utilize this market, punters are more interested in football. That is why we’re seeing an increase in bookmakers offering 1×2 for football and a decrease in other sports.
In simple words, the 1×2 market allows you to bet on 3 different outcomes. (1) represents the home team and (2) represents the away team.
Thus, if a soccer match between Zambia and Nigeria were played in a stadium in Nigeria, the odds for (1) on the online betting site would represent the odds for Nigeria. And the odds on (2) would represent Zambia. If the match were played on Zambian territory, it would be the other way around. You might be wondering how to read the odds correctly – the BetZillion site has a quality explanation.
The (x), on the other hand, represents a draw. As this is the most unlikely outcome out of the three, the odds for x are usually the longest. The home team generally gets an advantage in crowd support and familiar weather. So, the home team is mostly considered the favorite by most online betting sites.
Over/Under
Yet again, we have a universal market in our hands. You will find this same market in cricket, football, handball, and other sports that use a scoring system. The “over” and “under” values are pegged to the game’s score.
The over/under market is nothing but a guessing game on the punters’ end. Before a match starts, the bookmaker will project a possible score for the football match. Let’s say it’s 2.5 goals.
Before we go into the over/under parameters, let us explain while the score is set at an impossible one. A football match cannot have 2.5 goals, right?
It’s done to avoid a tie with the bookmaker. With that said, here’s what over and under means.
If you put your money on over, it means you’re betting the total score of the match will be around 2.5 goals. Similarly, if you bet on under, it means you’re betting on the total number to be lower than the prediction.
See? If the bookmaker said the score will be 2 goals, and it happens, who wins? The answer is no one. And that’s why you mostly see fractions for over/under markets in football.
Another exciting thing about the over/under market is that most bookmakers offer a range of scores instead of just one.
So, you may find over/under for:
- 1.5,
- 2.5,
- 3.5,
- 4.5,
- and other score predictions.
It depends on what the analysts think will happen in the game.
Point Spread
Many rookie punters think the point spread market is too complex. And that’s why they try to stay away from it. While we can’t deny that it is more complicated than other markets, you can always understand it. You may not have the right resource at hand. Let’s see if we can help.
Let’s break the term down first. “Point” and “spread”.
- Point: The scoring unit of the sport. For football, it’s the number of goals.
- Spread: A range offered on the scoring unit. In this case, it’s a range of goals.
Let’s do a simple definition with the basics out of the way. Point spread betting is wagering money on a range of goals. As long as your favored outcome comes within the range, you win. The outcome of the actual match doesn’t matter. The spread is defined with (+) for underdogs and (-) for favorites.
A (+2) spread means the spread is covered if you wager money on the underdog in the match and lose by no more than 2 goals. Although the team lost the game, your bet is successful.
The opposite is true for (-2) spread. If you wager on the favorite and it wins by more than 2 goals, your bet is a success. You can increase your payout in this case by adding the “match-winner” market to your bet slip simultaneously.
Even/Odd
After the point spread, this market may look too simple to you. That’s because it is. The idea is to predict whether the match’s score will be an even or odd number. You should get 2 separate sets of odds for both outcomes.
Other Common Markets
The ones we’ve covered so far are somewhat elaborate. And in this section, we’re going to include other common markets. The reason we’re isolating these is simply that the titles are self-explanatory.
- Man of the match
- Top goalscorer
- Number of yellow/red cards
- Number of saves by any goalkeeper
- Handicap (the favorite gets a score handicap)
- Win margin
- Total number of corners
- Draw no bet
- First goalscorer
- Number of free kicks
As you can see, the list can go on. All you need is a creative betting site that offers all of these markets in Zambia.