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Football is the most popular game in the world, and as a result it produces more sportsbetting rollover than any other sport. At the same time, it has one of the worst return of investment percentage for punters. Football is not an easy sport to bet on, and we take a look at some of the reasons for which this is a fact.
1. Three possible outcomes
While most sports only have 2 possible moneyline outcomes, football also has the draw, which is a big disadvantage from the start. Of course, this can be dribbled with Asian Handicaps.
2. High number of individuals involved
Few sports have more individual participants than football. In soccer you have 22 players at once on the pitch, while in tennis or boxing for example you have only 2. It`s harder to analyze match-ups, and with so many players involved, there is a higher chance for something to go wrong.
3. Corruption
Where big money is involved, big-time corruption is present. Football is a huge market world-wide, and it is only natural to be one of the most corrupted sports. Match fixing, referees, can ruin a bet.
4. Referees
Football is one of the sports in which referees have the biggest role in influencing the outcome. While in sports like tennis referees have little impact on the game, in football they are often deciding the winning team, even when corruption is not involved. Analyzing the match properly can mean nothing if your team is punished by an undeserved penalty and a red card in the 30th minute. And it`s not like that happens only once in a while. Of course, refereeing errors go both ways, but the point is that you have less control over your bet.
5. Mentality
In rugby for example, you know what to expect from every player, everytime, since they will always give it their all. That makes betting easier. In football, many players are used to cheat, wine and have all sorts of demands. You can rarely know how focused a player will be.
6. Match time
Most sports have a fixed amount of actual-play (Basketball, Hockey, Rugby, etc.). Others are being played until the event is over (Tennis). In football there is a fixed 90 minute amount of total playing time with no clock-stoping, which causes time-wasting, passing the ball around and other things that prevent a game to run its normal course anticipated by the punter. Overtime is a joke, since it makes up for less than 10% of the interruptions.
7. Unpredictability
If a player misses an open layup in basketball, there`s no stress. If you miss an easy volley at set point in tennis, you are still in the game. But if the football keeper makes a huge error and a goal is scored from nowhere, it could well mean losing a solid bet. Deflected shots, ball jumping from a patch of grass or above mentioned referees and high number of players, all contribute to a high degree of unpredictability which very often has a huge impact on the outcome.
Of course, all these arguments above do not mean that you shouldn`t bet on football anymore or that you can`t make profit betting on it. All sports have their shortcomings and advantages when it comes to betting. But the truth is that when you are betting on football, you have many things going against you. It could be wise to back away from certain events, and maybe learn some other sports in order to increase your betting coverage and winning chances.
