What Are the Safest Bets on Soccer?

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Incidentally, it’s also the sport that most people bet on. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the number of matches played daily in regional and local leagues.

Bookmakers offer dozens of markets – betting options – you can choose from. Some of them are riskier, others less. If you plan on checking out a Nigerian bookmaker or digging into the best soccer betting South Africa offers, these are the safest bets you can choose.

Draw No Bet (DNB)

There are four ways in which a soccer match can end:

• The victory of the home team
• The victory of the visiting team
• Draw
• Suspension or cancellation

Suspension is very rare – it hardly ever happens, and even if it does, the match is usually rescheduled. If not, the bets for the match are also cancelled, and bettors get their money back.

It’s often relatively easy to predict the outcome of a match – in over 75% of cases, it ends with the victory of one of the teams. Less than 25% of the matches end in a draw.

So, betting on the victory of the home team (1) or the away team (2) is pretty safe. But it can be made safer with the “Draw no bet” option. Here, you can bet on the victory of either of the two teams and get your money back if the match ends in a draw.

Double chance

With DNB, you bet on one outcome with relative safety. With “double chance”, in turn, you bet on two outcomes at the same time.

• The “Double chance” bet allows you to bet on two of the three possible outcomes of a match. You can choose from:
• 1X (the home team wins or draws)
• X2 (draw or the away team wins)
• 12 (either the home team or the away team wins)

This way, you have a better chance of winning a bet than if you’d only bet on one of the possible outcomes.

Over/Under bets

Finally, here’s another pretty safe bet that requires some effort: betting on whether the number of goals scored in a match will be over or under a specific threshold. Bookmakers usually mark these limits with decimals (over 1.5 goals, under 2.5 goals).

Why does it need effort? Because you need to study the two teams’ statistics to win it. You need to look at the teams’ statistics from the previous matches, their head-to-head records, and any factors that may influence the number of goals scored in the match. If you do it, you can safely place over/under bets.

These are the safest bets on soccer you can choose. But there’s a way in which you can make them even safer: by playing responsibly. Betting within your means and not considering betting a way to make money will enhance your soccer-viewing experience.