How to bet on the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup is the biggest competition in world football, with international teams from around the world competing with one another to get their hands on the most coveted prize in the game. 

The tournament is one of the most exciting times to be a football fan, with a month of non-stop action and games every day providing bettors with the perfect chance to win some serious money. 

The universal interest in the tournament also means that online betting sites are also at the top of their game, offering excellent odds and various special offers throughout the tournament. 

Football is one of the biggest markets for betting sites these days and as a result, all the big companies are constantly refreshing their markets in an attempt to compete with one another. 

The following are the most common types of football bets:

Full-time result: This is the easiest type of football bet and simply involves choosing the full-time result of the game. 

There are three options available when it comes to making this type of bet - team A, team B or a draw. 

The typical home and away structure doesn’t exist in the World Cup due to the fact that the tournament is held in one country, so you will have to have a much bigger knowledge of the sport and the teams involved instead. 

It is also worth noting that due to the fact that the latter stages of the World Cup offer a tournament format, that full-time results often apply to the result at 90 minutes, and not after extra time or penalties. 

Accumulators: Accumulators have quickly established themselves as the most popular type of football bets. 

An accumulator, also known as an ‘acca’ is a bet where the customer chooses four or more selections on their slip and must get all of them right to pick up their winnings. 

One of the biggest reasons for the rise in popularity of accumulators in recent years is that they often offer a high reward for a very low risk. That said, they can be incredibly cruel due to the fact that only one of your teams needs to lose for the bet to lose overall, and there is nothing more heartbreaking than having one result let you down once eight results have already come in. 

Various types of accumulators have become popular in recent years, with bookmakers constantly scrambling to one-up each other in this market. Things like BTTS (both teams to score) and over/under accumulators are quickly rising in popularity. 

Due to the scheduling of the World Cup though, accumulators can often take several days to finish, so patience is often required. 

Top goalscorer: One of the most popular markets to bet on during the World Cup is the top goalscorer market. 

Given the incredible array of talent that is often on display at a World Cup, there are normally several serious candidates to take home the much coveted Golden Boot - the prize awarded to the player who scores the most goals in the tournament. 

This can also prove to be a fairly lucrative market depending on how the tournament plays out due to the fact that players can end up playing several more games than their rivals depending on how far their team gets in the tournament. 

Most sportsbooks will also offer top goalscorer markets for the group stages of the tournament as well. 

Goalscorer markets: Another staple of the football betting market is the goalscorer bets. Most online sportsbooks will offer odds on the first and/or last goalscorer in any given game, while also providing odds on whether an individual player will score at any time during the match. 

These bets especially benefit those with a solid knowledge of goalscoring form and player’s previous records against specific countries. 

Tournament outrights: Perhaps the most common type of bet placed during any given World Cup is one on who will win the entire tournament. 

These markets tend to get narrower as the tournament gets closer and countries begin to name their squads for the tournament, but if you have an early feeling as to who will win the big prize, you can often very generous odds months or even years in advance of the tournament.

The World Cup is big business for online betting sites and as such, most of the major companies will be competing with one another to offer the best odds and offers. 

For every game during the tournament you will find various different proposition bets and as a general rule- the bigger the game, the more offers you will find. This means that during the latter stages of the tournament, when every game becomes a must-see, there are often a lot of offers to be exploited. 

These offers typically range from in-play odds boosts to enhanced accumulators and novelty proposition bets. 

Some betting sites may also offer sign up bonuses during the tournament in order to attract new punters, so this could provide you with the chance to try out some new sportsbooks and take advantage of these.