Football vs. Football: A Betting Comparison

American football and football (soccer) around the world are two completely different sports in the way they are played. But both are extremely popular sports that captivate large audiences and bring in huge revenues both internationally and domestically.

They are both extremely popular on the gambling side of things as well. Both games see huge action in the betting world, especially on online betting platforms.

But when it comes to NFL odds or FIFA odds, the two have many similarities and differences. The NFL tends to be one of the most popular sports to bet on in the United States, but globally, football (soccer) is by far the most widespread sport to wager on. But how do the two stack up against each other when it comes to placing bets and winning money? Let’s compare.

Moneyline vs. Three-Way Moneyline

When betting on the NFL, you can simply bet the moneyline, which is just choosing a winner. If that team wins, you win the bet. Football (soccer) has a similar bet, with one twist. You can place a bet on a team to win, but there is a third option. Due to the tie being such a big part of gameplay, the third option is to bet on a draw. This bet is only paid out on what happens in regulation time, including injury or stoppage time added. Overtimes and penalty shootouts do not count.

Football (soccer) also has other two-way moneyline bets called the Double Chance and the Draw No Bet. The Double Chance allows you to place a bet on a team winning or drawing in the match or one of the two teams winning. If you bet on one of the two teams winning and the match ends in a draw, then you have lost the wager.

Draw No Bet wagers eliminate the option of betting on the draw and instead you have to pick a winner only. If the match ends in a draw, all bets are refunded as they are considered non-actionable. These are often seen when one team is heavily favored over the other.

Betting the Spreads

Both sports employ a spread betting system that takes not only the winner into account but also the score or margin of victory. The NFL spread can be small or they can be fairly large when teams are mismatched. Spreads for football (soccer) tend to be much closer as the game is much lower scoring than the NFL. But they work exactly the same.

If the favored team has a spread of -2.5, then it must win by three or more for you to win the bet. IF you bet on the underdog with a +2.5, then they must win the match/game, or lose by less than two. With football (soccer), this also means that the match can end in a draw and the underdog will win the bet.

Over/Under

In both sports, oddsmakers will decide how many points or goals will be scored combined between both teams. Bettors can then wager whether the final score will come in over or under that combined score. This seems pretty straight forward but there are some caveats that go along with this, mostly for football (soccer).

In football (soccer), oddsmakers work on quarters of goals scored due to the game traditionally being such a low-scoring affair. They then split your bet in half and it is put on two different wagers. So, for example, if 1.25 goals is the line and you choose over, half the bet is placed on Over 1, and the other half is placed on Over 1.5.

If the match ends in a 1-0 score, you are refunded the half of your bet that was placed on Over 1, as it was a push, and you lose the other half of the bet since the total score was under 1.5. This might seem a bit weird for those not accustomed to betting on football (soccer) because other sports like the NFL do not have these types of fine-scoring betting lines.

Conclusion

Football and Football are very similar in the betting world, but with some minor differences. These differences stem mostly from the low-scoring matches and potential draws of football (soccer) compared to the NFL. But these small differences are what makes betting on each one a little different and exciting in their own ways.