How to bet on soccer

Soccer is the most popular sport on earth, with billions of people following the biggest events every year. Naturally, such a popular sport has plenty of betting action that’ll keep you entertained while you watch the beautiful game.

In our comprehensive soccer betting guide, you’ll learn:

✔ How to bet on soccer betting markets

✔ How soccer betting lines work

✔ Why soccer betting is so fun

Why bet on soccer

Soccer is a highly engaging game that millions of people enjoy betting on every year. Women’s soccer is as big in North America as it is anywhere in the world, and with the men’s World Cup coming to the continent in 2026, we expect to see soccer fever sweep the nation.

Anything can happen - Even the weakest team can upset the applecart and score a victory over the dominant favourite, creating exciting action every week.

Worldwide reach - Soccer is played at a professional level in nearly every country around the world, giving you plenty of betting markets to choose from at all hours of the day.

Variety of betting options - Soccer betting sites offer a wide range of in-game and pre-match betting markets with plenty of prop bets to choose from.

Learn about the basics of betting on football in around two minutes

Betting on football doesn’t have to be intimidating. If you’re a beginner or even need a refresher course PlayNow’s own Dani Huntley is here to help.

Where to bet on soccer in Canada

PlayNow Sports is your safe, secure, and regulated betting site to wager on soccer and all sports.

Plus, when you sign up and place your bets at PlayNow Sports, the revenue generated from online gambling stays right here in the province, supporting many provincial and community organizations, including education and health care.

Soccer betting lines explained

Soccer games are often low-scoring affairs, with the average goals per game for last season’s MLS sitting at around 3. This means that games are much closer, with ties being a real possibility

While most sports use money line betting with handicapping to create two evenly matched betting options, soccer allows you to bet on all three results. Handicapping is much rarer in soccer, so it’s common to see extremely short odds for the favourite and long odds for the underdog. Understanding odds and probabilities will help you be more confident in your sports betting experience.

Soccer is split into two halves, with the players getting a well-deserved break halfway through the game. Follow their lead and take regular breaks while gambling. Learn more about safer gambling at GameSense.com.

Soccer is split into two halves, with the players getting a well-deserved break halfway through the game. Follow their lead and take regular breaks while gambling. Learn more about safer gambling at GameSense.

Soccer betting markets

Soccer betting is appealing to a wide range of bettors thanks to its diverse range of betting markets. There are dozens, if not hundreds of different markets available to bet on pre-match and in-game.

If you’re new to soccer betting or soccer in general, we’ve outlined the most popular soccer betting markets and explained how to use them.

Check out the latest odds for these betting markets and more

Match Result

The most commonly used betting option in soccer is the match result. This option allows you to bet on the outcome of the game.

Unlike most North American sports, soccer match result betting has three possible outcomes; home team win, draw, and away team win.
When using decimal odds, the closer the odds are to 1.0, the more likely that event is to happen.
To calculate your payout, simply multiply your bet by the odds; e.g., if you bet $10 at 1.5 odds, your total potential payout is $15, giving you $5 in winnings.

Example: Let’s say the Vancouver Whitecaps are playing Seattle Sounders at home; the odds for the Vancouver Whitecaps are 1.8, the odds for the draw are 3.0, and the odds for Seattle Sounders are 2.8. The market suggestion is the Vancouver Whitecaps winning, as their odds are closest to 1.0.

If you place a $10 bet on the match being a draw, you stand to receive a $30 potential payout if you’re correct. This payout includes your original bet, meaning that your total profit will be $20.

Handicaps

If the match result is looking too one-sided, you may want to use handicaps to level the playing field.

PlayNow uses a 3-way handicap system which handicaps the home team winning, the draw, and the away team winning.
A minus handicap on either team to win gives them a disadvantage to overcome. For example, if a team has a -1.0 handicap, they must win by two goals or more for you to win the bet.
A plus handicap on either team to win gives them an advantage to hold on to. For example, if a team has a +2.0 handicap you will win the bet if they win the game, draw the game, or only lose by 1 goal.
When betting a draw handicap, you’re betting on the home or away team losing by a certain number of goals to make the draw.
- The minus bets represent the away team losing. For example, a draw handicap of -1.0 means that the away team needs to lose by 1 goal for the bet to win.
- The plus bets represent the home team losing. A draw handicap of +2.0 means that the home team needs to lose by 2 goals for the bet to win.
Many handicap betting markets have multiple options to choose from, allowing you to pick the exact handicap that you’d like to bet on.
The larger the handicap on the favourite, the better odds you’ll get. However, you’ll get better odds on the underdog if you choose a smaller handicap.
You’ll see the decimal odds next to the handicap, representing how much you’ll receive if you win the bet.

Example: The Whitecaps are coming up against Canadian Premier League team Valour FC team in a pre-season friendly and are large favourites to win. Rather than taking a low-odds bet, you can bet on the Whitecaps at -2.5 at odds of 2.1. This means that if the Whitecaps win by 3 goals or more, your $10 bet will receive a $31 payout, giving you $21 in profit.

Total Goals

Arguably the most common prop bet in soccer is the total goals scored during the game.

You can either bet on the exact number of goals scored or you can use the over/under goals line.
Let’s say the goal line is at 2.5, if you take the under, you win if there are 2 or fewer goals scored. If you take the over, you win if there are 3 or more goals scored.
You can select different goal lines, each offering different odds on their over/under split.
The odds on either side of the goal line show what you can win, just like the handicaps and match results.

Example: The Whitecaps are travelling to NYFC and you think that the game will be a low-scoring affair. You see that the goal line is at 2.5, offering odds of 1.8 on the Under. You think there are going to be fewer than 3 goals scored, so you make a $10 bet on these odds. The game ends in a 1-1 draw, so your bet pays out $18, giving you an $8 profit.

More soccer betting markets

Draw No Bet

An offshoot of match result betting, a “draw no bet” wager only lets you bet on the home team or away team to win. If the game ends in a draw, the bet is voided, and your money is returned to you. As a penalty for this insurance, the odds of either team winning are reduced when compared to the match result bet. For example, a team that’s 1.7 to win may only be 1.4 with a “draw no bet.”

These bets are perfect for games where you think the result will be close; knowing that your bet will be returned if that 1-0 lead turns into a 1-1 draw in the 90th minute may give you some peace of mind while watching the game.

Double Chance

An alternative to match betting, double chance betting allows you to bet on two outcomes at once. These are the three options available:

1X – Home team win or tie
X2 – Tie or away team win
12 – Home team win or away team win

These bets give you an increased chance of winning but offer reduced odds as a result. For example, a home team win may be priced at 2.0 with the tie at 3.1, but the combined home win and tie double chance may only be priced at 1.3.

To Qualify

The “to qualify” bet is only available during cup competitions and allows you to bet on which team will qualify for the next round. Soccer has multiple avenues for deciding the winner in cup competitions; if the game is tied after 90 minutes, the teams play an additional 30 minutes of extra time to decide the winner. If the scores are still deadlocked, the game goes to a best-of-5 penalty shootout, followed by sudden death if the number of penalties scored is level after each team takes 5.

When you place a “to qualify” bet, it doesn’t matter when your team wins, as long as they end up the winner in the end. However, a match result bet will only count for the first 90-minute period; if the game is a tie after 90 minutes but your team wins on PKs, you won’t win your bet.

Sound confusing? Our PlayNow Sports specialist is here to clear things up: “One issue that always comes up during knockout cup tournaments is the fact that the match result is settled at the end of normal time. If Team A vs Team B are tied 1-1 at the end of normal time and Team B wins the game in extra time the match result will be settled as a draw whereas the “To Qualify” bets will be settled as a Win for Team B.”

Soccer Futures

Soccer betting goes beyond individual games, you can bet on a team’s performance throughout a whole season. This can include both league and cup competitions, so if you think that an underdog is capable of making a dark horse run in the cup, you can bet on that team to win the whole thing.

Soccer futures are typically available throughout each competition but, generally speaking, the best odds are usually available at the start.

Soccer Props

Soccer has a variety of different props that relate to both player events and game events, giving you a host of options to choose from. Some of the most popular game event props include the number of yellow cards, number of corners, number of free kicks, and number of goal kicks.

Player props allow you to bet on your favourite player to perform certain actions in the game, such as make a shot on target, score a goal or make an assist. The odds of these props can be larger than traditional betting markets, which come with a higher risk/reward ratio.

Soccer Derivative Odds

If you don’t want to bet on the full 90-minute game, you can make bets on what will happen within certain time periods. This includes the number of goals, the number of cards, the number of corners, and the number of goal kicks.

The most common derivative bets are for each half, but you can also place bets on certain events happening at 10-minute intervals.

Asian Handicaps

Like traditional handicaps, Asian Handicaps are a way of balancing the strength of two mismatched teams. Unlike traditional handicaps, Asian Handicaps use full, half, and quarter decimals where bets can be split evenly between two markets. Let’s see how each handicap works: