Football Predictions in Ireland

Football betting is very popular in Ireland. Punters bet at both land-based and online casinos. If you are a beginner at sports betting, you’ll want to find all the information that can help to make the most out of your investment.

Football is incredibly popular in Ireland, both for spectating and wagering on. In fact, the sports betting market is projected to peak at a value of $380.20 million in 2028.

Betiton Ireland offers a diverse range of football betting markets, pertaining to popular tournaments like the English Premier League and UEFA Champions League, which I will cover in this sports betting guide. Below, I’ve also prepared some expert football betting tips and insights, while appraising the factors that may impact your outright and match selections.

What Types of Football Betting Odds Are There?

Learning how to read and understand odds is crucial to any successful online football betting strategy. After all, the odds at which you wager will determine your potential payout, while they also imply a percentage probability of a specific outcome occurring. Here’s a breakdown of the primary odds formats and how to interpret them.

🔵 Decimal Odds

Betiton Ireland uses decimal odds as standard, which are represented by a single number to two decimal places. This relays precisely how much you’ll win for every €1 that you wager successfully, inclusive of your initial stake amount.

Let’s say that you back Chelsea to beat their EPL rivals Liverpool at a price of 4.65. This means that you’ll win €4.65 for every €1 staked if the Blues triumph, while a €5 bet will deliver a total return of €23.25. Decimal odds are arguably the easiest format to understand and commonly used in Ireland and Europe.

🔵 American Odds

As the name suggests, American odds are used primarily in the US, while the format combines three-digit numbers with either a ‘minus’ or a ‘plus’ sign. A minus sign is indicative of a betting favourite, while the accompanying number tells you how much you’ll have to stake to win €100.

However, the plus sign reveals a betting underdog, while the number relays how much you’ll win if you successfully wager €100. So, if you successfully backed underdogs Sligo Rovers to upset Bohemians away in the Irish Premier Division at odds of +240, a €100 stake would deliver a return of €240. Conversely, betting on the favourites Bohemians to prevail at odds of -105 would require you to stake €105 to achieve a profit of €100.

🔵 Fractional Odds

Fractional odds are commonly used in the UK, while they featured two numbers that are separated by a slash. The first digit relays how much you can expect to win in relation to your stake amount (the second number), but unlike the decimal format, fractional odds reveal your potential profit exclusive of your initial bet.

So, if you backed underdogs Dundalk to beat Shamrock Rovers at pre-game odds of 4/1, a €10 stake would earn you €40 profit. Combined with your stake amount, this would equate to a total return of €50, while a €5 bet would see you bank €25 overall.

What Can Influence the Football Betting Odds?

Punters can use odds as a means to calculate the implied probability of an event happening. Take a look at the below formula to try it out for yourself:

(1/ decimal odds) * 100 = implied probability

To put this into practise, if I’d like to calculate the likelihood of Dundalk (5.00) beating Shamrock Rovers (1.53) in the Irish Premier Division, I divide one by 5.00 and multiply the remaining value by 100. This reveals that a win for the Lilywhites has an implied probability of just 20%. Conversely, Shamrock’s odds of 1.53 imply that they have a 65.35% of prevailing.

But what factors can influence football betting odds and pricing? Keep in mind these factors:

• Form: Form has a direct bearing on the calculation of odds, while identifying any deviation between past home and away performances can be particularly insightful.

• Home Field Advantage: Across Europe’s “big five” leagues, 60.89% of matches end in home victories. While this figure falls to 46.20% in the ultra-competitive Premier League, home field advantage has a huge impact on moneyline odds.

• Team News and Injuries: The absence of individual players through injury or suspension can have a big impact on pre-game odds and results. Rotation and load management will also come into play throughout the season, and following live news may help you to identify value in published odds.

Study the Format of the Football Competition

I’ve already touched on some of the most widely bet on football competitions, including the EPL and Irish Premier Division. However, there’s also a number of popular cup competitions, which boast completely different formats entirely. Here’s my pick of the best and most interesting tournaments:

• The FIFA World Cup: The FIFA World Cup is the world’s bet on football competition, generating a global betting volume of more than $30 billion. The tournament combines a round-robin group stage with four knockout rounds, while Argentina are the defending champions after beating France in Qatar in 2022.

• The European Championship: Like the World Cup, this is another international tournament that’s widely bet on. It’s also hosted every four years and has a similar format, although there’s a much smaller field as only European nations can compete. Germany will host the next iteration of the competition in the summer of 2024.

• The Premier League: The world’s most popular domestic league, the EPL is watched by more than 4.7 billion people globally and more than 90% of Irish fans. The league features 20 teams and hosts a total of 380 matches each season, while Manchester City have dominated in recent years (winning the title in five of the previous six seasons).

• The Irish Premier Division: The Irish Premier Division represents the top tier of professional football on the Emerald Isle, with 10 teams competing every single year. Each side plays each other four times and 36 games in total as part of a round-robin format, while Shamrock Rovers continue to dominate having won four consecutive titles since 2020.

• The FA Cup: The FA Cup is the oldest and most prestigious cup competition in the world, having originated in England in 1871. This knockout tournament features a staggering 732 teams and eight rounds of action (excluding qualifiers), while Arsenal are the competition’s most successful side having triumphed on 14 occasions.

Choose the Football Betting Market Wisely

One of my biggest tips for betting on football is to understand the available markets and wager types. This will enable you to make informed and considered selections, both in terms of your selected outcomes, stake amounts, and the odds at which you wager!

🔵 The Type of Football Bet

Of all the components that comprise a successful football wager, the type of bet that you place is the single most important. Here are some of the most common and rewarding wagers:

• The ‘Win’ Bet: The most popular and straightforward football bet, this requires you to wager on the winner of a particular match. The draw is also a consideration here, with around 20% of EPL games ending in a tie each season.

• Over/Under Betting: This is an even money market that lets you wager on how many goals will be scored in a game. Bookmakers, like Betiton Ireland, set various values as betting lines here (such as 2.5 goals), and you’ll have to bet on whether the actual total will be over or under this threshold.

• BTTS: You can also bet on both teams to score (BTTS) or not during a football match. This is also a popular, even money market, and one that can be cracked through the analysis of each side’s attacking statistics both home and away.

• Outright: With outright betting, you’ll back the eventual winner of a league or tournament. This market tends to offer highly competitive odds, depending on the number of potential contenders and duration of the competition in question.

🔵 The Football Team You Bet on

It’s estimated that 76.80% of football fans like to wager on the action as it unfolds, so it stands to reason that many choose to bet on their favourite teams. Of course, this makes sense in some respects, as it enables you to leverage knowledge of your team and the form of its most influential players.

However, this can also cause you to bet emotively rather than relying on insight or form analysis, increasing the risk of loss over time. Instead, it’s better to create a betting strategy that’s largely focused on the best teams and players, while leveraging different betting markets to create value. For example:

• Use Handicap Betting: When betting on short price favourites in a particular game, you can use handicap betting to wager at enhanced odds. This applies a virtual handicap to the betting favourites (such as -1.5 goals), while lengthening the pre-game odds and unlocking potentially higher returns.

• Consider Accumulators: So-called “accumulator” bets can include anywhere between two and 20 selections in a single wager. The odds of each outcome are multiplied to create a significantly higher price, allowing you to back heavy betting favourites and boost your prospective returns. Just note that each pick will have to win for the wager to pay out!

Do Not Underestimate Football Betting Predictions

Before you place your wagers here at Betiton Ireland, I urge you to read some of our free football betting tips. We publish detailed betting tips on football, drawing insights from experts like me.

Football betting predictions can offer unique and telling perspectives on games, from in-depth tactical analysis to the study of form and statistics. You can then combine this information with your own knowledge and understanding, to help you identify the best betting markets and highest value odds.

Football Betting Offers

If you sign up at Betiton Ireland with a €10 deposit and subsequently wager €15 at odds of 2.00 or greater, you can unlock a free bet worth €10. The free bet must be wagered within 14 days and at minimum odds of 1.80, while deposits made via PayPal, Neteller, Paysafe, Skrill or Skril 1-Tap are ineligible.

There’s plenty to recommend this offer, with the minimum odds requirements for both qualifying and free bets highly competitive. This bonus isn’t subjected to wagering requirements either, so you can immediately access your winnings just as soon as they land in your account.

Frequently Asked Questions