Underrated Football Betting Markets 

These days, almost all the major football betting apps offer a range of different betting markets. The likes of Sky Bet and bet365 even have upwards of 100+ betting options per match, covering almost every angle you can think of. Naturally, some of these markets are underutilized and less popular amongst bettors, despite offering great profit opportunities — and we’re going to take a closer look at them.

➜ Over/Under 0.5 Goals

By far, the most underrated football betting market is “Over/Under 0.5 Goals”. It’s low-risk and about as simple as you can get, so many use an over 0.5 goals strategy. It’s a fast-growing trend at the moment, which is why we recommend sticking some Over/Under 0.5 goals bets on when the new season starts. All you have to do is spot a game where it looks like one or both of the teams will score and place your ‘Over’ bet. Or, if you want even bigger odds, find a game that has stalemate written all over it and go for ‘Under’, which means you’re betting on a goalless draw. The Under market is definitely harder to win, but it brings much higher profit when you get it right.

➜ Both Teams to Score (BTTS)

Next, there’s the “Both Teams to Score” market, which is all about betting on games where you think both teams will find the back of the net. One of the best ways to go about doing this is hand-picking games where the two sides are both on goal-scoring form. For instance, towards the end of the 2024-25 Premier League campaign, Manchester City’s home game against Brighton would have been a great BTTS bet. This is because City were massively struggling at the time and Brighton have a reputation for causing top 6 teams a headache, so City were vulnerable. At the same time, though, City tend to always score at home — even when they’re on a bad run of form — so the fact this game finished 2-2 didn’t come as a surprise.

➜ Player Shots on Target 

Another great betting option is to zone in on “Player Shots on Target”. With this market, you choose an individual player to have at least 1 (or multiple) shots on target during a match. The profit opportunities here can be huge, especially when you go with players that are already in-form and have scored in their last few matches. As we know in football, if a player is scoring lots of goals, they’re usually firing lots of shots off, too, so the likes of Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah are prime candidates. Even someone like Cristiano Ronaldo, who’s just signed a new contract in the Saudi Pro League, is still great for this type of bet, as he’s notoriously selfish in front of goal and will get shots off whenever he can.

➜ Team with Most Bookings

“Team with Most Bookings” is a betting market where you go with which side you think will receive the highest number of yellow cards. Think local derbies and rival matches — the sort of fixtures that are perfect for this bet. Or, you can just pick games where one team already has a bad disciplinary record. Chelsea have been a safe bet for this over back-to-back seasons now, earning the most bookings and red cards in the 2023-24 (109) and 2024-25 (101) campaigns. So, next season, if Chelsea play a team with an excellent disciplinary record, stick a bet on the Blues to get the most bookings.

➜ Over/Under 9.5 Corners

There’s a lot of corners in the Premier League now. Last season alone, the average was 10.24 corners a game, caused by the fact that teams are so focused on attacking out-wide now (thanks, Pep Guardiola). Not to worry, though, because you can take advantage of it for betting purposes. All you have to do is choose a game between two attack-focused teams — like Manchester City and Liverpool — and there’s always a good chance the game will go Over 9.5 corners. Or, you can flip this bet on its head by choosing a game between two defensive sides, where you can go for Under 9.5 corners instead.

➜ Clean Sheet 

The fifth and final underrated football betting market we want to recommend is the “Clean Sheet” market. All this involves is picking a team to successfully keep a clean sheet. Yes, it’s that easy. Of course, this is football, so nothing is ever guaranteed, but this type of bet can often be reliable when you go with defensively strong teams or ones with excellent goalkeepers. Take Inter Milan in last season’s Champions League, where they kept 7 clean sheets out of 14 matches (a 50% success rate) thanks to some incredible saves from Yann Sommer as well as former manager Simone Inzaghi’s excellent 3-5-2 defensive system. They were the team to bet on for clean sheets and lots of bettors profited from them.

Which Football Betting Markets Should You Avoid? 

So, those are some of the underrated betting markets that we recommend trying, but which markets should you avoid? When it comes to football, there are quite a lot of them (remember, betting apps have tons of different markets, and some of them just aren’t worth touching). These include:

• • ❌ Half-Time or Full-Time Result: It’s almost impossible to predict what the half-time or final scoreline for any given game will be, so this type of bet is a waste of time
  • ❌ 6-Leg (+) Accas: Accas are fun, there’s no denying that, but any acca with 6 or more legs is a big risk, especially if the odds are high for some of those games
  • ❌ Exact Time of Goal: Even the leading “Tipsters” on social media avoid this type of bet, as nobody can say for sure what time period in a game one of the teams will score (and even if they do predict it right, it’s nothing more than a fluke guess)

• ❌ Outright Tournament or League Winner: Excluding PSG to win Ligue 1, it’s extremely difficult to place future bets on tournament or league winners in modern football, so it’s generally a good idea to avoid this bet

• ❌ Special Novelty Bets: Novelty bets (e.g. a mascot joins in the celebration) are a no-go in football because of how unpredictable and unreliable they can be

In the long run, you’ll save yourself a lot of money by avoiding these betting markets. It’s why some bookies spend so much time promoting them: they’re money-makers where the punter almost always loses. Instead, stick with the underrated football betting markets we discussed earlier if you want to keep the risk low but still get favourable odds.

Summary

The new season is set to start in August, so now is the perfect time to start exploring underrated betting markets that you can dabble in when the first game kicks off (Liverpool vs Bournemouth, August 15). From the “Over/Under 0.5 Goals” market to “Player Shots on Target”, there are great opportunities here for you to place high-value bets with much less risk. Plus, it’s a nice break from “Acca” bets that football fans have become obsessed with over the past few seasons. There’s nothing wrong with Accas, they just aren’t that profitable. The underrated betting markets we’ve provided you with are, though, which is why you should give them a shot next season.