How do booking points, card and corner betting work?

Betting on the number of cards and corners in football, which accumulate to a total number of booking points, has become one of the most popular markets in recent years. The concept is simple - you bet on the amount of cards and/or corners in a football match, rather than going for a typical final result, over 2.5 goals or BTTS market (90 minutes only).

There are some straight forward cards markets such as the number of cards shown in a game, player to receive a card, team to receive the most amount of cards in a game, and team to receive the first card. Bookmakers, particularly Sky Bet, use a system called booking points, this is explained in further detail below:

Sky Bet Booking Points

Each colour of card is worth a certain amount of Sky Bet booking points. These points are then added together at the end of a match and the total will be how many booking points were in that match. A yellow card is worth 10 booking points, a red card is worth 25 booking points, and if a player receives two yellows and a subsequent red card, they will earn 35 booking points, which is the maximum any single player can receive. Different bookmakers may use slightly different point scores, ensure you double-check as Paddy Power and other bookies may have different point scales. You can begin to take advantage of this rising betting market by using our SkyBet sign up offer today, just click the link for the latest & available promotions

Below is an example of what booking point markets are available and how a bookmaker's website will display them:

Number of Cards

This market is basically betting on how many cards will be shown during the 90 minutes of a football match. If a player receives two yellow cards and subsequent red card, it will count as the player receiving two cards – one yellow and one red.

Team to Receive Most Cards

This bet is settled by whichever team receives the highest number of cards in 90 minutes. Again, a sending off as a result of two yellow cards will count as two cards.

To Receive First Card

This market is simple enough. It basically means backing which player or team in a match receives the first card, yellow or red. This only counts for the 90 minutes and extra-time does not count unless specifically stated.If your selected player does not feature in the match or comes off the bench after the first card has already been awarded, then it will be deemed void. If two or more players are booked in the same break of play, then the first player to actually be shown the card by the referee will be deemed as having received the first card.

Betting on corners usually involves three markets: under/over an amount of corners, exact amount of corners, and corner bands. These are explained in further detail below:

Under/Over Corners

This works in the same way that Under/Over an amount of goals would work. The numbers will usually be around 10-11 and you will be able to bet on under 10 corners, over 11 corners as well as betting directly on 10-11 corners. This is displayed below:

Exact Amount of Corners

This is simple. You bet on the exact number of corners one team will get in the match. This will only count for 90 minutes and extra-time corners do not count.

Corner Bands

Similar to the market above, this allows you to predict the number of corners in a match without having to actually predict the precise amount. Instead, you have a band. For example, if you don't think there will be many corners but you are not confident picking the exact amount, you could back 0-4 corners.