In Play Betting

When it comes to betting as a whole, there are two ways to get involved - betting before the chosen event has started and placing a bet as it’s actively happening. More often than not, you’ll find that betting prior to something getting underway will be seen as the more popular option, but there’s just as many reasons to opt against it in favour of betting on something as it unfolds.

Getting involved with football betting in play is arguably more appetising than betting on something before it starts, and you can actually place bets on most sports as they happen including horse racing, tennis, golf, American football, rugby, cricket, and any other sport that allows enough time for you to place a bet without the available markets being abruptly suspended.

Actively deciding to bet in play is possible on almost every bookmaker, with mobile apps and websites catering to ways in which you can do this within an instant. As the main point of in play betting is to get behind a chosen outcome as it happens, being able to do it quickly and without any obstacles is a crucial attribute. This is why you’ll often see that most bookmaker applications focus a lot of their attention towards making in play betting a quick and simple feature.

Almost every bookmaker now operates their own in play section, and football usually features ahead of all other sports within the dedicated area. The primary difference with football is that - unlike most other sports - there’s always a football match being played somewhere around the world, and it’s also an extremely popular sport to bet on in itself, so it was always likely to rank above other sports when it comes to betting in play.

Bookmakers switch from facilitating a pre-match market to running an in play market as soon as each football fixture gets underway. When you decide to bet on in play football, you’ll come to the conclusion that the specific football fixture is likely to be frequently suspended on your chosen bookmaker app or website. This obstacle differs to placing a bet before the fixture kicks-off, but it’s to be expected, as bookmakers will actively halt betting on the market at any time temporarily due to opportunities occurring where any of the markets you’re betting on could become a reality, including goals being scored, corners being taken and players being carded.

Depending on the bookmaker that you’re choosing to bet with, you could be given the chance to watch the match that you’re betting on through the pitch view or via a live stream on the website or app. The pitch view is a way of seeing what’s happening in the match in the simplest of terms, where all that you’re given is a dot across a football pitch. This is a minimalistic way of presenting how the match is going, including a regular update on who has the ball, where the ball is, and what’s happening with it. A live stream is more desirable, as this actually means that you can watch the match as it happens, with the only catch being that you usually need money in your account at the time of the match to unlock the necessary video box.

It would be wrong to entirely rule outright or pre match bets as being worthless, but there’s enough reason to try your hand at in play betting, as there’s several methods of benefitting from it. Some punters would actually prefer to bet in play ahead of betting on a pre match basis for the simple reason that it has been proven to come with stronger odds if you let the football fixture start before choosing the market that you’re interested in betting on.

Advantages come from football betting in play when you’re looking at getting behind a specific football team to win a chosen fixture, especially if you want bigger odds than the current option being provided by your favoured bookmaker. It’s a bit of a risk as it could also be the case that the short-priced team you want to boost your odds with scores early or simply manages to decrease their pre-match price through achieving several shots on goal or by winning several corners in the opening minutes.

Alternatively, if they’re playing a defensive opponent, it can work in your favour, as the odds will move larger for the favourite to win based on the amount of time that they spend not taking the lead. Past attempts at this have boosted a 1/3 price to EVENS if the favourite is incapable of scoring before half-time, so there are ways of gaining value as long as you’ve got the patience to wait, and providing you’re prepared for the possibility of the team you’re wanting to back scoring, ruining any chance of gaining larger odds.

As soon as you enter a bookmaker mobile application or desktop website, you should be able to find the in-play option at a first glance. It’s one of the very first to feature for any reputable bookmaker before any other option, with it being a constant trend put in place by bookmakers to assure that you’re able to bet on something that’s happening right now without any obstacles getting in the way. If they went against this tradition, you could miss out on placing your bet in time before a crucial goal is scored.

After you’ve chosen the in play betting market on your favoured bookmaker app or website, you’ll see each live sporting event that offers an in play option for placing bets. Football often ranks higher than every other sport, followed by similarly pressing sports such as tennis, basketball, cricket, darts and snooker. Other sports such as golf and horse racing have been known to appear as options for in play betting, but the major difference between a sport like horse racing and a sport like football is how instantly things can change. Although a football betting market can be suspended in play depending on a goal being scored, a player being booked or a corner being taken, horse racing happens so quickly that a horse can win a race within seconds, and a race could even be decided between two horses by a matter of inches.

It would always make sense to deposit money into your betting account before finding an ongoing football match that you want to bet on, as things can change so instantly that it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll be able to deposit money before the market is temporarily closed.

Bookmaker odds change all the time, and you’ll see this with any market that you choose to look at, but it only becomes an issue during football betting in play, as any potential bets could be completely ruined if you’re not quick enough to back them. A small display screen will show you what’s happening in the game that you’re betting on, and this is a typical indication of how close either team is getting to scoring or winning corners, even if it can also be somewhat misleading due to the delay between the bookmaker and the game itself.

Various methods created by advanced pundits proved that it was possible to organise your own inplay betting strategy. Discovering ways to capitalise on in play betting has led to the inception of dedicated in play tipster social accounts and websites, as well as bookmakers offering enhanced odds on markets that will only occur as the match plays out live.

If you’re feeling confident over your chances of finding value in betting on in play markets, you could also make use of most bookmakers’ flexibility when it comes to forming multiples in play. It’s usually the case that you can’t combine in play and pre-match markets together, but if you find enough in play selections that you want to back, a lot of bookmakers will let you combine them.

Options to do this prompted a lot of punters into forming their own in play corner betting strategy, where you can pick several teams to win the race to three or race to five corners markets, or you could simply predict the number of corners in play for a handful of games after seeing several occur within the opening few minutes of play.

Betting on your own in play betting tips wasn’t only something that frequent bettors found an opportunity to capitalise on, with bookmakers also realising that it was possible to enhance the experience for their customers by allowing more novelty elements to backing a market as it happens. It’s yet to see coverage from all recognised bookmakers, but there are a few that are trying to find ways to make betting in play exciting. This could be through promoting a number of shots on target from a specific player in the second half, chosen time frames for popular markets to win, and other outcomes that are based around how the match has gone so far.