What are the Different Betting Markets Available with Betway’s Virtual Football

As one of the non-race Virtual Sports offerings available with Betway, Virtual Football has a completely different set of betting markets available compared to the likes of Virtual Horseracing or Virtual Speedway. While those games focus on which runner or rider will be the winner of the race, in Virtual Football, betting markets are about winning the game and also about the events that occur within the game to produce that result.

That simple fact alone means that Virtual Football has a range of betting markets available for you to bet on that are somewhat different to any of the race-based Virtual Sports. In this article, we are going to take a look at these markets and what they actually mean in the Virtual Sports world (which is essentially the same as what the markets apply to when betting on real football matches).

Virtual Football v Real Football

Before you consider the betting markets for Virtual Football it is important to recognise the differences between Virtual Football and betting on a real game. Of course, the fact that one is real and one is simply a computer program is the main difference, but the fact that the simulation of football made by the program works within certain limitations is also noteworthy.

For example, in Virtual Football, games will have no more than four goals scored in them maximum. This is not the case in real football where more than four goals could be scored in any game. This limitation obviously limits the number of options you can have available in some markets (for example, you won’t find any Over/Under 4.5 goal markets available for Virtual Football).

The other thing to note is that in the Virtual Football world, club teams are made up and do not have individual players who can change the game. While it is easy to guess what some of the club teams names refer to in the real world (for example, Manchester Reds refers to Manchester United, while The Cherries refers to Bournemouth (as that is their nickname), the teams do not have any of the famous players playing for them (i.e. built into the software).

Betway could have used any names for their Virtual Football teams but by keeping them related to real life teams (without infringing copyright), you do make the game more relevant to football fans as they can recognise the club teams playing. It is worth noting though that International teams do keep their names as these are not subject to copyright.

Now that we’ve understood the main differences between betting on real football and betting on the virtual version of the game, let’s now take a look at the main markets you can bet on with Virtual Soccer at Betway.

• Win/Draw/Win

This is arguably the easiest market to bet on in real life or Virtual Football in that it is simply a bet on what the outcome of the game will be. Either the home team will win, the away team will win or the match will finish in a draw. The draw and away team wins tend to offer better odds for punters, but of course this does mean that the home team winning does tend to happen a little more often.

• Total Goals 1.5 or 2.5 (or more)

In real life football, you can bet on this market for 3.5 or even 4.5 goals per game but in Virtual Soccer only the 1.5 or 2.5 options are available due to the fact no game has more than four goals scored in it. This is a very simple bet where you are wagering on whether there will be Over or Under the stated number of goals scored in that game.

It is worth noting for this bet that the average number of goals scored in a real football match is generally around the 2.5 mark, which is why this is often used as the midway point offering you around an even money bet on both the Over and Under market, although this can be altered depending on the teams playing and their relative strengths.

• 1^st Goal

This is another simple bet which is simply a wager on which team will be the first to score a goal in your chosen game. You can back either of the teams competing here or you can also select the No Goal option which will win if the game you bet on finishes in a 0-0 draw.

• Both Teams to Score

As the bet suggests, this is a bet on whether both of the teams competing in the game will score during the match, or whether they will not. You can select No – both teams will not score during this game, or Yes, both teams will score at least one goal in the game. There are essentially four different outcomes for this bet which are outlined below:

• Neither team scores a goal – No bet is a winner, Yes bet is a loser
• Home team scores one or more goals, but the away team fails to score – No bet is a winner, Yes bet is a loser.
• Away team scores one or more goals, but the home team fails to score – No bet is a winner, Yes bet is a loser.
• Both teams score at least one goal – No bet is a loser, the Yes bet is a winner.

As you can see there are more potential No outcomes than there are Yes, but in general around half the matches taking place around the world see both teams score, but there are differences from league to league.

• Handicap 3-Way (1) or (-1)

In this bet the handicap outlined in the bracket refers to a goal handicap that is always applied to the home team. So for example, a home team with a handicap of (1) would have a handicap of +1 goal added to their total goals scored in the game. A handicap of (-1) would see them have -1 goals subtracted from their total for the game.

What happens then is that the game is played out and the final result decided in the usual way, but at the end of the game, the handicap is applied to the result to decide the outcome of the bet. So, for example. Let’s say the home team has a (1) handicap for their game and you back the home team to win.

In this case, if the match finished in any draw, then your bet would win as once the handicap is applied, the home team would win the game by a goal. Similarly, if the home team won the game anyway, then your bet would still be a winner. It would only be if the Away team won the game that your bet on the home team winning would lose.

If the Handicap was a (-1) and you bet on the home team then this is different. This would mean you would need the home team to win the game by two or more goals in order for your bet to win as any other result would see the home team lose or draw the game when the handicap is applied.

• Half Time/Full Time

This is a bet on what the score will be in the game at half time and then what the score will be at full time. There are three possible scores it can be at half time (home team winning, draw or away team winning) and the same three possible outcomes at full time. Combining these gives us nine possible HT/FT outcomes:

• Home Win/Home Win, Home Win/Draw, Home Win/Away Win
• Draw/Draw, Draw/Home Win, Draw/Away Win
• Away Win/Away Win, Away Win/Draw, Away Win/Home Win

Each of these options is listed together with the odds for that option.

• Correct Score

This is a bet on what the final score of the game will be and given that we know that no Virtual Football match can have no more than four goals scored, then there are a total of 15 different possible scorelines that a match can finish in and each of these results has stated odds you can bet on.

• Double Chance

This is a bet on two out of the three possible results and is generally a much shorter odds bet than backing a single result in the Win/Draw/Win market. 1X refers to a bet that covers the home team winning and a draw, 12 is bet on the Home Team or Away Team winning, X2 is a bet on the draw and the Away team winning.

• Home/Away Team to Score

These markets are simply Yes/No bets on whether the home team or away team will score in the game.

• 1^st Half – Win/Draw/Win

This is a similar bet to the Win/Draw/Win market listed first, but in this bet only the First Half of the game is used to settle the bet.

• 1^st Half Correct Score

This is the same bet as the Correct Score bet only the Half Time score is used to decide whether the bet is correct or not. At Betway, odds are given for scorelines that contain zero, one or two goals, with the option on any other scoreline (containing three goals or more) offered as a single alternative to the others.

• Winning Margin

This is a self-explanatory bet on what the winning team will win the match by. Each of the Home or Away team can win by one, two or three or more goals, or you can select a drawn game either with no goals scored, or with goals scored. Each of the eight options has its own odds stated.

• Total Goals (Plus Home Team and Away Team Total Goals)

This is simply a bet on the number of goals scored in the game in total by both teams. There are five potential options each with their own odds. 0 goals, 1 goal, 2 goals, 3 goals or the maximum 4 goals. Home and Away Total Goals bets are also available and these are bets on how many goals the Home or Away team will score in total and they offer the same options as the Total Goals market