Watching sports, including rugby, can make you a happier person, at least if you don’t take losses personally. On the flip side, betting can make you profitable, and in some cases, a more committed fan.
So, how do you bet on rugby? For starters, wagering on rugby is no different to betting on football, cricket, hockey or basketball. The fundamentals are similar. In fact, they also share identical betting strategies.
With that in mind, have confidence that you can bet on rugby. However, don’t place your first bet before you grasp the following basics.
Types of Rugby Bets
When we said betting on rugby is similar to predicting football games, we meant that you could predict these outcomes:
- Match Winners: you predict which team wins a match, the home team or the visiting side. You can also make a draw bet. But as you probably know, draws seldom occur in rugby.
- Totals: you estimate the number of points scored by both teams. For example, you can bet under 20 points if you believe a game between Japan and Argentina will amount to fewer than 20 points. Alternatively, you can predict OV20 in a game where you speculate both teams will score over 20 points.
- Handicap Betting: Bookmakers can let you predict by how many goals a team wins or losses. Let’s say the All Blacks are facing the US. A bookie could offer handicaps for Australia to win +5 points. That means they must win by over five goals for you to win.
The beauty of handicaps/spreads or winning margins—as some call them—is that they offer better odds than regular bets.
- Proposition Bets: you predict relatively random outcomes related to rugby. For example, who scores the first try? Which side wins a specific tournament or series? Which player records the most points in a series?
Proposition bets are challenging to predict correctly. And that’s because the margin of them happening is slim. For instance, there’s a very little likelihood of predicting the person to make a try.
Rugby Betting Odds
Once you understand what you can bet on; know how to select odds. They are your measurements for how much profit you can expect from each prediction. Of course, the goal is to choose the best odds available.
Speaking of finding odds, most self-respecting bookmakers provide rugby betting markets. Digibet sports betting, for example, lets you bet on any major tournament happening around the world. As such, you can be confident you’ll find plenty of games to compare before you pick one.
But how do you get the best value from odds? You have two options. Consider predicting more challenging outcomes or compare odds on different betting websites. For starters, let’s say you want to predict a game between England and Wales.
On bookie A, England have odds 1.5 while Wales have odds 3.0. You believe England will win but don’t like the odds given. You could check out what odds England have on two or three more betting sites. In many cases, you will find a betting company with better odds.
Alternatively, you can opt to place a handicap bet where England must win by +5 points for you to earn a sizeable profit. The keyword is +5 points. Otherwise, a time game in which they win by 1-4 points will be a loss for you.
Consider Tipsters
How experienced are you at rugby betting? If you are a novice or inconsistent with your profits, chances are that you don’t compare your prediction with that of tipsters. Aren’t they people like you?
Sure, anyone can bet on rugby. But some people are better at it because of their experience, they have better research tactics or tend to be luckier than others. Against that backdrop, form a habit of checking what predictions experts have.
You don’t have to make the same prediction as a tipster. But you can read their analysis of a game to understand why they believe Japan could defeat the All blackjacks in an away game.
You’ll gain crucial bits of betting information you might have ignored that could influence the outcome of a game. Or you could find a tipster that so good at predictions that you end up increasing your win percentage in the long haul.
Should you pay for tipster services? That’s a debatable topic. Some people argue the best tips are those you pay for. However, lots of free tipsters also have impressive success rates. So, evaluate several free tipsters before you choose to pay for these services.
Best Tournaments for Betting
With many sports, it’s good to specialize in one or a few tournaments rather than betting on just about any game. It’s the same case in rugby. You can decide to bet on games involving these renowned competitions:
- The Rugby World Cup
- The Six Nations Championships
- Rugby Europe International Championships
- World Rugby Pacific Nations Cup
- Nations Cup
- America’s or Asia Rugby Championships
Alternatively, you can select premiership tournaments from a few countries. The benefit here is that you become knowledgeable on how the leagues work and the teams involved quicker than if you have no specialization at all.
Once that’s done, next up is to develop a betting strategy.
Forming a Rugby Betting Strategy
Rugby betting requires a solid strategy if you want to win successfully. That’s because unlike football, odds aren’t always appealing. You could find a few top-level games supported by all bookmakers.
But when you look at the odds, they might be too long to offer value back. So, what do you?
- Develop a keen eye for competitive games
- Have a budget
- Consider underdogs
- Have a betting schedule
- Know when to quit
- Keep records
With these tips in mind, your strategy can be as unique as you want it to be. For example, you decide to bet on handicaps from games in the World Rugby Sevens Series. However, you’ll still need to have a budget, create a schedule and keep your records. In other words, bet like a professional business person.
