Soccer betting is quite popular in the UK, as well as in Europe. Betting on soccer, as well as other sports is much more commonplace in European countries, as the laws on sports betting are far more relaxed than those in the US. In fact, casinos and sports betting sites sponsor many sports teams. For example, Mansion Poker sponsors Tottenham’s football team, while Manchester United have signed a big sponsorship deal with bin. All of these deals are geared towards converting fans of football into bettors on the sport.

Most of the soccer club websites in the English Premier League are very bettor friendly for soccer betting. In fact, many of them either link directly to soccer betting sites or list the odds of a team winning right on their website. The odds are provided by an outside soccer betting site, of course.

Additionally, many soccer team websites list the odds and payouts of their superstars scoring a goal right on their site. For example, in the teaser or match preview on Manchester United’s official website, it is common to see the payout on a player such as Wayne Rooney scoring a goal, parlayed with a United victory.

Another new trend is for soccer betting sites to collaborate with soccer clubs. For example, Paddy Power is partnered with Arsenal, bwin with Manchester United, 188BET partners with Chelsea, while SportingBet has partnered with the Wolverhampton Wolves. Such partnerships drives revenue for the respective football clubs and gives the soccer betting fan base a sense of loyalty when betting on soccer.

Each of these soccer betting sites provides a special promotion or bonus exclusively for their fans. Bwin offers the fans of Manchester United a free twenty-five pound bet when opening a soccer betting account with bwin. SportingBet gives fans of the Wolves a free twenty-five pound bet, with up to one hundred seventy-five more pounds in free bets up for grabs for future bets.

It is reasonable to conclude that betting is a large part of the culture in Europe and England, especially when it comes to betting on soccer odds. With more and more football clubs entering into strategic partnerships with online soccer betting services, betting on soccer matches is becoming more and more popular. Soccer betting sites are leveraging the number of fans each soccer club commands, and relying on the diehard supporter’s brand loyalty.

With the start of the 2009-2010 Premiership nearing kickoff, there are several burning questions as to how the League shall play out this season – specifically involving the two Manchester sides.

Will Manchester City Contend for the League Crown?

Manchester City have gone on a soccer betting spending spree during the summer transfer season. They have spent to improve their side up top with the signing of Carlos Tevez, the potent striker who was let go by cross-town rivals Manchester United. Additionally, there is speculation that City has made a record offer to aging Chelsea Captain John Terry. That’s not to say Terry’s age dubs him incapable of playing quality football, however at 29 years of age, it is difficult to justify paying such a commanding salary.

While City have embarked on quite a spending frenzy this off-season, it may well prove to be money well spent and it is realistic to envision City contending for the league crown.

Will United Survive the Departure of #7?

For the third time in a decade, Real Madrid have raided the Manchester United camp of a top United player. Cristiano Ronaldo transferred out to extend his services to Real Madrid in exchange for a record transfer fee of 80 million pounds. Each time United lost a key talent to Real, they bounced back even stronger, just as they did when they lost another #7 – David Beckham to the hands of Real. Becks was replaced by wonder kid Ronaldo, who strengthened the side. Sharpshooter Ruud Van Nistlerooy left town heading for Real, and United filled the void bringing on Tevez (now at City) and Berbetov.

To compensate for the loss of Ronaldo, Sir Alex went out and grabbed another young talent in international standout Antonio Valencia. In perhaps the steal of the century, Michael Owen was signed via free transfer. Owen is a striker with deadly precision in his strikes. He is hungry and on a mission to redeem his career. Having signed with League Champion United, Owen will have the opportunity to recapture his top form. From the looks of his preseason play in Asia, Owen appears fit, focused, and on target.

In addition to the new signings, United can respect a return to action of Owen Hargreaves, which is certain to fill a void in the Manchester United Midfield. Hargreaves missed the majority of the season due to injury and is looking to reclaim a key roll in the midfield.

In the end, while City will certainly contend for a League Crown with a much improved (albeit bought) side, United are the clear favorites to repeat yet again as League Champion. I think United and City finish 1 and 2 respectively.

With this year’s top scorer transferred out of the Premiership, former Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo (31 goals) has left the barn door wide open for another top goal scorer. When the upcoming English Premiership season comes to an end next May, who will be the leading goal scorer?

There has been a lot of shuffling in sides in this busy transfer season. In addition to Ronaldo departing England, Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor has relocated to Manchester City. Despite being second in goals scored last season, Adebayor goes off at five to one odds to be the leading scorer in the Premiership. Tied for second best last season with Emmanuel was the deadly striker from Liverpool Fernando Torres, who is even in odds to lead in goals scored.

In the field of dreams, Wayne Rooney is expected to produce more in Ronaldo’s absence is given 16 to five odds. Newly signed Michael Owen, who looks sharp and rejuvenated in preseason is seven to two for the top goal scorer honors. Another United standout expected to step up productivity, Dinitar Berbatov goes off at six to one odds. Heading over to Stamford Bridge, Didier Drogba is eleven to five to be the league’s leading scorer, while Nicolas Anelka sports odds of nine to two.

Finding the Value

While top honors among goal scorers in England are up for grabs, the fact remains thirty-one goals is a lot to redistribute in United. Not that there is a rule stating that those thirty-one goals has to be used, but there is a lot of critical touches that will be redistributed in United. My guess is that Rooney and Owen will get a lion’s share of those critical touches, with Owen finishing at a far higher ratio – however neither of which are worth the value the odds currently set forth.

Adebayor will be in top form having joined City along side Carlos Tevez. With a proven ability to find the back of the net in Arsenal, Adebayor provides the most value at five to one to lead the league in scoring. The fact that Torres, who had an equal amount of goals yet presents at even odds to lead the league in scoring speaks mountains to the value in the futures of Emmanuel Adebayor. For that reason, I back the newly acquired City winger to take down top honors among goal scorers in the Premiership.

If you enjoy betting on soccer then you have probably heard of the term Asian Handicap which simply refers to one of the types of bets you can make on the outcome of soccer games. This popular bet has grown around the world and there are now millions of people learning how to win money while betting on soccer. In order to understand what this bet is exactly you need to know what the handicap means.

Instead of offering a standard bet where you can pick one of the two teams to win or draw, bookmakers have begun also offering a bet with a handicap where it takes the draw out of the question for the most part. Let’s take a quick look at an example of a game using the Asian Handicap.

France +1.5 vs. Brazil -1.5

In the above example you can see that France has a (+1.5). The (+) sign means that the team is the underdog and they can lose by a certain amount of goals and you would still win. Brazil as you can see has the opposite sign (-) and this sign tells you that Brazil is the favourite in the game and they need to win by a certain amount of goals. In this example Brazil would need to win by 2 goals for you to win with Brazil. If you picked France then you would be able to lose by 1 goal and still win the bet because Brazil didn’t cover the handicap.

Canada +2 vs. Germany -2

In this example you can see that the handicap is a whole number instead of a decimal number. This means that there is a potential for the wager to be a tie and given back to you. If Germany wins the game by two goals then the bet would be a tie because of the handicap of -2. After subtracting the handicap of 2 in a 2-0 game you’d be left with a 0-0 game. If Germany only wins by 1 goal though then Canada would win the wager whereas if Germany wins by 3 goals they would win the wager.

These wagers have become so popular for many reasons, but one of the number one reasons why it has is simply due to the fact you can win/draw on the same bet. For instance, if you take an underdog team of +1 and they only lose by 1 you would get your money back. So in a close game it’s beneficial for you to bet on this team because most of the time you won’t see a close game with a goal margin of 2+.

With all of the soccer leagues around the world there are plenty of opportunities for you to find really close match-ups that have favourable handicaps. It does take a lot of time to research the games to bet on as you want to make sure you’re getting good value, but there are lots of forums online to help you out with that. You may also learn some excellent Asian Handicap betting systems by becoming active in some betting communities.