Whilst football is recognised as easily the most popular team sport on the planet, drawing television audiences of billions to its major events, relatively few football fans take the opportunity to put their football expertise to the test by taking part in football betting.

For many football fans, being a supporter is all about backing one club for life, however football betting allows you to add excitement to neutral matches by backing the club you rate as strongest. And if your team isn't on a good run of form, placing a bet on the opposition can offer some consolation when your team loses.

Online betting is one of the best ways to become involved in football betting. Most online sportsbooks offer a huge variety of football bets from the world's top leagues, all year round. What's more, an online account can be set up in a matter of minutes, giving you virtually instant access to football betting markets.

Here are just a few of the most popular football betting options:

Match betting - match betting is the simplest type of football betting. It involves betting on the outcome of a match, with each outcome priced at specific odds. You can bet on a team or a draw. Typically the betting slip will carry the name of one team under 'away' and the other under 'home'.

When doing match betting you can also vote on a handicap bet which basically PG SLOT AUTO one team a one goal advantage or disadvantage before the game has even started. You then bet on the outcome as per a normal match bet.

Score betting - score betting describes a wide range of betting options. The simplest is predicting the final score of a match, and tends to carry very high odds.

Another popular score betting option involves betting on who will score a goal. These bets carry high odds and come in several varieties including: first goal scorer, last goal scorer and anytime goal scorer.

Special bets - every football game will carry a wide variety of additional betting opportunities, with each online bookmaker offering their own game specials. Literally every aspect of the game attracts odds, ranging from the number of corners in the game, through to which players will be injured. These bets often carry some of the highest odds.