New Zealand
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When it comes to online sports betting, Australian football is one of the most popular markets in New Zealand. Otherwise known as Aussie Rules football, it is a fast-paced contact sport, similar to Rugby League. A major AFL game can attract thousands of visitors to the stadium while punters across the world bet at home. For online purposes, the majority of Australian football bets are placed on Australian Football League games.
About the AFL
For those who are new to the sport, the AFL consists of a preseason and a regular season running from March to September each year. During the regular season, a total of 8 games are played each week, proving punters with plenty of sports betting action. There are a total of 23 rounds in the regular season where all 18 teams play both home and away. The top 8 teams then progress to the four-round finals. The top 2 teams from the finals compete in the Grand Final for the Premiership Cup.
Basic AFL Bets
As with Rugby and many other team sports, there are many different types of bets that can be placed on the AFL. At the start of the season, it is possible to place futures on which team will win the Premiership. During the regular season, wagers can be placed on each game. The most popular option for beginners is the head to head bet. This simply involves picking the winning team of a particular match. The best sports betting brands will also offer a host of prop or exotic wagers.
In addition to match or head to head wagers, bookmakers usually offer totals betting. This is where they predict the total score of both teams as the end of full time. A punter can then choose to predict whether the actual total will be above or below the quoted value.
Advanced Football Bets
If the two teams are unevenly matched, bookmakers will offer line or margin wagers. This is where one team is given a virtual point advantage. In such cases, the favourites would have to win by a certain margin to be successful. The team might win the match, but if the point difference were not high enough, the wager would lose.
With online and mobile sports betting, it is also possible to place prop bets on Australian Football. Within each game, punters can predict which team will be the first to score, the total number of goals scored, the first player to score, as well as which team will be ahead at half time.
Before you Bet
Before placing any significant sum of money down, it is important to do as much research on the teams as possible. Even with a stack of statistics to draw from, there are other factors that can influence the outcome such as home ground advantage, altitude, team injuries, changes to the coaching staff, scheduling, whether the team has played too many games in a short time and what happened last time the two teams met.