How to bet on soccer games – yellow card betting:
Yellow Card betting is a relatively new market in comparison with older markets like match result betting. It is a secondary market because of the betting limits and other factors.
Red card betting is very different in comparison with the yellow card betting market.
The reason is simple: they are different statistically.
A soccer game has a lot more yellows than reds in normal circumstances. As a result, the dynamics of yellow card betting are very similar to the ‘number of goals in a match’ market as well as corner kick betting: you try to guess the number of yellows using over/under lines.
In the red card betting market, you bet on whether there will be a red in the game, in a particular half, or if a specific team will have one player or more sent off.
Yellow vs red Card Betting: Real-Life example
In the past, it was more common to have separated odds for yellow cards and all cards in a game. But you can see in the following odds for the upcoming game between Real Madrid and Barcelona valid for La Liga 2022/23, the current odds for combined card betting. The base of these lines is the fact that yellows are more abundant than red cards.
Over 5.5 cards: 1.67
Under 5.5 cards: 2.4
These are the current odds for the El Clasico match. These are the lines that attract more attention in the professional betting world because they are closer to 2.0. We’ll explain more about professional betting very soon in a special guide.
As you can see, the odds are different than the red card odds for the same game. At the moment, the odds for a red card in the match are 3.10. They are somewhat low for this market, but the derbies are tense games and often people believe there tend to be fights among the players which can produce reds.
Live yellow card betting: 101 guide
When you bet on the total cards market, which is more focused on the number of yellows than the potential reds, you can have two markets: before kick-off and in-running.
The in-running market is also called the live betting market.
It is a very interesting one which is used by professional traders all the time. You can obtain very keen intel about the development of a game by following it live. You can see if there’s tension in the air, if it is increasing as time passes, and depending on how much a team needs to fight back a losing score, you can spot right away if the game tends to produce more fouls and violent moments that can generate cards.
A game that produced lots of yellows naturally becomes a game for potential reds too. But just gut feeling won’t do in the long run: you need to understand the numbers behind your own betting decisions. Keep an eye on our home page for our upcoming betting guide: how to calculate betting odds!
