Football betting jargon – favorites and underdogs:

If you start visiting websites, forums, and social media dedicated to football betting, the jargon may sound kind of confusing at first glance.
The underdog is the team with fewer chances to win the game, in the eyes of the media, the fans, and or the betting markets.

Jargon, slang, or what? Football bettors’ words

Favorite is a bit of a long word for quick communication. And as an underdog is a famous word in the betting communities, some people may refer to the teams as dog and underdog, although the shortening is a far rarer word to come across than underdog.

This denomination is a bit more common within the Asian handicap betting circles. If you don’t know what Asian handicap is, check our beginners’ guide to Asian Handicap.

Examples of underdogs in the football betting markets: 1×2

Let’s consider a real-life example to make things easier.
In the upcoming game of the UEFA Europa League between AS Roma and Real Betis later today, the Spanish side would be the underdog.
The current odds in the 1×2 markets are as follows

‘1’: AS Roma’s victory: 1.82
‘X’: Match Draw: 3.78
‘2’: Betis’ victory: 4.46

In other words, if you bet on the underdog you can win more money.

It’s all about the chances: football betting odds

Of course, the betting markets aren’t right all the time. If you want to know more about how odds are calculated and how to profit with sports betting odds, check this 1×2 football betting guide that we made for you.
In summary, the underdog is the team that is expected to lose. But of course, there are surprises in the world of sports, especially football.

New Zealand in the FIFA World Cup 2010: underdogs beyond imagination

Can you imagine a sports event so crazy that bookies didn’t even sell odds to this possibility? Yes, it happened 12 years ago in South Africa.
The selection that won that FIFA World Cup was Spain, but they lost to Switzerland in the opening game of their group.
That said, New Zealand collected three points during the Group Stage as they had 3 match draws. They didn’t progress to the knockout stage, so they were eliminated without losing any game.

But soccer isn’t exactly traditional in that country, so the bookmakers wouldn’t even sell odds for New Zealand to be the only undefeated team in a FIFA World Cup.
In fact, bookies like farfetched bets, because they usually get so much money and pay prizes very rarely.
So it was not like they were protecting themselves, they simply considered this so absurd that no one would bet, not even for like thousands of dollars in prizes.
Another good example is the title of Leicester in 2016 in the English Premier League: the odds for them to lift the trophy were 5001.0, meaning a small $10 bet could have paid $50k to the winner!

Keep an eye on our website for more betting guides like this!