Live Rugby Betting

The best live rugby betting sites are Bet365.com and BetFair.com. Both offer a wide selection of live rugby bets, plus live streaming video of the best matches. Live streaming video allows punters to get a feel for the momentum of a game before placing any bets.

Rugby Betting Sites

Rugby is one the most popular sports in the world with over four-billion viewers tuning into watch the World Cup every four years. However if you’re from a major television market such as the United States or Germany you might not even know the competition exists. The reason is simple… The National Football League, better known as the NFL. Whilst the sports no longer resemble one another as much, their origins are the same; gridiron is an Americanized variant of IRB rugby. In this article I’ll cover which rugby competitions are popular and give advice about the best rugby betting sites.

Popular Rugby Competitions

In the UK Rugby Union is popular with the Aviva Premiership and Heineken Cup leading the way, and Super 15 being one of their favourite competitions. Now with southern hemisphere countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa also adopting rugby as one of their national sports, the player base, quality and intensity has led to a competitive betting market. As you’re probably aware, competitive markets generally mean efficient markets as well, and… rugby is no exception when it comes “matches”.

Where to Bet on Live Rugby Matches

If you’re a recreational punter interested in wagering ruby, the two best rugby betting sites for you are most likely www.Bet365.com and www.Bodog.eu. Both of these betting sites are known for their bonus offers and promotions. Although using only two betting sites might decrease your odds slightly, remembers this is an efficient market so the difference will be minor; the bonuses and promotions will more than offset these differences.

When it comes to major international competitions… here things change a little. In the early going and just before game time, it is not uncommon to find arbitrage opportunities because the odds tend to vary greatly between betting sites. Here you’ll want shop the odds at as many live betting sites as you possibly can. Consider Pinnacle Sports, Ladbrokes, Stan James and Will Hill great additions to your rugby betting sites line up.

To take quick look at the major international competitions we have the Rugby World Cup every four years which is the pinnacle of this sport. In addition there is the Six Nations tournament held annually between England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France and Italy, making it the largest rugby competition exclusive to the northern hemisphere. Another major international tournament is the Tri Nations, consisting of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. As these three teams often make up part of the top 5 ranked teams in the world, the Tri Nations is the southern hemisphere’s equivalent to the Six Nations competition held in Europe.

English Domestic In-Play Rugby Betting

Although covered in the intro of this section, to expand a little: domestically the pinnacle of the European game comes in the form of the Heineken Cup where the elite teams from across Europe do battle to win the most prestigious crown in club rugby. Historically teams from the countries making up that of the Six Nations qualify based on where they finish in their respected leagues.

The Aviva Premiership is the highlight of the English domestic season with 12 teams currently doing battle to make the playoff format at the end of season, before ultimately being crowned champions. Saracens lifted the trophy in 2011 after beating title favourites, and 1st place finishers in the league, Leicester.

For obvious reasons most punters stick to UK bookmakers when betting domestic rugby. If you’re a serious punter looking for the best odds consider bodog.eu and 5dimes.com when shopping prices. These are two of the largest betting sites for gridiron and both have great reputations. Neither site specializes in rugby, but does offer it with moderate betting limits. Considering both sites tend to move and update their rugby odds slowly some unique opportunities can be spotted.

In-Play Rugby Betting Markets

As the popularity of Rugby continues to grow worldwide, many bookmakers are opening up the amount of markets currently available to bet on. Due to the fact rugby betting is still in its early years of popularity there can be some fantastic markets to pick up some really solid value bets. Let’s take a look.

Outright Winner

Historically we would say that bookmakers are pretty shrewd when it comes to setting a line for the outright winner of a match. However, in major competition value can still be found due to public biased which is no longer the case in most sports. To show let me explain: as mentioned the Aviva Premiership has its top four finishers in the league take part in a play-off style knockout to decide to outright league winner.

As this is top four based, the team who finished the season first will quite rightly be favourites and the team who finished fourth being at the longest odds (with second and third priced respectively in between).

Let’s use the outcome of 2011 season for example. The Play Offs saw Leicester (1st), Saracens (2nd), Gloucester (3rd) and Northampton (4th) all compete to win the title outright. The odds were conformed in order of league ranking.

In the regular season Saracens had actually beaten league leaders Leicester twice already, but were only the second favourite to win the competition outright, whilst Northampton had made into the final of the Heineken Cup, which is no mean feat. Both of these teams were at longer odds, yet had the form going into the playoff finals. Whilst a one situation sample doesn’t matter much to a handicapper, Saracens did go on to beat Leicester for the third time that season and become crowned the Aviva Premiership Champions and the bookmakers made a hefty profit as a result.

If you’re accustomed to NFL football betting, this suggestion might sound 1990’s to you, but fan biased does influence the rugby betting for outright winners. The reason this is possible relates to UK bookmakers being considerably tighter with their tolerance to risk. Winning punters are invited to leave more often AND betting limits are also conservative ($7500 max at the big sites willing to take mid five figures on NFL). The fans tend to always bet based on seed… simple handicapping and line shopping can lead to some serious profits when betting outright winners. www.5dimes.com is a great place to find unique outright winner lines with a low bookmaker over round.

Other Rugby Betting Opportunities

Rugby Spread Betting: A unique form of sports betting growing rapidly in popularity throughout the United Kingdom is Sports Spread Betting. This is a method of betting where you win or lose money based on how correct you were. For example if your team loses by 20 points you lose more than if they lost by 2 points, if your team wins by 20 points you win more than if they won by 2 points. There are many unique spread betting opportunities in Rugby, you can check them out at www.extrabet.com