How to bet on soccer: a beginner's guide

Betting on soccer for beginners starts with an account at a provincially licensed bookmaker, a first deposit and one simple bet. The steps are the same on the website and the app.

1. Open a funded account Register with your ID number, verify under FICA and deposit by Ozow, voucher or card.
2. Pick a match Open Soccer, choose a league such as the Betway Premiership and tap the fixture.
3. Choose a market Start with the match result, also called 1X2: home win, draw or away win.
4. Enter a stake The bet slip shows your possible return, which is the stake times the odds.
5. Confirm and follow Place the bet, then follow it under My Bets or Open Bets.

A sensible first stake is one you would spend on a night out, not your rent. Most licensed bookmakers let you set a deposit limit in your account settings before you start.

A 1X2 bet wins when you pick the right result after 90 minutes plus added time: 1 is a home win, X a draw and 2 an away win. Extra time and penalties are left out, so a cup match level after 90 minutes settles as X even if one side goes through.

Odds turn into your return by multiplication. A R50 bet on Mamelodi Sundowns at 1.60 returns R80 if they win, a R30 profit, while R50 on the draw at 3.50 would return R175. The lower the odds, the more likely the bookmaker thinks the outcome is.

A 90th-minute equaliser turns a winning home bet into a losing one, because the slip settles on the final score of normal time.

+1.5 in soccer is a handicap: the team gets a head start of one and a half goals, so your bet wins if that team wins, draws or loses by a single goal. Backing a PSL underdog at +1.5 against Orlando Pirates wins on a 1-0 Pirates win and loses on 2-0.

The half goal removes the chance of a tie on the handicap, so the bet always settles as a win or a loss. A -1.5 handicap works the other way: the favourite must win by two goals or more.

Handicap odds sit closer to even than the match result. A strong favourite at 1.30 to win might pay around 2.00 at -1.5, because a one-goal win no longer counts.

Beyond the match result, three soccer markets carry most bets in South Africa. Over/under goals asks whether the match has more or fewer goals than a line such as 2.5; both teams to score asks whether each side scores at least once; and double chance covers two of the three results.

Each market settles on regular play, which leaves out extra time and penalties, and at Gbets own goals count for both teams to score.

Our guides explain what over 1.5 means and the draw no bet meaning in more detail, with worked examples. Our list of betting sites in South Africa shows which bookmakers carry these markets on PSL fixtures.

A single is one selection on one bet slip; a multi, also called an accumulator, joins several selections and multiplies their odds. Three legs at 1.50, 1.80 and 2.00 make a multi at 5.40, so R20 returns R108, but every leg must win.

Multis pay more and lose more often, which is why bookmakers attach promotions to them. For a beginner, singles on one or two matches a weekend teach how odds and results work before a long multi does. Our soccer predictions give a model’s chance for each match.

A void leg, such as a postponed match, counts at odds of 1.00 in most multis, so the slip carries on at a lower price.