The ultimate guide to water polo betting for UK punters

What Are The Odds?

If you’re looking for water polo betting options in 2020, your best bet is the World Aquatics Championships. This is to be held in the middle-to-end of July and will see men’s teams and women’s teams separately compete for the winning prizes. This competition is held every two years. For the 2017 competition, Croatia won the men’s tournament, with the women’s won by the United States.

There’s also the FINA Water Polo World League. As of the time of writing, this year’s women’s tournament has already ended, while the men’s is still ongoing. In November, the 2020 tournaments will start, so you’ll want to think about betting on that when the time comes around.

The odds for these competitions will start to be revealed by bookmakers closer to their starting time. Odds for international competitions can get quite competitive, so it’s a good idea to compare what different bookmakers are offering. As is the case with any kind of major sporting competition, teams or countries that have fared well in the past are going to have favourable odds.

When determining the odds, bookmakers also take into account the team members and how they’ve performed in the past. If a team’s made up of experienced players who have between them had lots of success, that team’s going to have pretty good odds of winning. On the other hand, a team made up of relatively inexperienced players whose skills and strengths aren’t that well tested won’t have too good odds of winning.

Most people who place bets on water polo will be betting on the outright winner of a tournament. However, there are usually other bets you can place. These include betting on which team will win an individual match, whether the score of an individual match is more or less than the number given by the bookies and several bets to do with goals, e.g. first team to score and last team to score.

You should find that betting on water polo is available at most major online sportsbooks. Pretty much all the biggest brands offer water polo betting. The sport isn’t among the most popular when it comes to betting, but it still attracts enough attention, and bets, that many major bookmakers choose to offer betting markets for it.

Check out what your favourite online bookmaker offers in the way of water polo betting as major competitions get closer. You may well find another bookmaker offers better odds and more markets. That’s why it’s a good idea to look around and see what other bookmakers offer, even if you’ve already signed up to one.

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How to bet on water polo?

You might be completely new to water polo and wondering what competitions there are for you to bet on – the most famous is the Olympic Games! Obviously, as a sport in the Olympics, betting is going to be accessible through most online gambling sites.

Other water polo competitions that might be of interest to you are the FINA Water Polo World Cup which is an international competition; The European Championships; The Water Polo World League, The Water Polo Len Euroleague (this features both male and female teams) and The Water Polo Len Cup (which also features male and female teams). Search for these on any of the major gambling sites and you should find what you are looking for.

You can also bet on Water Polo Domestic Leagues – the most popular of these are the Italian and Spanish national leagues.

Water polo betting options

• Outright – This bet predicts which team will win the tournament.

• Winner – This predicts which team will win a specific match. In the event of a tie, which is rare in water polo, you are likely to get a good pay-out.

• Total Score (Over/under bets) – These bets predict if the total number of goals scored by both teams will be over or under the value set by the bookmakers.

• Handicap – This is where the team which is considered underdog by the odd-makers is given an advantage and the chances of both teams winning the match are more even.

Some other types of bets are more specific and can include specifying the first team to score, the last team to score a goal and the number of goals in the match being odd or even.

A good hint when betting on water polo is to keep an eye on the goalkeeper and bet on the team with the best keeper, as they are central to a teams’ success. A goalie is the most important player on the team as they not only have to anticipate and block any goal attempts, but they have to keep their wits about them at all times. Keepers are crucial in informing the players about threats and gaps in their defence, and they also have the power to initiate attacks as the other players will assist them and follow their lead. So watch that goalie!

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