As sports betting is dominating the interest of punters, betting sites and online bookmakers at Allbets.TV try to expand the list and the range of their offered markets in order to provide a richer experience to the user and keep them satisfied and alert at all times.
Nowadays, bettors have the chance to bet not only on the traditional markets such as the winner of specific matches, the outright winner of a major tournament or total goals scored let’s say. They have the chance to be on more special markets that can be anything directly or even indirectly related to the sport. One such special market that is gaining ground in the last few years is the transfer window of footballers.
There are two transfer windows each year: the longer period, which is usually during the summer (but in reality it depends on the leagues’ cycles) and the shorter window, which is a mid-break period from the season, usually in January. These transfer windows are always attractive to fans and bettors, specifically because football players move from one club to the other, new signings are generated and the dynamics of clubs change.
The main purpose of having transfer windows is to ensure stability to some extent to the sport market, by placing time boundaries to the movement of footballers and thus creating the grounds for smoother seasons. But the truth is that even with these limits, transfer windows always shake things up!
When can you bet?
Even though the actual movements and registrations of players to clubs are happening in the two transfer windows, bookmakers get to offer all year round opportunities to bet, specifically when there is increased transfer speculation. For instance, you can bet on whether a player will remain where he currently is or he joins a new club in the upcoming transfer window.
In the next few paragraphs, you will find out how to bet on football transfers.
Betting on a footballer’s movement after the transfer period
If you browse through online sportsbooks, you will certainly find this market and it will be something like asking you to predict which club is going to be the next home of Cristiano Ronaldo after the next transfer window.
You will be offered a list of the potential clubs, where Ronaldo will most likely register with and each will have its corresponding odds. Probably you will find that the player’s current club is on this list, which means that the bookmaker gives you the chance to bet on him staying where he is. But you can also find a list, in which the current club of the player is missing.
What can this mean to you? Well, you need to understand that too often, bookmakers have far greater access to information than us and so if they know that a player is very likely to stay with his club, then they will avoid giving you the chance to bet a significant amount of money, let’s say on an event that has the greater chances of occurring. So, you need to figure out whether your bet will be lost in the end if the player turns out to opt for a choice that is not provided in the list presented by the bookies.
Betting on free agents
Sometimes, top-notch footballers become free agents, which means that as their contracts are running out they are not signed by other clubs and so there is no transfer money. Bookies also give you the chance to bet on such cases. They create markets for transfer free agents and offer a list of clubs or even more broad options for you to bet. For instance, you might find a market for the registration of a player in any Italian club or in any Premier League club etc.
Betting on whether a player will leave or stay with his current club
You also have the chance to predict more straightforward and simple things, such as whether a football player will remain with his club or move in the next transfer period. Punters generally like this market, because it is easier for them to make a forecast about a movement, than to make a forecast about a specific destination if the movement takes place.
Caution
You should always keep in mind that while these bets are in fact very interesting, they are also very volatile and this means that even if you read a lot about a transfer and you think that it is a sure thing, there is always the chance to be nothing but fuzz. Media, stakeholders and footballers themselves might want to create a whole speculative trend that might be far away from the truth.