Football Transfer Betting

How to Bet on the Transfer Market

When it comes to transfer betting, punters need to be aware of a few things — transfer betting is not as simple as just placing any other wager through a bookie. You must have some deep insight into what is available.

The bookies offering this type of betting often provide punters with specific markets relating to the transfer of a club or a league in general. Therefore, you must assess and analyse all the information and find the market you think is the most favourable. 

To find the right market, visit the bookie of your choice and access the football betting section. In this section, you'll see another subsection for 'Special' where you'll find all the available player transfers you can bet on.

In summary:

• Assess the information
• Find the right market
• Place a bet

Criteria for Choosing the Best Transfer Betting Sites

As promised, we shall introduce you to the top 5 best transfer betting online platforms. However, before we get to that, we will share the criteria we used to arrive at these five options. We assessed the potential of these operators based on a set of key features and characteristics that any punter should always watch out for when looking for a transfer betting site. 

That said, it’s worth noting that the criteria we followed may not encompass everything there's to a transfer betting bookmaker. However, it provides you with what you'll need to make a quick comparison. 

Ordinarily, some bookies may perform better in some criteria than others, so it's up to you to do some follow-up research to find the perfect match for your betting needs and preferences. 

The criteria include:

• Markets offered
• Availability of a news section
• The odds and payout
• Bonuses offered on transfer betting

The Different Types of Transfer Betting Markets Available

For astute punters, you're probably used to being treated to a wide variety of sports betting markets. However, when you're looking to bet on football transfers, you may need to lower your expectations because the markets offered are fewer than normal football bets. 

When comparing different sites, ensure all the possible player or manager transfer betting markets are offered. A reliable betting site will offer the following markets for punters to bet on. 

Player Changes Team (Yes/No)

The simplest transfer market you'll come across is to bet on whether a certain player will go on a transfer during a specific transfer window. This wager only has two options; you can simply bet Yes or No.

Because of the simplicity of this market, the odds offered here are generally low — there's even a probability of this market getting suspended if there's heavy speculation. 

This is a straightforward market that beginners can take advantage of with basic information on the transfer market. For advanced and perennial punters, you may opt to look forward to more interesting transfer markets below. 

The Player’s Next Team

One of the most exciting markets you can get on is staking on a player's next permanent team. Here, you will choose a player’s next club. Different possible destinations will be displayed for you to choose from — they'll all have varying odds depending on the likelihood of a player moving to the club. 

Naturally, there will be a favourite destination, but the transfer market is full of surprises. For instance, we all knew that Kylian Mbappe would move to Real Madrid during the 2022 Summer transfer window, only for him to sign a new contract with PSG. 

If you can predict a player to move to a team other than the favourite, you'll win big if such surprises keep happening. 

The Team’s Next Purchase

In this market, bookmakers will give you the option to bet on which player a specific team is likely to sign during a particular transfer window. 

The bookies will give you a list of players when you select a team to wager on. You can then select the player likely to sign for this team during the transfer window. To increase your chances of settling on the right player, you need to keep an eye on the transfer rumours page. 

To Break Transfer Record Market

Another option bookies should offer under transfer betting is the team that will break the transfer record within a designated period. You can have a great win here if you follow news about potential transfers involving high-profile players currently still on contract. 

The News Section of the Bookmaker

Bookmakers with a news section make transfer betting a lot more convenient compared to those that don't have it. The news section helps punters make informed betting decisions because the transfer market is constantly changing, so you have a very short window to make a decision. 

Most bookmakers provide this feature under the live betting section, but in its absence, some will have a blog section. It is important to stay on top of the news when it comes to transfer betting, which is why bookies that give punters the option to follow news through the platform score highly.

The Payout of the Bookmaker

Possibly one of the most significant deciders, a bookmaker's payout in transfer betting plays an instrumental role in your betting experience. The payout offered determines how much money you can make if you win your transfer bet with a given bookmaker. A higher payout signifies a greater win. 

We calculated the payouts on transfer betting from different bookies, and this is what we found:

Payout Range

• Betway: 91.22 - 93.86%
• 888sport: 91.05 - 92.99%
• Sky bet: 91.15% – 93.78%
• Grosvenor: 92.14% – 93.12%
• Betfair: 91.01% – 92.90%
• Coral: 89.99% – 92.35%
• Ladbrokes: 90.02% – 92.74%

The Best Bonuses and Promotions

Nothing is more attractive in online betting than promotions and bonuses. You're probably accustomed to sign-up offers, leaderboard rewards and other similar promotions offered by different sportsbooks. What if you could also be treated to transfer betting bonuses?

We know that sometimes bonuses are restricted to specific sports. Finding a bookmaker that awards bonuses and allows you to spend them on transfer betting would be a great advantage.

Tips and Strategies for Online Transfer Betting

Similar to any other sports betting market, betting on player transfer requires you to have a strategy for a chance to win anything. Here are a few tips to help you become a pro at transfer betting.

• Be updated with the news

This is perhaps the most important strategy for anyone betting on football transfers. Things can be quite fluid in the transfer window, which calls for extra keenness on the market. Reading all the news and rumours widely can help your course of betting on the correct outcome.

• Verify info and news sources

It is natural to get hold of wild things and hot air as soon as the transfer rumour mill starts spinning. Therefore, check the credibility of your sources and authenticate any transfer information you come across. Checking the history of a publication and the reputation of your source is a good place to start. 

• Follow up on agents

Every footballer has an agent who manages their transfer affairs. An agent could be a professional firm, siblings, parents or even spouses to the players and managers. Most often, transfer rumours begin from these agents. Agents use this opportunity to hype their assets and invite interested teams to make a move — the more viral the rumour goes, the higher the player's value seems to go in many cases. 

While agents may have their reasons for starting rumours, they often point to the likelihood of a player's next move. You can use this information to wager on markets, such as whether a player will move or stay at the current club. However, keep in mind that some rumours are spun around just so a player can get an improved contract with their current team — you'll need to be extra resourceful and not rely entirely on this. 

• Watch out for the deadline day

The deadline day is the precise day on which all transfers end and the transfer window closes. Both the summer and winter transfer windows have a definite deadline day across all the major world leagues. 

The deadline day usually presents some pretty dramatic transfer activities. Teams that have been in the market for a long will be desperate to get a deal, and players who have been stalling a move may display a drastic change of mind. Simply put, you never know what will happen — this day truly brings forth the meaning of it's never over until it's over. 

The Transfer Market

If you're a staunch football fan, you may already have an idea or two about how the transfers work in the real world. The rules and regulations of the transfer market in various leagues worldwide can greatly affect transfer betting, so it’s important to know them. For instance, when does the transfer begin and how long does the transfer period last? 

To address this question, let's look at the transfer window and how it works in different European leagues. 

Transfer Window

The transfer window is the time when teams are allowed to make signings of new players and managers. However, negotiations for these signings take off way before the window opens. 

Premier League Transfer Window

UK punters interested in transfer betting will have a thing or two to say about the Premier League. In the Premier League, there are two transfer windows, one in the summer and another shorter one in the winter. The summer transfer window now opens on 1st July and closes on 1st September, while in winter, the window runs from 1st January to the 1st of February. 

The summer window usually witnesses the most transfer activity — expenditure on signings can be record-breaking. However, we've also seen some winter windows record a huge number of transfers. In recent years, subsequent windows have clocked fewer transfers than previous ones, as evident in the 2019 summer window, where only 102 players swapped clubs compared to 157 players in 2014. 

Therefore, you need to be critical of the Premier League transfer window when strategising your transfer betting because it comes with a few twists and surprises. 

Other European League Transfer Windows

Although the Premier League tops as the highest spending league in the transfer market every year, other competitive leagues also bid for players. Since bookmakers also cover these leagues extensively, it is also important to know how the transfer window operates in these leagues. 

Here is how the transfer window looks across other top European leagues. 

Summer transfer window

• Bundesliga: 1st June – 31st August
• La Liga: 1st June – 31st August
• Serial A: 1st June – 31st August
• French Ligue 1: 1st June – 31st August

Winter transfer window

• Bundesliga: 1st January – 2nd February
• La Liga: 1st January - 2nd February
• Serial A: 1st January - 2nd February
• French Ligue 1: 1st January - 2nd February

With that in mind, you can start placing your football transfer bets at the right time and on the right players. The good news is that players can still move from leagues with a closed transfer window to those with open windows. However, a player cannot transfer to a league with a closed window.

Bets on Other Sports than Football

You can bet on transfers in other sports besides football. This type of transfer betting might be rare but can be found in sports such as basketball or Formula 1. 

In basketball transfer betting, you can place wagers on NBA transfers. The transfer betting tips discussed previously can come in handy here as well. 

If you're a big fan of Formula 1, you can look to exploit some of the most interesting markets available. It is not common, but sometimes players swap between teams — Verstappen can ditch Red Bull for Ferrari, or Hamilton might just call it quits at Mercedes and choose to ply the rest of his career at Aston Martin. 

Formula 1 is a unique market to get involved in if you're looking for a different transfer betting environment.