Rugby league is one of Australia’s favourite sports, with the 13-a-side game hugely popular in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland and making steady headway in traditional Aussie Rules football heartlands.
Rugby Union is an international game and features teams from countries around the world. Conversely, Rugby League is based in Australia with one New Zealand team in the mix. Rugby Betting Basics. Whether you are betting on the World Cup or on Toronto Wolfpack, understanding the basics of rugby betting will help you make wagers that make sense. Rugby League Betting Odds Our rugby league betting hub is designed to cover all the latest action from around the world. From NRL odds to the Super League, we provide pre-match and in-play action for every major game. What’s more, you’ll be able to bet at a level you can afford when you try these online betting options. 18+ Eligible UK+IRE players. Paypal & some deposit & bet types excl. Min first £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 7 days, stake not returned. No cashout, restrictions + T&Cs apply. UK&IRE Online Only.
Australian rugby league is dominated by two competitions: the National Rugby League in which 16 clubs, including one based in New Zealand, compete for premiership glory; and State of Origin in which players whose origins lie in New South Wales and Queensland fight out a three-game series.
Attendances for NRL matches do not come close to matching those for AFL games but the NRL wins the television battle hands down, not least because the annual State of Origin series brings Australia’s eastern seaboard to a standstill on three separate Wednesday nights in the middle of winter.
Australia-facing bookmakers have developed a wide range of rugby league betting types, most of which are applicable to both NRL and State of Origin matches, since the Australian authorities gave them the green light to expand their offerings over and above the most basic of markets. Below we have created a simple table detailing the best Australian facing online bookmakers that have Rugby League markets.
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Rugby league betting types
With many online bookmakers servicing the Australian market now that it has been opened up to competition, there is no shortage of NRL and State of Origin betting types, with upwards of 50 markets available on every single match.
Rugby league match betting
Head-to-head betting
Neither money-line betting nor straight-up betting is part of the Australian lexicon, with Australian bookmakers and punters using head-to-head betting to describe markets in which there are odds about the two sides winning the match.
Rugby League Betting
Also, Australians use decimal odds and have the tendency to, incorrectly, insert an Australian dollar sign in front of them. So, for example, head-to-head betting on an NRL game between two of the competition’s joint ventures may be:
$1.65 Wests Tigers
$2.30 St George Illawarra
Line and points betting
Undoubtedly the most popular rugby league match betting type, line betting is when bookmakers handicap games by awarding a head start to the head-to-head underdog. For example, they may hand the Tigers a three-and-a-half-point advantage over the Dragons, a head start that results in punters being able to take $1.92 about either team:
$1.92 Wests Tigers (-3.5 points)
$1.92 St George Illawarra (+3.5 points)
Points betting is line betting with enhanced odds. However, unlike head-to-head and line betting, bookmakers are not guaranteed to pay out on a winner because the handicaps do not align. For example, if the Tigers won the example match by four points, punters who backed the Tigers in either head-to-head betting or line betting (-3.5 points) would receive payouts but neither Tigers nor Dragons supporters would land their line betting wagers:
$2.10 Wests Tigers (-5.5 points)
$2.10 St George Illawarra (+1.5 points)
Margin betting
Irrespective of the head-to-head betting, line betting and points betting, rugby league bookmakers offer margin betting on all NRL and State of Origin matches, with the margins generally being 1-12 points and 13+ points per side:
$3.10 Wests Tigers 1-12 points
$3.25 Wests Tigers 13+ points
$3.50 St George Illawarra 1-12 points
$5.40 St George Illawarra 13+ points
$23.00 draw
Match betting exotics
Rugby league fans love betting on outcomes other than the raw result of games, with popular exotics including first scoring play, first try scorer and 40/20 kicks.
There are four scoring plays in rugby league matches – a try worth four points, a conversion worth two points, a penalty goal worth two points and a field goal worth one point. As conversions cannot be scored before a try, there are only three first scoring play possibilities for each team. And both penalty goals and field goals are rare ways to break the deadlock. A typical first scoring play market may be:
$2.00 Wests Tigers try
$11.00 Wests Tigers penalty goal
$2.20 St George Illawarra try
$11.00 St George Illawarra penalty goal
$151.00 field goal by either side
First try scorer is a bit of a lottery because rugby league is a sport in which everyone on the field has a reasonable chance of scoring, unlike, say, Australian Rules football, football or rugby union. But that does not stop punters falling over themselves to bet at around $10 the field.
A 40/20 kick is a facet of rugby league that rewards teams for accurate, long kicking in general play. There are risks associated with attempting 40/20 kicks but the rewards are terrific in terms of field position and ball retention. Punters can bet on whether there will be at least one successful 40/20 kick in NRL and State of Origin games.
Australian Rules football futures betting
Premiership betting
Sixteen teams dream of NRL Premiership glory at the start of the season. Each side plays 24 matches – the draw is unfair but not as bad as the AFL one – and the top eight qualify for the NRL Finals. The NRL Finals system is complicated, although what is easy to understand is that the top four teams have the best chances of reaching the NRL Grand Final, which takes place at ANZ Stadium, which was called Stadium Australia during the acclaimed Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Medals betting
The Dally M Award is given to the fairest and best player in the NRL competition. Even though it does not enjoy anything like as high a profile as the AFL’s Brownlow Medal, it does generate a fair degree of betting activity, particular in the days immediately prior to the televised announcement.
Rugby league betting strategies
Oppose teams without their first-choice playmakers
Not all rugby league positions were created equal. The most vital positions are those of fullback, five-eighth, halfback and hooker, otherwise known as the one, six, seven and nine, because they touch the ball more often than other positions. Oppose teams who are forced to play without one or more of their usual playmakers. They are disadvantaged very badly.
Oppose teams backing up from Monday night games
Rugby League Papua New Guinea
Rugby league is a brutal game and its players need every bit of recovery time that they can get. If one team is playing off two or more days of rest greater than the other, side with the team that has had more time to rest its limbs.
Support Queensland in State of Origin
The Maroons have won the last seven series and their current side is, arguably, the best in the history of the annual interstate clash between Queensland and New South Wales.
Overall
Few sports are better to watch on television than rugby league and having a bet only adds to the excitement.
Rugby has some of the most loyal and passionate sports fans. The first official rules of the game came from the Rugby School where William Webb Ellis first picked up a football and ran with it in “fine disregard for the rules.”
The action starts with choosing the right rugby betting sites. There is no shortage of rugby bookmakers who will gladly accept your wagers, but we urge caution because not all rugby betting websites are alike.
Below is a list of rugby sportsbooks that cover both League and Union matchups from around the world.
Best Rugby Betting Sites
Even more important, these are all safe places to bet on Rugby. All rugby betting listed here have been in business for a long time (most since the 90’s) and have a well-established history of treating punters fairly.
Rugby League and Union Betting
Rugby is categorized into two distinct disciplines – Rugby Union and Rugby League. Although the fundamentals of the games remain the same, the rules and regulations for each are unique.
Rugby League (NRL) is most popular in Australia and the northern cities of England. The National Rugby League in Australia is very popular in the country and culminates in a Grand Final which is considered a major sporting event. There is also the Europe Super League, featuring teams from England, Wales and France. This one was founded in the 1990’s and responsible for a noticeable increase in the popularity of the game. Internationally, there is also the Rugby League World Cup.
Rugby Union (RFU) has a number of domestic league and cup competitions in several countries. At international level, Test Rugby is considered among the most prestigious matches in the sport and there is also a Rugby Union World Cup. Every year England, Scotland, Wales, France, Ireland and Italy compete in the Six Nations tournament.
Betting on Rugby Online
After you choose a rugby betting site, sign up for an account and make a deposit to get started. You’ll find an assortment of wagers for both Union and League games. You can bet on who will win a match, who will win a major tournament or league championship, which player will score the most points, the number of tries, and more.
A good starting point for anyone new to betting on rugby online is the match bet, predicting who will win a match. The main thing to keep in mind when wagering on rugby matches is that the bookmaker wants to get an equal number of wagers on each side of every matchup. That way, the bookmakers takes no personal risk. When both sides of a wager have action, the bookmaker can pay the winners with wagers collected from the losers.
Rugby betting sites accomplish this by handicapping one side or the other with a moneyline wager. In some cases, the team that is perceived to be the underdog (less likely to win) is given odds that warrant higher payouts for people who back that team. The team that is perceived to be the favorite (more likely to win) is given odds that warrant lower payouts.
An alternative handicapping method is the point spread. If a point spread is in effect, the underdog is given points. For example, a spread of +1.5 means that your wager on that team would win if they either win the match outright or lose by fewer than 2 points. A spread of -1.5 would mean that your wager only wins if that team wins the match by 2 points or more.
If you’re unable to identify value in either side of a match, you can always consider the total bet. Before the match, rugby betting sites will offer a line for the total number of points to be scored in the match. Your bet is a simple prediction of whether the actual number of points scored in the match will be greater than or less than that number.
Prop bets and specials cover everything else not related to picking the winner. These are especially popular among high profile matches in which the rugby bookmaker anticipates a lot of action. Examples of rugby prop bets would be wagering on the first scorer, last scorer, highest scorer, number of tries and so on.
Major Rugby Betting Events and Competitions
Betting on the Rugby World Cup – The Rugby World Cup has been played every four years since the first tournament was held in 1987. The format has changed a few times over the years and the tournament currently features 20 twenty teams that are divided into four groups of five. In the group stages, each team plays the other teams in its group once. The winner of each group and the runner up both progress through to the knockout stages. The two winning semi-finalists progress through to the final, while the losing semi-finalists get to compete in a third place play-off.
The Rugby World Cup has been dominated by teams from the southern hemisphere, notably New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. In fact, the only other team to have won the tournament is England, who won it in 2003 in the most dramatic of fashions when Jonny Wilkinson kicked a last minute drop goal to win the competition. Jonny Wilkinson also holds the record for the most points scored in the knockout stages, while Grant Fox of New Zealand has the record for the most points scored in the whole competition.
The Rugby World Cup has been dominated by teams from the southern hemisphere, notably New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. In fact, the only other team to have won the tournament is England, who won it in 2003 in the most dramatic of fashions when Jonny Wilkinson kicked a last minute drop goal to win the competition. Jonny Wilkinson also holds the record for the most points scored in the knockout stages, while Grant Fox of New Zealand has the record for the most points scored in the whole competition.
Getting Started
With two distinctly separate disciplines and a variety of different club and international competitions, rugby can be a bit daunting for novice bettors. The best strategy to get started is to limit yourself to a specific league or two with which you’re already familiar. This way, you can put your knowledge to use and make intelligent wagers rather than emotional or hopeful wagers.
The single biggest piece of advice I can give you is to start small and pick your spots carefully. If you limit yourself to only gambling on rugby games you know and when you can spot a legitimate value play, you’ll start off on a positive note.
Finally, remember that the goal isn’t to pick the winner of the match every time. If that was the case, nobody would ever bet on the underdog. The goal is to find value. That means finding rugby betting odds that don’t match reality. Bookmakers tend to be sharp on the high profile matchups, but you can find nice spots in the smaller matches that don’t generate as much attention. This is where it pays off to be very familiar with one league rather than to have passing familiarity with a bunch of leagues.
If sports betting isn’t your think or it isn’t legal where you live, fantasy rugby serves as a nice alternative. With fantasy rugby, you can draft a team of athletes from around the world to build your ultimate lineup and then compete against the teams assembled by other players for real money payouts.