Best Football Transfer Betting Sites

Football transfer betting is a special type of sports betting where the outcome does not depend on the result of any match or tournament. Instead, the predictions are based on which players would leave, who would stay, who'd be the next manager, and so on. Let's find out more about football transfer betting and how you can become good at it.

What is football transfer betting?

Unlike other forms of betting, football transfer betting is time-bound. It is open and accessible only during the two transfer windows that happen in a year. There's a lot of buzz in the media and among fans regarding transfer windows. Some bettors have discovered that they have a deep enough understanding of the game to predict which players would switch and who would stay.

There are generally four types of betting under football transfer betting. Punters can take a stake in whether a player would stay with their currency club. They can also take a stake in which club a player can join during the transfer window. The third type of bet concerns whether a new transfer will break an old record, be it a club record, country record, league record, or world record. In the last type of bet that you can place during football transfer betting, you can predict whether a manager would be sacked or where they will join next.

As you can see, football transfer betting is an exciting new way to bet on the sport.

When are the football transfer windows?

Football transfer window is an unofficial term for what FIFA calls the registration period. It's essentially a fixed duration during which players can move in and out of national football associations and clubs. Football transfer windows do not have any effect on international football teams - it solely concerns domestic leagues of various national football associations.

FIFA mandates that there should be two transfer windows in a season, not more or less. While most of the popular football leagues in the world (Bundesliga, La Liga, English Premier League, Serie A) follow the same dates for transfer windows, some leagues have a different transfer window. Most of the popular leagues start around August and September of a year and end around May of the next year. But in countries with weather constraints or other limitations, the season can span from January to December of the same year.

In the UK, the first transfer window is in January, which is the mid-season transfer window. The next close-season transfer window is during August. The duration of the two varies, as mandated by FIFA. In the mid-season transfer window, the duration cannot be more than 4 weeks. The closing season transfer window, on the other hand, cannot be longer than 12 weeks.

Popular football transfer betting markets

As we previously mentioned, there are broadly four types of betting markets during the football transfer windows. Let's find out more about them.

All the transfer betting markets have fairly simple rules. It's generally an all-or-nothing stake, and you do not get features like cash out. However, depending on how you place your bets, you can end up winning some and losing some. Expert bettors place multiple bets after assessing all sides of the story to make sure they go home with at least some winnings. Others can be more adventurous with their money.

To stay at current club

As the term suggests, to stay at current club is a simple betting market where you predict whether a player is going to stay at their current club or not. Before every transfer window, some players are seen as more likely to leave their club than others. People generally bet on these players to get better odds. When you know someone is going to stay at their present club and there's no speculation about it, you won't get any odds for your bet. One of the best recent examples of this bet would be the recent transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Juventus to Manchester United. Those who predicted that he would not stay at his present club (Juventus) would be the winners in to stay at current club bets.

Which football club will player join

While it may seem more difficult to predict exactly which club a player would go to, it can indeed be easier to predict rightly if you are updated about the course of events. For example, many people successfully predicted that Messi would be leaving Barcelona to join PSG, and a chain of events made that more and more apparent.

To bet on which football club a player will join, make sure you know everything about the player and the concerned clubs. It can be a rewarding betting market when you have a tendency to pick truth from rumors.

Break club transfer record

When you are betting on whether a transfer will break a record, the chances of winning are often much lower. However, it's an exciting market to bet on because transfer records often get broken unexpectedly. Here again, you need to dig deeper into the news and rumors to guess whether a transfer has the potential to break a record.

Next football manager

Apart from the players, football managers garner the most attention. In some cases, players may not bond well with the manager or vice versa. Such speculations often lead to managers being sacked or willingly leaving the club. If you predict correctly where a manager is going next and who the next manager of a club is, the transfer betting market can be quite rewarding. Focus on studying how the manager, players, and administration get along with each other to get your guesses right.

The top 10 most expensive UK player transfers to date

The English Premier League is one of the richest sporting leagues in the world, and certainly at the highest tier of football leagues. Over the years, many transfers have shocked the world with huge transfer fees. Below we list the 10 most expensive UK player transfers and how much the transfer amount was:

1.    Jack Grealish - £100m - from Aston Villa to Manchester City in 2021

2.    Romelu Lukaku - £96m - from Inter Milan to Chelsea in 2021

3.    Paul Pogba - £89m - from Juventus to Man Utd in 2016

4.    Harry Maguire - £80m - from Leicester City to Man Utd in 2019

5.    Romelu Lukaku - £75m - from Everton to Man Utd in 2017

6.    Virgil van Dijk - £74.2m - from Southampton to Liverpool in 2018

7.    Jadon Sancho - £73m - from Dortmund to Man Utd in 2021

8.    Nicolas Pepe - £72m - from Lille to Arsenal in 2019

9.    Kepa Arrizabalaga - £72m - from Athletic Bilbao to Chelsea in 2018

10. Kai Havertz - £72m - from Leverkusen to Chelsea in 2020

Football transfer betting tips

Football transfer bets do not always follow a well-defined trajectory, but there are certain things you can be more aware of to make better bets.

The first thing to note is the locker room situation and how the managers are going along with the players. However, this is a murky territory since a lot of online rumors are nothing more than rumors. It can be very difficult to gauge whether a rumor is true or not. Here again, the more insider information you keep track of, the better decisions you can make.

Another thing that many people ignore is observing what we call a chain reaction. You can predict how a particular club is going to engage in the transfer window by noting what major decisions they take before the window opens. If news of a player coming to the club is confirmed, it can be a sign of the budget getting extinguished. In those scenarios, the club may have to let someone go if they want to cover the expenditure. While it's never 100% guaranteed that chain reactions would go how you predict them to, they do tell us something about the transfer market.

Some clubs have an insider understanding that makes transfers among them more common. A good example would be Tottenham Hotspurs and Ajax FC. If you have spent enough time in the footballing circuits, you'd also know of such relationships. This can also influence your transfer betting decisions.

The top 5 UK betting sites for football transfer odds

Almost all the leading bookmakers in the UK offer football transfer odds. Here are some of the best betting sites to choose from:

11. Paddy Power

12. BetVictor

13. Betfair

14. Sky Bet

15. Coral

Football transfers FAQs

Do free football transfers count?

Yes, they count as long as you make the right prediction (staying, leaving for another club).

Can I bet on players not to transfer?

Yes, you can bet on players not to transfer in to stay at current club betting markets.

Can I trust football transfer rumors?

You cannot trust transfer rumors until you have a verifiable source.