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Soccer betting is one of the most popular sports betting in the world and nearly every online sports betting site in South Africa will provide opportunities to wager bets for local, national and international soccer matches.
The online gambling laws of South Africa are governed by the National Gambling Act which was passed by the National Gambling Board of South Africa in 2004. Under this legislation, online sports betting is legal as long as the bookmaker providing the service is licensed. These includes the likes of Betway, Sportsbet and Bet.co.za for example.
Individuals and betting sites also need to comply with the requirements from the Financial Intelligence Centre Act or FICA, which came into effect in South Africa on 1 July 2001. Its main aim is to help fight financial-related crimes such as money laundering and tax evasion and require submission of original South African ID (or certified copy), and proof of residence that is less than three months old.
Competition among South Africa sports betting sites is fierce, with operators offering different prices on matches, so it is important to shop around for the best value.
The English Premier League continues to be the most popular soccer tournament, mainly because it contains world-famous clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool. Outside of this, betting sites usually offer bets for matches in Spain’s La Liga league, which has the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid, the Serie A and Ligue 1 League as well as Germany’s Bundesliga League. Matches in the Champions League and Europa League are also covered extensively.
Domestically, local websites will also focus on the South African Premier League and the National First Division as well as the African Cup of Nations. With such a big range of matches, it is easy to become confused. Stick to betting on leagues that are accessible to you and that you can watch, either on TV or live, in person.
Variety also means that there are a wide range of different bet markets. One of the most popular options requires a punter to bet on which team will win (or if the game will end in a draw) while another, requires a punter to predict the exact final score of a game. The odds for the latter are offer are always greater, and some websites use this to form part of a jackpot, where punters must correctly predict the scores of a few matches.
Other options include predicting what the result will be at half-time and full-time, determining which player will score the first or last goal, predicting whether the total number of goals scored in a match will be higher or lower than a specified amount or determining whether both teams will score during a game.
Some websites will also have a live betting section which allows punters to place bets as a game takes place. In this case, the odds fluctuate depending on how the sporting action unfolds on the pitch so punters have to be quick-thinking and willing to take a risk.
As soccer is such a popular sport to bet on in South Africa, almost every betting site will let you bet on it. However, some focus more on soccer betting than others. Below is a list of the sites which seem to focus on soccer betting in South Africa, as well as offer some exciting soccer betting products.
Betway South Africa have a deliberate focus on soccer. It is the top option on the menu as well as being the sport and games promoted on the homepage.
Hollywoodbets also focus on soccer, mainly PSL and EPL (they even offer free to play games where you can bet on EPL and PSL matches for free if you are registered with them and win real money), and they also have a fun soccer betting product called Hollysixa. This is basically a daily pool of six selected matches, with the 1X2 markets.
Supabets have a focus on soccer and you can see this by the predict and win games they offer each week. Almost every promotion is centred around betting on soccer or on upcoming soccer matches.
Interbet
Interbet have a fun product in that they license soccer 6 from TAB.
Soccershop is another site which has even based it’s name on the fact they focus on soccer betting.