Volleyball matches are characterised by their fast pace – it is one of the few team sports where the ball never stays with a single player for long. The score changes literally after every attack, yet, as in tennis, no lead is a guarantee of victory, because a match can always be taken to five sets, turning the tide of the encounter. All these factors attract a multi-million-strong fan base from all over the world, and if you’re confident in your understanding of volleyball and want to capitalise on your own accurate predictions, we suggest placing bets on Betwinner – that way, you’ll get both the indescribable thrill of your favourites’ victory and a win!
Volleyball betting
Features of volleyball betting on the Betwinner website
Volleyball, in the context of betting, is quite varied: the rules governing competitions can differ depending on the specific tournament. Beach volleyball should be considered a separate category altogether: the rules are completely different, which is why it is even listed as a separate sport in the Betwinner betting line. When placing bets on a match, please ensure in advance that you clearly understand the rules under which the match is being played.
Given the ball’s tremendous speed, teamwork is of great importance in volleyball: two strong but uncoordinated players may hinder one another, whereas two weaker players acting as a single unit will perform more successfully. This also influences predictions of the match outcome: you need to understand how often the teams play with this particular line-up, and whether there will be substitutes or simply newcomers on the court.
As in other sports, various tactics can be employed in volleyball to achieve a result, including those based on the strengths and weaknesses of the players in the squad. Some teams excel thanks to unreturnable serves, whilst others stand out for their outstanding defensive abilities. When making a prediction, you must not simply compare teams in terms of their relative ‘strength’, but also understand which of them is capable of countering the opponent’s strengths, whilst possessing compelling arguments in their own favour.
Finally, when betting live, you must always bear in mind the fast-paced nature of the game, and consequently the rapid fluctuations in odds: whilst your favourite is trailing by a few points, the odds on them are tempting, but if you hesitate, they may well fight back, and the bet will no longer be as profitable. Consequently, you shouldn’t jump to conclusions about the final result of the match simply because one of the teams is currently leading by 3–4 points – in volleyball, this is not a factor in success at all.
Main types of volleyball bets
At Betwinner, we fully understand that if someone really knows their volleyball, they may not be satisfied with simply predicting the winner of a match, but may wish to bet on a more nuanced statistical indicator. This is particularly relevant in situations where the favourite is all too obvious, or conversely, where predicting the winner is down to pure chance. To give you more room for manoeuvre, the bookmaker offers a substantial range of markets, which for major matches always exceeds 100. That said, most bettors still prefer the main, ‘well-trodden’ markets, which we suggest taking a closer look at.
Victory in the match and in the sets
The most standard and straightforward volleyball bet is to back the winner of the match – remember that there are no draws in volleyball. Your task is to pick the stronger team (at least on the day), regardless of how the match unfolds.
However, the prediction for the winner may not be for the whole match, but just for a single set: for example, the home team will win the first set. Such a bet makes sense when you know for certain that one of the teams always starts off strongly, and this bet becomes particularly relevant when the opponent is one that takes a long time to get into their stride. The final result of the match is completely irrelevant here: only the score of the individual set is taken into account. Betwinner also sometimes offers combination markets, such as ‘the home team will win the first set, but the visitors will win the match’.
Handicaps by sets and points
A handicap is a specific indicator that determines the actual winner of a match only when the handicap has a negative value. A negative handicap is placed on the designated favourite: this implies a prediction that the team will manage to thrash their opponents, thereby making the outcome less likely and, consequently, offering higher odds. A bet on the underdog with a positive handicap, usually a relatively small one, suggests that the formally weaker team will put up a fight: they might even win, and if they do lose, it will only be by a relatively small margin in favour of the opponent.
At Betwinner, you can bet on the handicap in volleyball based on both sets and points. However, when betting on the points handicap, don’t forget to focus on the points, because in reality, without any handicap, a team might ‘win’ on points, but the sets will be distributed so unevenly that it is actually the opponent who will celebrate victory.
Totals: points, sets, individual statistics
Betting on the total is a potentially good option when you’re not only unsure which team will win, but also what the margin of victory will be. With the total, the main objective isn’t to predict the exact figure for a particular statistic, but simply whether that figure will be higher or lower than the value you’ve chosen. For example, a volleyball bet on the total being under 3.5 sets means the score will be 3–0, whilst over 3.5 means the opponents will drag the match out to at least 4, or even all 5 sets. The same principle applies to points, though the numbers involved will, for obvious reasons, be much higher. Incidentally, a standard total involves calculating the combined score of both teams, but there is also an individual total, which describes the performance of one team without specifying whether it will be enough for them to win. Standard and individual totals apply not only to the entire match but also to individual sets.
The Betwinner administration offers such markets relatively rarely, but in the case of top-tier matches, you can sometimes bet on the individual statistics of star players. Most often, such a bet takes the form of a total of points scored in one way or another by a specific volleyball player.
Live betting
Betwinner customers wishing to place a bet on a volleyball match do not necessarily have to do so before the match begins – they can place a bet whilst the match is in progress. For many punters, this is actually the preferred option: they can afford to skip the painstaking study of reams of pre-match news and analysis when they can know exactly which players have taken to the court and gauge their mindset. Things are made even easier by the fact that you can watch live streams of many volleyball matches completely free of charge, either directly on the Betwinner website or via the mobile apps! However, bear in mind: because the score in volleyball changes after every attack, odds fluctuate quite rapidly in live betting, so it’s important not to delay placing a bet on a market already included in your bet slip, so as not to miss out on a favourable price.