Rugby is an extremely popular sport that started in England back in 1823. It is now a global favorite, with countries such as South Africa, Italy, France, and New Zealand proudly sporting excellent international teams.

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There are several forms of rugby betting, and thanks to Parimatch’s dedication to accommodating diverse betting styles, you have a wide range of rugby betting opportunities available on our platform. However, before we kick off describing how rugby betting works, let’s look at the key difference between the two different types of rugby: Rugby Union and Rugby League.

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RUGBY UNION VS RUGBY LEAGUE

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It is important to distinguish between the two types of rugby, as each is its own game — different from its counterpart. On the one hand, there is the Rugby Union, and on the other, the Rugby League. Each version of rugby has its own rules, leagues, competitions, teams, and players. Luckily for Parimatch users, our platform hosts both these sports, enabling users to bet on both Rugby Union and Rugby League.

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Understanding the difference between the two games helps to work out where best to place prosperous bets.

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Some of the key differences between Rugby Union and Rugby League are:

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• Rugby Union has 15 players on a team, whereas Rugby League only has 13 players on a team.

• Rugby League teams can make 10 substitutions per game, whereas Rugby Union teams can only make 8 substitutions.

• Rugby League has a smaller pitch than Ruby Union.

• A Rugby Union try is worth 5 points, with 2 extra points given for a conversion, and 3 points ford drop goals and penalties. A Rugby League try is only worth 4 points, plus 2 points or a conversion. Penalties and drop goals are only worth 2 points.

• Rucks follow tackles in Rugby Union, but this practice doesn’t exist in Rugby League. Instead, Rugby League uses the “Chicken Scratch” method.

• If the ball is thrown out in Rugby Union, a lineout occurs. If the ball is thrown out in Rugby League, a scrum happens.

• Rugby League has a tackle limit of 6 tackles per team before the ball has to be passed to the other side. There is no limit to the number of tackles in Rugby Union.

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OUTRIGHT WINNER IN RUGBY​

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A bet on which team wins the match. Sometimes, if the game is particularly uncompetitive only a handicap market will be made available. 

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 RUGBY HANDICAP BETTING

 

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In handicap betting the better team is given a points deficit that they must make up during the game to win the handicap. 

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You have the choice of backing the favored team with their points deduction or the outsider with a points head start. 

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Where one team is the favorite and another is the underdog, handicap betting gives you a chance to even things out with your wager.

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Say New Zealand is playing a lower-ranked team like Portugal in the Rugby World Cup. The All Blacks might be expected to steamroll the opposition. Handicap betting makes the outcome a little harder for them. For example, the All Blacks could be given a handicap of -13.5 points. If you bet on them to win, they would need to do so by 14 points or more. Similarly, Portugal could be given an advantage of +13.5. If you backed Portugal and they lost by less than 13 points, you would still win your bet.

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TOTAL POINTS BET​

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This is a bet on the total points scored in a given match. 

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The bookmakers will usually decide the relative strength of the team's defense and attack and assign various scores with differing odds. 

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This can be a difficult market to assess and is more of a bet to make a game interesting than to win serious money. 

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Recently bookmakers have started to offer the same market on each team in a match. 

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This makes finding the winner easier as only one team's scoring has to be considered, but the odds are obviously quite a bit shorter.

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RUGBY ACCUMULATOR BET

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With an accumulator or Acca, you bet on four or more different outcomes. For example, you can bet on the result of four separate matches in Premiership rugby. Your odds are calculated by multiplying the prices from each selection – and the more bets you add the higher the potential payout. 

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With accumulators, you only win on your bet if all of your bets come in. Even if only one fails to win, you lose everything.

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RACE TO POINTS BET​

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The bookmakers set a number of points for this market to bet on. You then place a bet on which team you think will reach that number of points first. Alternatively, if you don’t think either team will reach the amount of points set by the bookmaker you can predict that ‘neither’ will reach the total.

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FIRST SCORING PLAY BET​

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For this market, you have three potential outcomes to bet on a penalty, a try, or a drop goal. This is a bet on how the first points in the match will be scored. Penalty kicks are always at the lowest odds as it is more common for penalties to be scored early on in games. When placing this bet, a useful tip is to wait until kick-off to find out who is kicking off. Take into account a team’s style of play when putting this bet on, teams with stronger packs are more likely to win penalties.

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NUMBER OF TRIES BET​

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Predicting the number of tries within a match. This is a two-way market in which the bookmaker has set a line/number of tries. You can either bet ‘yes’ or ‘no’ about the amount of tries to be scored within the normal time of a match.

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DOUBLE RESULT BET​

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This bet is technically a double bet. The first part of the bet is predicting who will have the highest points at half-time in the game; this is a three-way market of win-draw-win. The second part of the bet is predicting the outcome at full time; again this is a 3-way market of win-draw-win.

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DRAW-NO-BET​

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A 2-way market that eliminates the draw and you bet on a team to win the match. If the match ends in a draw, your bet will be void, and your steak will be returned. If your selection wins you make a profit, if the game finishes as a draw, then the bet is void and refunded, if your selection loses your bet is settled as a loss.

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HALFTIME / FULL-TIME BET​

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This bet is an interesting way to bet on a match. In this bet your job is to predict the outcome of the match at both half time and full time.  In a rugby match, you will have the choice of backing the home team, the away team, or a draw at half-time and full-time, meaning nine different combinations could potentially win. This type of bet offers higher odds than outright betting as there is a bigger risk when predicting the outcome of two different outcomes. Remember: you will need to predict both outcomes successfully for your bet to win.

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