How to bet on A-League football
The A-League is the most prestigious league in Australia’s domestic football landscape, taking place annually between the months of October and May. Although the competition is unsurprisingly most popular in its native territory, millions of football fans from countries around the world regularly watch fixtures between A-League teams, as the quality of the league – both in terms of playing standard and infrastructure – continues to improve.
In the following article, we deliver a comprehensive review of the A-League, discussing the league’s history, competitive format, and strongest participating sides. In addition to this analysis of the league itself, we will also provide guidance on how to bet on A-League fixtures whilst using the LeoVegas sportsbook.
Furthermore, we share some top A-League betting tips by offering an informed insight into how participating teams and players may perform in the remainder of the current campaign, as the Australian domestic league season quickly accelerates towards its climactic stage.
How do I bet on A-League football at LeoVegas NZ?
The LeoVegas sportsbook application is extremely user-friendly, and therefore placing any sports bet whilst using this platform is remarkably easy. In order to wager on a scheduled A-League fixture, please follow the instructions outlined below:
Log-in to your LeoVegas account, using the e-mail address and password you entered during the account registration process. You will not be able to use the LeoVegas sportsbook without a personal customer account.
There are four tabs positioned across the home screen – select the ‘Upcoming’ tab, and then scroll across to the ‘Football’ icon. Click it to view all imminent football fixtures.
These fixtures will be compartmentalized into their respective associated league or competition. Scroll downwards until you find the drop-down menu titled ‘A-League’
Each upcoming A-League fixture will be referenced on the screen, with its accompanying ‘Moneyline’ odds provided. A ‘Moneyline’ bet is the most straight-forward wager, where the player conducts their bet by selecting one of the three possible overall match outcomes – home win, away win, or draw. If this is the type of bet you wish to place, click the relevant box to make your selection, and skip to point 7.
To explore each betting option available for a specific contest, click the fixture description (i.e., Team X vs. Team Y) to advance to a more detailed view. This next page showcases all available bets for this fixture (examples of betting options will be covered in the next section).
Select your preferred betting option from the drop-down menu, and then pick which bet you want to place.
After you have chosen your bet, a betslip located at the bottom of your screen will appear, confirming your selection.
Enter your stake in the empty stake field.
Your potential payout, and whether the cash-out function will be available on your bet, will be referenced on your betslip.
Click ‘Place Bet’ to confirm your stake and selection.
You can keep an eye on the performance of your bet in context of the current scoreline by heading to the ‘My Bet’ tab, which is where information regarding all of your ‘open’ and ‘settled’ wagers can be found. This tab is located on the left-hand side of your screen, between the ‘Home’ and ‘Settings’ options.
A League Betting Markets
As alluded to in the previous section, there are various betting options available when placing a bet on an A-League fixture – or indeed when you wager on any sport at LeoVegas sportsbook. Different types of bets enable players to wager on a vast range of possible outcomes, with far more choices available than merely betting on the overall result of the match. For example, in football, you can bet on how many corner kicks there will be, or whether a specific player will score.
Clearly, players should choose the type of bet which is most conducive to the specific event they believe will occur in a particular match, and therefore the betting option you select will be highly dependent on circumstances. For example, you might be confident that a certain number of goals will be scored in one match, but find it difficult to predict how many will be scored in another – in this instance, the betting option you select would not be the same in both instances.
The most frequently used betting options in football are as follows:
‘Moneyline’ – As referenced previously, the ‘Moneyline’ bet is a simple wager, deployed when predicting the match result – home win, away win, or draw.
‘Correct Score’ – As is title suggests, the ‘correct score’ bet gives players the opportunity to bet on the exact scoreline of a fixture.
‘Outright’ – An outright bet enables players to wager on the overall league or competition winner.
‘Asian Lines’ – Otherwise referred to as a ‘spread’ or ‘handicap’ bet, the Asian Lines option (in most cases) serves to figuratively ‘level-out’ the playing field between two opposing teams. It does this by ‘awarding’ additional points/goals to underdogs, or ‘reducing’ a favourites’ pre-kick-off score to below zero. This enables players to bet on a more ‘even’ contest, with accompanying odds reflective of this development.
History of the A-League
Established in 2004 in preparation for its official launch ahead of the 2005/06 campaign, the A-League has quickly consolidated its position as a strong domestic league. In its inaugural season, the A-League involved just eight teams, but the league has steadily grown throughout its tenure, and now has twelve participating sides.
Throughout the course of its history, fifteen teams have competed in the league at some stage. The three teams who have previously featured, but are no longer part of the A-League, are Gold Coast United, New Zealand Knights, and Queensland Fury – only Gold Coast United, who currently compete in the National Premier League Queensland, are still in existence.
A-League Regular Season
The ‘regular’ season refers to the main part of the league campaign, which pre-empts the A-League’s ‘Playoff Series’ – a concluding mini-tournament hosted in May (more on this to follow). There are twelve teams who compete in the A-League each season; eleven based in various locations around Australia, and one from New Zealand (Wellington Phoenix). There are 26 rounds of fixtures in the regular season, with sides facing one another two or three times throughout the course of the campaign. If one team plays at home against another on two occasions, they are guaranteed to only host the same side once the following season.
As per most elite international football leagues, teams are awarded three points for a victory, one point for a draw, and do not receive any points in the event of a loss. At the end of the regular season, the team who has accrued most points, and therefore positioned in first place, is crowned the league’s ‘Premier’
The A-League operates as a ‘closed shop,’ with no promotion or relegation structure in place (although, as this is the highest-level of Australian football, there would be no suitable division for a team to be promoted into anyway). Therefore, there are no sides demoted from the A-League each season, regardless of their final league position. This model is utilised in several other leagues, perhaps most notably in the MLS, the United States’ top-tier domestic division.
A-League Playoff Series and Grand Final
At the end of the regular season, the teams who occupy the top six league positions will advance to the ‘Playoff Series’, and compete for a place in the competition’s Grand Final. The Playoff Series usually occurs over a four-week period, and is split into two separate rounds of fixtures.
The first round involves teams who finished in positions three through to six. There are two single-game ties (third vs. sixth and fourth vs. fifth), with the winners of each match progressing to the second round. These sides will then be pitted against the two teams who concluded the regular season in first and second place, with each tie being contested over two legs. At the end of this process, the two remaining teams will meet each other in the Grand Final, with the overall winner declared the ‘Champion’.
A-League Top Teams
The A-League has a number of strong participants – we have profiled several of the league’s top teams below:
Sydney FC – A member of the A-League since the competition’s inception, Sydney FC is Australia’s most highly-decorated club. The New South Wales outfit have won four league ‘premiers’, five Grand Finals, the 2017 Australia Cup, and even won the OFC Champions League in 2005 (due to Football Australia’s decision to swich confederations to the AFC, A-League clubs no longer compete in this continental club competition).
Wellington Phoenix – There are very few clubs in world football who compete in a league which is based in a different country, let alone one which is affiliated to a different confederation to the one representing the governing body of its native land. However, in Wellington Phoenix’s case – the A-Leagues only competitor from New Zealand after replacing the now defunct New Zealand Knights in 2007 – this rather odd dynamic applies.
Western United – Although a relatively new A-League club (acquiring their league membership in 2019), Western United have performed admirably over the last few seasons. In the previous campaign, Western United, who hail from the suburbs of west Melbourne, were proclaimed ‘Champions’, winning the Grand Final after clinching third place in the regular season.
A-League Betting Tips
In this section, we highlight several teams and players who we believe are good options to back in specific full-season betting markets. Given the unpredictability of football, it is impossible to guarantee that any of these selections will prove accurate. However, based on current form, these candidates are the favourites in each of the following markets.
A-League Top Goalscorer
Jamie Maclaren – The league’s current top scorer, Maclaren has helped fire Melbourne City to the top of the table.
Jason Cummings – A player who scored plenty of goals in Scotland before heading down under, the Central Coast Mariners forward has been prolific on multiple occasions this season.
Oskar Zawada – Polish striker Oskar Zawada has enjoyed a strong campaign with Wellington Phoenix, building a respectable record in front of goal.
A-League Clean Sheets
Lawrence Thomas – Australian international Lawrence Thomas has kept numerous clean sheets in the league – more than any other A-League goalkeeper. The Western Sydney Wanderers stopper will be hard to catch.
Tom Glover – The Melbourne City ‘keeper has been in fine form this season, registering several shut-outs and making a string of important saves throughout the campaign.
Jordan Holmes – Holmes’ has kept a good record of clean sheets in the A-League this campaign, a feat all the more impressive when you consider the league position of his parent club.
A-League Top Assists
Craig Goodwin – Adelaide United’s Craig Goodwin has provided an impressive number ofassists this season, and therefore leads the A-League standings in this discipline. The attacker has also been threatening in front of goal.
Connor Pain – Former Aussie international Connor Pain has claimed several assists so far in the league, as he tries to help Western United re-capture the form they showed in last season’s title-winning campaign.
Richard Van der Veene – Melbourne City’s Dutch midfielder Van der Veene has registered a good average of assistsin the A-League this term, setting-up his teammates to convert on multiple big occasions.