AFL Betting
AFL betting is one of Australia’s most favourite past times played in workplaces, amongst the family and online. As one of the most exciting sporting leagues in the country, tipping the winning team comes with a whole host of thrills and celebration. It’s the AFL grand final match that stops the entire city of Melbourne. You can walk through all of the busiest urban centres in Melbourne while that match is playing and hardly see a soul anywhere. They’re all packed tightly around massive sports screens in pubs and clubs and the only sound you’ll hear is the roar of a crowd occasionally over the commentator’s voice. It’s undoubtedly thrilling to behold and to be a part of but if you enjoy winning real Aussie dollars for your AFL betting both at the TAB and online, you might find yourself asking where else you can get that same thrill and those same wins. At the end of the day, the winning team wins because of a decent load of luck, and not just because of training. The leading goal scorer could be injured late in the season or a new player, previously undiscovered, could shake up the entire league when they’re finally and luckily placed in the right position. An umpire’s call can shake the faith of a team right at the wrong moment and your line betting Aussie Rules tip could turn into a disaster or a momentously lucky decision when you put your AFL betting card in. Anything could happen and that’s why we enjoy betting on these types of games.
But what’s your AFL betting history? Do you like to tip Brownlow medal winner? Are you strictly a head to head bettor? Or a first goal scorer type? Did you know that you could get higher real money payouts than the AFL odds when you play online at a dedicated Aussie online casino?
When did AFL start?
What do you really know about Australian rules football and how it all started? The proud Aussie rules tradition stretches way back into the late 19th century with the first recorded game of Australian home grown footy played on the 2nd of October in 1896. That was 123 years ago. In fact, the game had been playing well before that date but not necessarily as we all know and understand the premiership now. Originally called the VFA or Victorian Football Association, it was first established in 1877 but there were some initial troubles amongst the league’s teams. Somethings just never change, do they? To boost footy ticket sales and bring a stronger sense of consistency to the game, the VFA proposed a new league for the year of 1897 combining the strongest playing teams of Collingwood, Essendon, Fitzroy, Geelong, Melbourne and South Melbourne and none of the less popular and smaller clubs. They also changed the rules a bit and installed the scoring system that we all recognise today of 6 points for a goal scored and 1 point for a behind.
The smaller clubs like Richmond, North Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Footscray and Williamstown – of which only one of those teams survives in today’s competition – were invited to play as a junior and unprofessional side in a separate competition to the bigger team’s games. They rejected the offer and struggled on in their own competition, retaining the name of VFA and playing amongst themselves. Because Aussies love an underdog, the smaller competition continued alongside the official VFL one well into the 20th century, drawing crowds and the time-honoured Australian tradition of AFL betting until about 1908 when the VFL, by far the more popular playing league, invited Richmond back into the big leagues. They agreed and have been happily installed ever since. By 1915 three more of the smaller VFA league teams were playing the much larger league over at VFL. While this was all happening, South Australia was kicking off their own league with sporadic matches against Victorian teams for the Championship of Australia play off. Port Adelaide’s team successfully managed to swoop three victories.
The advent of television scuppered the crowd tallies from 1957 and the VFL put it’s foot down, announcing that none of their AFL games were to be televised in 1960. Live betting on the games had to be matched with live spectators but replays were allowed and the Australia public still stopped attending games in favour of watching the replay on the telly when they got home from work. Former players started taking up positions as pre-game commentators and post-game analysts, offering tips and insider reviews of who they thought was going to win. It was still anyone’s game. Just because your team has performed well throughout the season, doesn’t mean they can close when it comes to the pinch and choking can see some fairly surprising end of game results. If you enjoy putting on a wild bet for an outside goal difference, then you really a thrill seeker type. Is AFL betting the only place you can get those particular types of thrills and spills? What other online gambling destinations are likely to get your pulse quickening and your heart pounding in just the right way?
The AFL league was called AFL until 1990 even though they had introduced a few different state teams into the mix well before then. Throughout the 1980’s, VFL was the most popular national sport attracting investors who liked to spend money on only the best players and that included from interstate. The pressure on the smaller Victorian club sides began too much to bear for South Melbourne Swans who upped sticked and moved to Sydney in 1982. The move proved fruitful and they started to dominate under private ownership. Western Australia was firmly established in the VFL throughout this period as well and the name change finally occurred when it was obvious the national sport really was a national competition. But what ever happened to the little VFA who refused to join the bigger bullies and play their junior and unprofessional games? Well, they were still going strong and took over the name VFA in 1990’s. Fitzroy played its final game in 1997 before merging with Brisbane to form the Lions team we now see in the AFL league and Port Adelaide, the team that managed to sweep three victorious Championships of Australia over 100 years previously, joined as the league’s sixth and only pre-existing non Victorian club.
What is line betting AFL?
We mentioned this a little earlier but never really explained what it is. If you’re familiar with AFL betting then you might already know but if you’ve only ever placed a standard head to head bet, you might not understand how all of the other options actually work. Here’s a quick guide on line betting.
There are, essentially, as many ways to engage in AFL betting as there are teams and competitions to bet on. A line bet is when the bookie draws a line between two teams in a head to head match. For example, if the Sydney Swans are tipped as red-hot favourites going into a match against the Collingwood Magpies (this is a fantasy scenario, after all) then the bookie will offer the same odds for a win on both teams with a plus or minus a designated points value either way. Because, in this scenario at least, the Swans are tipped to win, they might offer $1.90 for the Swans with a 10 point goal margin and the Magpies $1.90 to lose by no more than 10 points. You pick the most likely result, not just the winning team. If you think it’ll be an even match but the Swans will have the edge, then you might pick the Magpies to lost by no more than 10 points. If you think the Swans have it in the bag and the Magpies don’t have a hope to stand on, then you’d likely pick the Swans with at least a 10 point margin. It’s really just a load of luck, though, isn’t it? There is no such thing as a sure win in gambling or else it’d be called something else and if you enjoy the thrill of not quite knowing which side will win then you could making way more bang for your betted buck than with boring AFL betting.
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