Italy Serie A is the top-tier Italian league, and it is one of the strongest world soccer leagues: the third in the UEFA ranking, with a couple of years being on top. Many Serie A clubs are home to the most prominent and world-famous soccer players: for instance, Juventus gave the most World Cup champions and even signed the all-time star Cristiano Ronaldo from 2018 until 2021.
No wonder Serie A brings large profits to online sports betting sites that strive to promote Serie A wagering by offering competitive betting odds, free bets, and other bonuses for new and existing players. If you want to join the game, too, our guide will help you: here we describe the essentials of Serie A betting and explain the very basics a rookie bettor must learn.
How to read Series A odds
Serie A betting is obviously in demand in the regions where people are keen on soccer. Thus, American sports betting sites don’t pay much attention to soccer markets, promoting local leagues instead. Still, you can find Series A odds at US bookies, too, with just a pretty limited choice of betting markets. What does it mean for a sports bettor? At least, you need to know various odds formats: Russians and Europeans prefer one way of expressing odds, British bookies offer their own one, and Americans have a special US odds format. Let’s straighten out the difference between each.
Common formats of Serie A odds
When you open a typical online sportsbook aiming at Europe, you’ll come across the Decimal odds format. It looks like this:
Inter-Milan
- Inter to Win: 1.12;Draw: 10;
- Milan to Win: 25.
You need to multiply the odds to your stake number to see how much you will win if your bet is successful. Note: the result you get is not the net profit: it is your overall payout, including the stake.
American odds work differently: they are integers and have plus and minus signs:
Inter-Milan
- Inter to Win: -833;
- Draw: +900;
- Milan to Win: +2400.
Negative odds show the favorite and indicate a stake required to win $100. Positive odds indicate the possible net winnings that you get if you wager $100. Sometimes, both odds can be negative: it means there’s no strong favorite.
Fractional odds are, obviously, a fraction:
Inter-Milan
- Inter to Win: 3/25;
- Draw: 9/1;
- Milan to Win: 24/1.
To read the fraction, you can use the formula: you win/you bet, or just divide the first number to the second and thus transfer the odds to the decimal format.
Different formats of the same markets show the same payouts and probabilities, expressed in various ways. In fact, there are more odds formats: Asian bettors use their own options like Indo, Malay, or Hong Kong odds, but if you are a beginner, it will be enough to know the basic three.
Serie A odds terminology
When you enter an online sportsbook, a large number of strange and unknown abbreviations and terms might repel you. However, don’t be so afraid of them: in fact, they are pretty easy to get if you know what did a bookie mean. We prepared a short glossary for rookie bettors, including the top popular terms:
- O/U: abbreviation for Over/Under, a bet type;
- ML: abbreviation for Moneyline, a bet type;
- BTTS: abbreviation for Both Teams to Score, a bet type;
- Bet Slip: your shopping cart at the bookmaker website: you add your bets and confirm your stakes there;
- DNB: Draw No bet, a bet type;
- Consensus: a percentage of wagers made on each outcome; used to track the majority’s opinion and make your own decision;
- Margin: a sportsbook’s commission included in odds values;
- Live Betting/In-play betting: making wagers in real-time, when the match is going on;
- Pre-match/pre-game betting: making wagers before the game starts.
Popular types of bets on Serie A
Now that you know how to read Serie A odds. In fact, they are not unique for this soccer league: all odds are always read the same, no matter what sport you choose. Now it’s time to look at the most popular betting markets available for Serie A. We won’t mention all of them in this guide: it would not only take too long but also is not at all necessary for a beginner who needs to remember at least the basics.
Serie A Match Winner Betting
Match Winner betting is a standard bet type for all sports. However, it might have different variants. For instance, NFL betting implies 2-way moneylines: you just select a winner, and that’s about it.
When it comes to soccer, a draw is also possible, and it actually happens more often than bettors usually expect.
Thus, there are two Moneyline options for Serie A betting:
- Three-way Moneyline: you choose Team A to win, Team B to win, or a draw;
- Draw No Bet: you choose Team A or Team B, but if the game ends with a tie score, your bet becomes void, and a sportsbook refunds your stake amount.
What to choose, a Three-way Moneyline or Draw No Bet? Thanks to the Draw option, three-way bets are usually more lucrative: favorites get higher odds than you can see in a Draw-No-Bet match-winner version.
Serie A Handicap Betting
Handicap betting is less straightforward than Moneyline but might turn out to be much more profitable. In this betting market, you wager on the winning margin. A bookmaker gives spread points to every team to even the chances, and a bettor must guess where a team covers the spread or not.
Here is a spread market example:
Inter Milan vs. Venezia
- Inter: -2,5 — 1.94
- Venezia: +2,5 — 1.95
When you back Inter, the game must end with the following outcome to make your bet win:
- Inter must win;
- Inter must win with more than 2,5 goals (for instance, a 1:4 score).
Another option is to back Venezia: as you see, the odds are almost even. This bet wins under the following conditions:
- Venezia wins;
- OR Venezia loses with less than 2.5 goals (for instance, a 2:3 score).
Serie A Prop Bets
Prop bets are fun: they can be almost unlimited as they are related to various events that may happen or not happen on the field during the game. Here are the most popular Serie A props:
- Player To Score a Goal at Any Time;
- Player To Score First Goal;
- Total Goals Scored by A Player;
- Will a team get a Red Card/Yellow Card and more.
Sharp bettors don’t usually opt for props, considering them as not profitable and too risky to invest in; however, if you gamble for entertainment purposes, you’ll like them —and most bookmakers usually give a great choice of such betting options.
The odds for props are rarely too high, but sometimes you can come across a bargain.
Still, it’s not the best way to spend money if you are not well-versed in all in-and-outs of a team and every player.
Serie A Futures Bets
Futures are bets that you make on particular events that will happen at the end of the season: for instance, odds to win Serie A. Such bets always come with larger odds that you will find at regular markets, but they, of course, imply more risk. Here is what the 2021-22 Serie A championship title odds look like:
- Internazionale -250
- Napoli +800
- Atalanta +800
- AC Milan +800
- Juventus +1600
As you see, Inter is a firm favorite; still, Futures always fluctuate as almost every game involving top teams can change the whole deal.
Serie A Parlay Bets
Parlay is not a specific bet type — it is a way of how you can place and organize your wagers. When you place a single bet on a particular outcome, it is pretty straightforward: you either win or lose. Parlay is a multiple bet: you add various picks to your bet slip from different games. For instance, you select an Inter-Milan Moneyline, add a Torino-Verona spread bet, and finally choose Totals for a Juventus-Milan game.
When you combine these three picks in a parlay, all odds are multiplied by each other. Multiply the result by your stake: it is your potential payout that you get if all the picks work out. However, if only one of them loses, you lose the whole parlay, which adds much risk to this wager type. Some bookies offer parlay insurances as a promo: you can lose one pick and get winnings for the rest.
Serie A Relegation Betting
The league’s ranking is designed in a way when the worst teams are relegated from the Premier League to the second-tier one.
Thus, it gives you some more betting options: you can wager on clubs that are likely to leave Serie A as a season’s result.
Sometimes, it can be even more exciting: it requires more knowledge and involves watching some less popular games. If you know the ropes of such Serie A clubs, you get a significant advantage over most bettors who are mainly keen on the top teams. Here are the current sports betting offers for relegation chances:
- Torino +2200
- Verona +5500
- Sassuolo +9000
- Lazio +1900
- Fiorentina +1900
Yes, it is almost like betting on Futures — but vice versa, in some sense.
Previous Serie A Results
The last ten years were mainly about Juventus: they weren’t on the winners’ list only twice. However, the other clubs besides the three top-tier ones were close to their results: for instance, Roma and Napoli became Juventus’ main opponents twice. Among the top players were Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan), Mauro Icardi (Inter), and Fabio Quagliarella (Sampdoria).
Here are the past Serie A winners:
- 2010–11 Milan (18)
- 2011–12 Juventus (28)
- 2012–13 Juventus (29)
- 2013–14 Juventus (30)
- 2014–15Juventus (31)
- 2015–16Juventus (32)
- 2016–17 Juventus (33)
- 2017–18 Juventus (34)
- 2018–19 Juventus (35)
- 2019–20 Juventus (36)
- 2020–21 Internazionale
Conclusion
Serie A betting is a great option to start: it is pretty straightforward, and soccer is overall a simple game when it comes to the rules. Besides, this league is popular, so you will find plenty of consensus picks, forecasts, and insights for it. It doesn’t mean you need to always follow public opinion, though: sometimes, it makes sense to bet against the majority and get much better results. There is no all-in-one strategy, so the basics are stats tracking, news and insights monitoring, and planning your wagers depending on the current situation.
Ready to place your first bet but doubting about the best sportsbook? Read our reviews on various online sports betting sites worldwide: we give only honest and unbiased opinions on sportsbooks we tried personally.
FAQ
Most bookies publish Serie A odds and lines, including Futures wagering options. There is an excellent selection of wagers at Pinnacle, Bet365, and 1xBet, to name just a few sportsbooks focusing on soccer. If you prefer American sportsbooks, try looking at the Fanduel or DraftKings’ offer: they usually have a smaller choice of betting markets than British and European betting sites but still give at least the most typical options.
The top Seria A clubs are Juventus, FC Inter Milano, AC Milan, and Genoa CFC. Current stats are the following: Juventus has gained 36 victories, Inter’s recent result is 18, and so has Milan’s; Genoa has won the Championship nine times so far.
There are plenty of free streaming platforms online, so you have a great choice here. However, if you want an all-in-one solution, and watch the games right at your sports betting site, consider Bet365 or William Hill: they offer an excellent live streaming service for customers, and you need to have at least a penny on your deposit to get access to most soccer live streams.
Yes, they are. We use a trusted third-party provider that constantly tracks and updates the odds for the top sports events worldwide.
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