With much of its popularity confined to Ireland, the betting opportunities associated with Gaelic Sports have grown exponentially with the emergence of online betting with many of the world’s biggest betting companies such as Paddy Power and Bet 365 having links to Ireland.

GAA Football offers a wealth of betting opportunities through its relatively unique scoring system and punters can utilise the varied markets to their advantage – regardless of affordable stake levels.

Here is our guide to how bet on Gaelic Sports intelligently:-

• Target the Outright Results and Build an Accumulator
Much like many of the UK and US markets, GAA Football sees teams go head to head as part of a League season, with each team playing each other twice – home and away. Betting on the outright results of Gaelic Sports matches can be a lucrative tactic as can developing an accumulator bet. Where punters can pick 2 or more matches (with kick off times usually being close together) and sit back and watch if their pre-match picks come in. The huge advantage of accumulator betting is that punters can stake a small amount – to win big – the odds are against them of course.

• Embrace the Anomalies
Whilst continually backing the underdog would not be an effective betting strategy, the amateur nature of GAA Football can often throw up some unexpected results with the game not being professional. Of course, the players are highly trained, highly skilled athletes but deciphering the difference between most of the teams can often be decided by a small passage of play or moment of brilliance and underdogs often beat heavy favourites throughout the course of the season. The physical and unpredictable nature of GAA Football also lends itself to backing the underdog in a head to head market and creating lucrative anomalies that to make the bookmaker suffer.

• Research the GAA Football Calendar
The number of games that each team plays over the course of a particular season can vary massively, with the highly successful teams in the league having to play many more games than some of their less successful rivals. The physical and unrelenting nature of GAA Football means rest is essential and with the players very rarely being professional too, awareness of how many matches a particular team has played is essential when picking which team to back.

• Study the Form Tables and the Rules
As mentioned, outside of Ireland, GAA Football can struggle for notoriety on the world stage. Whilst punting on the nuances of the game can bring about profitable results, lack of knowledge on team selection, form and the actual rules of the game itself can be costly for punters. Detailed research around which teams are in good for and how each team accumulates their points are essential things to consider when betting on GAA Football.

• Bet in Play
With each match being played over two, 30 minute halves; betting in-play on GAA Football doesn’t need to be an impulsive vocation and punters can enjoy watching the match whilst making informed predictions on the outcome. In addition, watching the game can help rookie punters become more familiar with the rules of the game and can once more help all levels of bettor wager on GAA Football more intelligently.