Who is the best bookmaker for Fixed Odds ?

Continuing on in our search for the best place to bet online ... and today we will handle the second most frequent question.

"Who is the best bookmaker for European football fixed odds betting?"

The most popular form of Sports Betting is simply betting on a team to win a match.

This is usually called fixed odds betting, or 1X2 betting (after the old football pools style) or Home-Draw-Away betting.

And it's just because it's so popular that makes this question so hard to answer - because the market is hugely competitive and finding the best bookmaker really does depend on exactly what you are betting on.

WE FOUND THE BEST BOOKMAKER ... BUT ...
At the end of last season (2005-06) we did a comprehensive analysis of all the bookmakers out there - taking odds from over 1000 matches spread over 6 different European football league in order to find the best odds.

The answer was clear - it was PinnacleSports who were the best price for 42% of favourites in European leagues and 45% of outsiders in English games.

Question solved !! Except that during the 2006 World Cup they took a beating and in July 2006 the PinnacleSports management team took a look at their books and found that they were being beaten by the UK and European football punters and promptly withdrew from those markets !!

That's right - they do not offer 1x2 betting on football anymore - except on the highest profile games - so they're no use to most football punters.

So now in order to answer this question of "Who is the best bookmaker for European football fixed odds betting?" we now need to give you a two part answer.

WINNER - BEST BOOKMAKER FOR FIXED ODDS - FAVOURITES
(1) Interwetten (Maltese Bookmaker)

That's right, European Bookmaker Interwetten are the #1 ranked bookmaker to try if you are looking for the best odds on a heavy favourite.

They do not seem to change their odds often after initially posting them - a fact which perhaps reflects that they usually have cheaper prices for outsiders - and this means that if you are cruising around looking to get a late bet on Chelsea, or Man Utd, or Barcelona or Inter Milan then a trip to the Interwetten site is usually in order.

We will retest at the end of this season - but right now we estimate that if a team is price at 1.50 or less then Interwetten are the best price a staggering 50% of the time.

Other highly commended sites were Paddy Power with 17% of English favourites, and Globet with 16% of European favourites.

If you bet on favourites then you need these bookmakers on your list of betting places.

WINNER - BEST BOOKMAKER FOR FIXED ODDS - LONGSHOTS
(1) Bet365 (UK Bookmaker)

This was a much more competitive field but the winner was Bet365 who were best priced for outsiders (teams at odds of 4.00 or more) 22% of the time.

Of course longshots are a tricky bet to land - and prices can change quickly if a team suddenly becomes a popular bet - but from what we monitored over the course of the 2005-06 season this UK bookamker stood out.

Other highly commended sites were Eurobet (13%), Paddy Power (13%), and Globet (10%).

SUMMARY
So there we have it - there is no single bookmaker that can guarantee the best odds - and depending on your style of betting you will need to choose 2 or 3 good reliable bookmakers to ensure that you are getting a good price.

But if you are just getting started then you need :
#1 FOR FAVOURITES Interwetten
#1 FOR LONGSHOTS Bet365