Rugby’s Historic Popularity & Expanded Global Following

Each year at the start of winter the Rugby season makes its much-anticipated return. All team planning and preparation during the off-season will then be put to the test in a series of brutally physical games across the globe. Read on if you are interested in placing online bets on some of the most thrilling displays of rugby cooked up by the best teams in this hotly contested sport.

Rugby has traditionally been extremely popular in just a few strongholds that formed part of the British commonwealth. An unruly birth during Roman times 2000 years ago saw a game of rugby entice the entire citizenry of two competing towns do war against one another sometimes lasting for days on end about the possession and carrying of a ball between the two town squares. The rules varied greatly, and participants often paid the highest penalty as a result of the severity of their injuries. In 1845, school pupils in the English town of Rugby formalised the game in its current format when they first penned the rules. The new rules dictated two competing squads of just 15 men. The new rules rugby then made its way across the ocean to first reach Australia in 1858, with South Africa following suit by 1861. Rugby finally made the journey across the channel to France in the early 1870s with New Zealand also adopting the new rules game during the same year.

This early rugby founding legacy lives on today with these four original commonwealth countries still fielding the most powerful teams in the world. Since then much has changed, over the past two decades the appeal of its extreme physicality made it increasingly popular with viewers everywhere. Many countries across the globe play rugby now with each national and regional team followed by a thoroughly loyal fan base that shows massive year-on-year growth.

As geography and luck would have it, the world’s strongest rugby nations find themselves on opposing sides of the equator. This factor is responsible for significantly extending the combined rugby seasons for all teams forming part of the greatest sporting war ever played between two hemispheres. It also means off-seasons during which teams and players have time to rest and recuperate has grown ever shorter. For fans and sports betting enthusiasts, the hemispheric separation turns competitive seasons into a year-round marathon of bone-crunching games and tournaments they can bet on.

Essential Advice for First-Time Bettors

The following guide will help all punters new to online betting on rugby make much more informed and profitable bet selections right from the get-go.

The Basics

Register with Multiple Online Bookmakers: Before you even start with any sort of bet selection process make sure you register with several trustworthy online bookmakers. It is necessary to build a wider betting base since a single bookmaker may not necessarily offer all the betting markets, bet options, or the rugby fixtures you may want to place bets on. Please note you should most not simply register with the first online sportsbook you encounter, make certain you stick to reputable international brands!
Promotional Offers: Another crucial factor to consider are the potential extra profits you could gain if you made use of a good online bookmaker’s promotional bonuses. It could deliver substantial financial rewards if the bonus comes with a set of fair rules. Both experienced and novice punters will find benefit in making use of the generous and fair UK no deposit bonuses from our list of exclusive and recently updated bookmaker offers.
Shop Around: Do not start placing bets with the first online sportsbook you stumble across in your search, even if they are entirely fair and reputable you need to shop around until you have found the best possible odds for your bets. Any experienced punter will tell you placing bets at good odds are a crucial factor to achieve financial success. Poor odds will have a huge knock-on effect on the overall profitability of your sports bets. Even the greatest bets can result in very little or no profit at all if a punter placed their bet at poor odds.
Statistics vs Emotions: If you are a loyal team supporter or have a strong emotional connection or bias towards certain teams be careful not to let your emotions influence your decision-making abilities. Your natural urge to support your home team may coax you to include poor choices in your bet selections where the odds are completely against your personal favourites. Such poor choices could ruin the profitability of an otherwise potentially great bet and allow your bookmaker to make easy money off you. Instead concentrate on including well-informed, well-considered bet choices that you made after spending a sufficient amount of time weighing up facts and data gained from researched hard evidence.
Reputable, Trustworthy, & Fair Betting Partners: Again, we reiterate you must be highly discerning in your choice of bookmakers that you elect to trust with your future deposits and winnings as your new betting partners. If you are completely new to online sports betting first see what games, teams, and tournaments each bookmaker offers betting coverage on. We highly recommend you initially stick to joining with the bigger reputable brand names as your betting partners.

Learn, Know, & Understand Everything About Rugby

The Rules: Make certain you are quite familiar with the rules of each type of tournament since the rules vary significantly between the different competitions. For instance, the Heineken Cup and Premierships award one bonus point for teams scoring four tries in one game. The rule means to encourage teams to adopt an attack-heavy strategy to wow the fans with games that produce a more spectacular style of play. In contrast, this point scoring system is absent from the Six Nations tournament.
Research: Acquaint yourself thoroughly with the sport’s various tournament and competition rules as well as the performance levels of the teams in each of the series. Knowing how they performed in previous seasons could help you use repetitive losses on a particular field, opponent, or tournament to your advantage. We have all borne witness to the phenomenon where a particular team simply seems doomed to keep losing against a particular foe, or in matches played on a specific field, or tournament without any apparent logical reason even when playing against statistically inferior opponents.
Player Health & Fitness: Teams are only as strong as the players in them, and teams hampered by sick or injured players have the odds stacked against them since there is a strong possibility that they are weaker than their opponents that are at full strength. Especially if their opponents also have one or more physically fit big international names in that particular match. You also need to identify any teams that against expectation failed to perform during the current season
Team Form: It is vital you know each team’s current standard of performance. Get intimately acquainted with each team’s key players and their individual forms, not only in the current but also in previous seasons. See if they are playing hurt and how will such factors influence the performance of the team since certain key player positions have a disastrous effect on team performance if the player fails to deliver their usual high standard of play. Also, take into account that in some instances a highly gifted youngster desperately wanting to prove their mettle while filling the position of a regular player may outperform the proven older star whose light may well be on the wane! Recognising such factors will help you avoid placing incorrect bets on teams that have failed to perform during the current season and you must do so without discounting the possibility of a sudden leap in performance.
Tactics & Playing Style: Study the playing styles and tactics of all the teams and players you wish to place bets on. No matter how strong the evidence appears to point in their favour make sure you apply the same assessment process to their opponents before making any decisions. It will not only help you predict if they are likely to win it will also help highlight the most profitable type of bet and any additional bets likely to earn you even more money. You do not want to start placing bets on the first try scored when your selected team became most famous for their unshakable defence line-up or points scoring kicking ability. Both factors testify that there might be a possible shortage of tries scored during their upcoming matches but selecting a different market to bet on may net you a tidy profit.
Obvious Favourites: While it might be more likely, being the bookie’s favourite does not necessarily mean that team will be victorious. Quite often it is the underdogs that upset the applecart by pulling off an unpredicted win. Depending on team form and the opposing team’s form, as well as the weather and location they are playing at (such as home or away games) it could make the underdogs the better choice to back.
Rumours: Another tool that has paid more dividends than even the most reliable tips is trustworthy information gained from insider rugby rumours . If you can find a reliable source to regularly provide you with the latest updates on things doing the rounds as rumours about the decision made by rugby’s inner sanctum it may assist you to predict the likely outcomes of future games with greater accuracy. This will definitely give you an edge, and an edge is the most valuable advantage any punter could possibly wish for!
External Factors: Inclement weather could always yield an unexpected upset by providing one team with an advantage. Players from the wetter, windy, colder climes like the UK, NZ, and France play with a distinct advantage in the northern hemisphere against teams from the much drier, warmer climates of South Africa and Australia. Especially if a driving wind blows freezing sleet directly into the visitors’ faces during the first half of play, then simply disappears as the teams switch sides at half-time. A windy day could also majorly affect the outcome of a team’s performance if they built their strategy around long kicks at goal or directed towards up-field kicks that will allow them to quickly gain territory.
The Referee: Despite teams playing under the guise of a unified global rugby ruleset the manner whereby referees interpret and apply the rules not only differs between individual referees and countries, but it also varies between the northern and southern hemispheres. Some referees prefer to apply the rules strictly as per the letter of the law. However, aside from serious safety transgressions the rules also grant referees the freedom to allow for considerable leeway in cases of minor infringements in most areas of play. This leeway allows a game filled with minor transgressions to still flow which prevents a match from degrading into an infringement riddled series of tedious stop-start affairs induced by an overly whistle-happy referee. To determine how a particular referee may affect a game will require you thoroughly familiarise yourself with the game histories of the various referees and how they apply the rules.
Home Field Advantage: Most punters are acutely aware that the field selected to play a game on can have a major impact on your decision-making and bet selection processes. It is imperative you also take into consideration that some teams are at a truly major disadvantage when playing against a home team on a specific field. A perfect example of this phenomenon is Carisbrook in New Zealand, commonly known as “The Brook” it quickly became branded as “The House of Pain” by visiting internationals. The House of Pain thoroughly deserved its name and reputation since it was an accurate reflection of the lengthy series of dismal results recorded by even the strongest visitors who dared play the home team on that field.
Event Calendar: An international fixture calendar reflecting all upcoming and past rugby events allow you to view each team’s match schedule which will provide you with a clear indication of each big player’s engagement dates where he is committed to what team or tournament. An extremely busy schedule would allow you to discover which regional or national games he will not play in. Any team without one or more of their international players in a key position would provide the opposing team with a notable advantage during any matches played in his absence.
News: Unbiased news sources able to provide you with the latest information about player movements, injuries, as well as experienced analyses of games and plays as well as any other relevant information offer you easy, reliable ways to keep yourself updated with the latest sport information. It is imperative you always remain well informed about all aspects of rugby and the factors that may affect the outcomes of upcoming matches.
Markets & Bet Options: Lastly but perhaps most importantly, educate yourself thoroughly on all the available betting markets and bet options that specifically pertains to the sport of rugby. Remember which competitions and games each bookmaker offers betting coverage on. Also, determine which bookmakers offer what markets and keep in mind which ones are bound to offer you the most beneficial odds on those markets. Knowing your markets will allow you to turn a current losing game, team, or losing streak to serve in your betting favour, but only if you are well-aware of what each bet option entails, and you can turn each one’s rules to work in your favour by tuning your bets to maximise your potential profits.

Experience, Information & Skill

Remember at the end it all comes down to you. The information you have so carefully assembled and studied you must eventually use to base the bet selections on that you deem most likely to make you a tidy profit. You must select markets strategically to improve your chances not only of winning but also those able to maximise your winnings. Sportsbetting is hugely fun if you are sure of your decisions and the resultant bet choices you made based on your knowledge, it becomes even greater fun once you have gained experience and start your hobby starts paying for itself and simultaneously handing you some extra cash when it turns a tidy profit.