Can You Bet On The FA Cup Draw?

The FA Cup draw can have a massive impact on what odds the bookmakers offer about each of the teams in the competition, but bookmakers don’t tend to offer odds on which teams will be drawn against each other.

We all know what it’s like to sit there watching the FA Cup draw with bated breath as we hope our team avoid the favourites, turning to our mates in the pub and saying, “I bet we get drawn at Manchester City”. But while you may be able to get one of your mates to take your bet, the bookmaker won’t.

Why Don’t Bookmakers Bet On The FA Cup Draw?

Generally, bookmakers don’t tend to bet on sporting events where the outcome is completely down to chance. Just like professional punters, they like to use form or statistics as the basis for their analysis for any market. This makes it much easier to provide odds that reflect this analysis rather than pure mathematics.

Sure, bookmakers could offer odds on the FA Cup draw at certain stages, such as when there are 64 teams left in the competition. The odds of being drawn against another team would be 63/1 and the bookmakers could easily factor in a percentage for themselves. For example, they could offer odds of 55/1 about any team being drawn against any other.

But there probably isn’t much demand for such a bet, as the pure luck of the results means it would be more like playing casino games or betting on a lottery. There may be lots of demand for this kind of betting, but most sports bettors prefer to be able to analyse form and statistics before having a bet.

If you are interested on betting on the FA Cup draw, perhaps you could ask your bookmaker for odds, but we think there are much better ways to bet on the FA Cup.

Ways To Bet On The FA Cup

There are a few ways you can bet on the FA Cup, including outright betting, each-way betting, and match betting.

Outright FA Cup Betting

One of the most popular ways to bet on the FA Cup is the outright market, in which you can bet on your favourite team (or any other) to lift England’s most coveted domestic trophy. The bookmakers offer outright betting from before the competition begins, and the odds change after each round of matches, or as some of the bigger teams get knocked out.

You can also bet each-way on the FA Cup, with most bookmakers betting ½ odds 2 places. The win bet is the same as an outright bet, with the place bet being a wager on a team to be the losing finalist.

However, for the professional punter, outright betting on the FA is often viewed as something of a minefield, as the draw can’t be factored into the outright or each-way prices.

For example, let’s say that Manchester City are 4/1 to win the FA Cup. These odds are based loosely on the idea that City need to beat six opponents to win the FA Cup and is roughly the accumulative odds of beating two no-hopers, two middle-of-the-road teams, and two decent teams in the latter stages.

But the draw for the FA Cup does not work as ideally as this as, from the third round, any team can be drawn against any other team. In theory, City could easily face a nightmare draw in which they might have to face Leicester in the third round, Arsenal in round 4, Chelsea in round 5, Manchester United in the quarterfinals, Tottenham in the semifinals, and Liverpool in the final.

Even if Manchester City were averagely priced at 1/2(1.50) to beat all these opponents, the cumulative odds of them winning the FA Cup would really be 11.39/1.

Of course, City could also face six no-hopers on their way to success, which means their actual odds for winning the trophy would be much less than 4/1. The ‘impossible to factor in’ complexities of the FA Cup draw is why many professional punters avoid such bets, instead choosing to bet on individual FA Cup matches.

Betting On FA Cup Matches

In every round of the FA Cup, bookmakers offer betting on individual matches, whether they take place between two equally matched teams or are complete mismatches, such as a Man City vs a non-league team.

Betting on these matches gives professional punters the best chance to find value football bets, as they don’t need to factor in the draw.

There are other factors that need consideration, such as the motivation of teams, but these are all things that can help you gain an important value edge. For example, Liverpool have become renowned for fielding weakened starting line-ups in recent cup competitions, yet their odds are still often priced up much shorter than their record suggests they should be.

How Should I Bet On The FA Cup?

If you’re thinking of having a bet on the FA Cup, the first question is why do you want to? If you just want to bet on your favourite team to win it and share the excitement of their journey all the way to the hallowed steps of Wembley, there’s nothing wrong with that. Just remember not to bet more than you can afford.

But if you’re serious about making money from betting on the FA Cup, then you should approach it like a professional football punter would approach any betting opportunity. You need to study the form and statistics, price up the teams, and exploit any value you can find. This can take a lot of time and effort, but this is what professional football punters do day in day out.

However, if you don’t have the time or don’t want to put the effort in, there is another way to make money from football betting. Luckily, you can follow the advice of professional football punters that are willing to share their tips with you.

Here at Betting Gods, we have professional football tipsters that bet on the FA Cup as part of their football betting strategy. But they don’t limit their bets to just one competition, instead exploring leagues and cups from around the world to find a constant stream of value football bets.

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We hope that’s answered your question can you bet on the FA Cup draw.