The FIFA World Cup, held every four years, is one of the most popular sporting event not only for the viewers but for the sports betting fans as well. Online bookmakers worldwide and on the internet take bets from all over the world. The 2010 FIFA World Cup looks to be no different. An estimated £2 billion is bet with countries like England, Italy and of course Germany among the leaders. The online bookmakers knowing this is their time to attract a lot of new customers, offer a great selection of betting odds and free football bets to entice us all to join. You can choose to place a bet while the game is being played for example, this is called live betting, it gives you a little bit of an advantage by letting you watch the game and based on what you see, making your selection. This is a good way of giving yourself some time to examine the World Cup odds and also if the team you want to bet on is in a good shape or not. Of course one of the most popular bets that online bookmakers offer is picking the World Cup winner. This year's big favorite Brazil is still alive, played some great football so far. Needless to say sports bettors placed a lots of money on them, approximately 33% of the bettors selected Brazil as the team to win it all.~

If you think you are capable of picking the right result not only for the game, but for the halftime as well, then you should choose the halftime/fulltime double result football betting option at online bookmakers. Although there are much more to choose from if you go this route, the rewards are much higher as well. If we take an example of team A playing team B, here is how some of the online bookmakers odds would look like.

Halftime - Fulltime Odds
A win - A win + 350 - team A leads at the half, and win the game at the end
A win - Draw + 850 - team A leads at the half, but the game result in a draw at the end
A win - B win + 3500 - team A leads at the half, but team B wins the game at the end
Draw - A wins + 500 - after a halftime draw, team A wins the game
Draw - B wins + 380 - after a halftime draw, team B wins the game

The last two are a good choice when you bet on a team who is heavy favorite, but by betting the win only after a halftime draw, will increase the return on your football bets significantly. Take for example the France - Togo game last week, when the odds for France to win the game was - 500 (meaning for every £500 you bet, you win £100), but if you placed your bet on the halftime - fulltime event and picked the draw at the half/France for the game the your odds were the much better + 220 (pays £220 for every £100 you bet).

As we come closer to the end of this event games will get closer and closer, meaning the teams will focus on defense before anything else, that would help those involved in online spread betting, who can bet on the goal difference between the two teams. One online bookmakers example:

England -1.5 + 125 - here England has to win at least by 2 goals for your bet to win
Ecuador + 1.5 - 120 - you win here if Ecuador wins, the game is a draw, or they loose by 1