Rugby is a popular sport in many countries around the world, and one of its most prestigious leagues is the National Rugby League. The name of the NRL is a bit of a misnomer, as it implies that teams from only one country form the league.
In fact, teams from two countries comprise the league, and those two countries are Australia and New Zealand. Both nations are known among sports fans and punters for the quality of their rugby.
The league’s season runs from March to October, and ends with the Grand Final. The final is one of the biggest sports betting markets at many online bookmakers.
Teams in the NRL
The NRL is made up of 15 teams from Australia and 1 team from New Zealand. Its main competition is the Telstra Premiership, which features a premiership season, a representative season, and a finals series that leads to the Grand Final.
The teams in the league are the New Zealand Warriors, the Wests Tigers, the Sydney Roosters, the St George Illawarra Dragons, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the Penrith Panthers, the Parramatta Eels, the North Queensland Cowboys, the Newcastle Knights, Melbourne Storm, the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, the Gold Coast Titans, the Cronulla-Southerland Sharks, the Canberra Raiders, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, and the Brisbane Broncos.
NRL Bets Online
Good quality online bookmakers offer markets on NRL matches throughout the season. The betting gets off to a busy start at the beginning of the season, and gets even busier as the season progresses.
By the time the final arrives, it is one of the busiest of all the rugby markets. Punters have an array of betting options from which to choose, including prop and outright bets.
Casual punters or those who are new to rugby betting usually place outright win bets. Such bets are also a popular choice among punters who want to place a bet as a show of support for their favourite team.
Experienced punters and those with a good working knowledge of the NRL tend to place the trickier prop bets. Such bets see punters bet on the player to be named Man of the Match, whether a team score will be odd or even, on correct or exact scores, and which player will be the first to score a try.
Prop bets usually have longer odds than win bets, which means any winnings from prop bets are usually greater than winnings from win bets.
Successful Online NRL Betting
Placing NRL betting odds purely out of team loyalty is not the best way to do it, if punters are serious about wanting to win. There is nothing with placing a bet to show support, of course, but punters’ bets will stand a better chance of winning if they are informed bets.
If punters want to try improve their chances of winning, they should try find out as much as they can about the participating teams and players. Many online bookmakers make this quite easy by publishing betting guides and useful information on their websites.
Such information could include weather reports, reports about player injuries, team statistics, and recent match results. If punters know that certain players contribute significantly to a NRL team’s success, they should check whether that player has suffered any recent injuries, as that could affect his performance in the game.
Punters should also check the odds offered by online bookmakers. Short odds indicate easier bets, so if there are short odds on a team to win, and that team wins the match, the result would hardly be a surprise.