How To Bet On Hurling – Betting Strategy

What Is Hurling?

Hurling is a fast-paced, high-scoring game played on a rectangular grass pitch. It is a team sport played with a stick called a hurley, or a camán, and a ball called a sliotar. The aim of the game is to score points in one of two ways. A team can either get the ball over the bar on the H-shaped goal for one point, or through the goalposts and into the net for three points. The highest scoring team of the game wins the match.

Key Rules In Hurling

Before betting on Hurling, it’s good to know the main rules of the game along with how it is played. Here are the main rules you need to be aware of:

• A match is played in two halves, each lasting between 25-35 minutes.
• If a player wishes to handle the ball with their hands, they can’t simply just pick it up. Instead, a player must flick or roll the ball into their hands using the hurley.
• To catch a ball, it must be in midair or be bounced off the ground.
• A player is only allowed to handle the ball with their hands twice.
• A ball can be passed with the hand or foot, but when passing with the hand, the ball cannot be thrown.
• A player can only have possession of the ball for four consecutive steps.

How To Bet On Hurling

Being an Irish sport, it is likely that you will be using an Irish bookmaker to place your bet. Either way, the first thing you want to do is shop around the find the right betting site to use. When looking around, consider the following:

• Does the betting site have the market you are after?
• Does the betting site have the best odds?
• Does the betting site have any welcome offers that will make your money go further?
• Does the betting site provide in-play betting?
• Does the betting site have a good user interface?

Remember, you can use more than one betting site, and it can be very beneficial to do so. Using different betting sites for different markets can allow you to access the best odds for each market.

Once you have selected your betting site(s), follow these steps to place your bet:

1. Register, or sign in, to the betting site
2. Navigate to their Hurling betting section
3. Activate any offers you qualify for
4. Select the game and market you wish to bet on
5. Double check you are happy with the odds, enter your wager and submit the bet

Hurling Betting Markets

Being a popular, action-packed sport, there are plenty of betting options to choose from.

Betting market	How it works
Match betting	This is one of the most popular markets when betting on Hurling. With this type of bet, you are selecting an outcome of the match. Your options are a home team win, an away team win, or a draw, making this a relatively simple bet. While this type of bet is offered by all betting sites, the odds quoted will vary widely, so be sure to shop around.
Over/under	The over/under market offers a wide selection of bets where you can bet whether the final outcome will be over or under the line set by the bookmaker. Bets within this market include things like number of cards, number of fouls, total points, and many more.
Handicap	As with all sports, the handicap market attempts to even out the playing field by giving a team a hypothetical advantage in a match. This is a very popular market in Hurling because the games are very often one sided, so by giving the less favoured team a boost in points before the game has started, it makes the match more even. The handicap will give one team a negative and one team a positive number of points before the match. At the end of the match, these points are added or subtracted from the team’s total points and these new totals are used when settling the market.
Draw no bet	This market works the same as match betting but with the removal of the draw outcome. This means that you are either betting on the home team or the away team to win. Should the match end in a draw, your wager is refunded.
Betting margins	The betting margins market requires you to bet on the difference in points between the teams at the end of the match. Each range will have its own odds, with larger margins typically having higher odds. This market is particularly popular for matches that are likely to be very close in points.
First point scorer	As the name suggests, this market requires you to select a player that will score the first points of a match. These points can be scored in any method.
Total points odd/even	Another self-explanatory market, this type of bet requires you to wager whether you think the combined total of points at the end of the match will be odd or even. This is one of the more simple bets on offer that doesn’t require a whole lot of research.
First scoring play	In the first scoring play market you have to select how you think the first points of the match will be scored. Your options are typically points from a placed ball, points from a goal, points from play or no points scored. With the high-scoring nature of the game, no points scored is a very unlikely outcome.

Tips For Betting On Hurling

Understand the game

Possibly the most important thing when betting on any sport is making sure you fully understand the game and what you are betting on. Before placing your bet, be sure to familiarise yourself with the rules, research the key players and look at team strategies. This will help you to make an informed decision.

Research the teams

Before betting on a Hurling match, it’s a good idea to research the teams and their players. Be sure to pay close attention to recent performance, injury reports and any history between the teams.  Playing styles and historical data will help you to identify any trends or strategies for each team. Combining this with the latest news for each team will give you an insight into how the match could play out.

Key Hurling Tournaments

National Hurling League

This league is the format for the Irish Hurling season, first introduced in 1925. The league consists of teams representing counties all across Ireland.

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship

This is the main event in Hurling and is a highly prestigious competition. It consists of 14 teams competing for the Liam McCarthy Cup. The teams partaking in the tournament are decided from the qualifier stages and the All-Ireland Series, including the finalists from the Leinster Senior Hurling Championship, the Munster Senior Hurling Championship and the Joe McDonagh Cup.