Read our How to bet on the AFL betting guide for a full overview of the AFL. We’ll provide our best betting tips, how to pick a winner, a preview of the 2017 final series and the best Australian bookmakers for betting on the AFL. Get all the important details on our How to bet on the AFL guide below:
What are the AFL bookmakers Betting Opportunities in 2023?
| Betting on AFL | Betting | AFL 2023 |
|---|---|---|
 bet365 |
Visit the operator’s website | |
 Unibet |
Check bookmaker site | |
 Ladbrokes |
Check bookmaker’s site | |
 PointsBet |
Visit the operator’s website | Coming soon >> |
AFL History
The AFL stands for “Australian Football League” and is known in Australia as “Aussie Rules”. The league was formed in 1896 and the first season occurred in 1987. The AFL was originally called the VFL until 1990 and comprised of only teams from Victoria. However, in 1990, the first team outside of Victoria was born in the Adelaide Crows. The AFL now has an 18 team competition with AFL teams from around Australia. There are a total of 10 teams located in Victoria, 2 teams in Queensland, 2 teams in New South Wales, 2 teams in Western Australia and 2 teams in South Australia.
The regular season runs for 23 rounds and each team gets two byes per season. In terms of points, the winning team in an AFL match gets 4 points, a draw is worth 2 points and a loss earns 0 points. The finals format is determined by a top eight from the ladder. The AFL finals span over four weeks and the two best teams in Week 3 will play in the AFL Grand Final in the next week. The Grand Final is usually played around late-September or early-October. It’s a day time Grand Final and starts at approximately 2:30 pm in the afternoon.
The Carlton Blues and Essendon Bombers are tied for the most VFL/AFL Premierships with 16. But both teams haven’t featured in the AFL Grand Final since 1995 (Carlton) and 2001 (Essendon). Three teams currently haven’t won a Premiership in the Fremantle Dockers, Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants. However, the Suns and Giants were only established in 2009. In 2016, the Western Bulldogs defeated the Sydney Swans for their first AFL Grand Final victory since 1954.
Betting opportunities
In this section, we’ll review the AFL betting opportunities available.
Win betting – Straight win betting on an AFL match is the most popular
Multi betting – The best method of betting on the AFL is in our opinion, multi-betting. The odds are greater for a multi-bet and you can combine a total of 9 matches into a multi per round (except bye weeks).
Line / Spread betting – The line betting option is available for AFL matches. The minus line means the team is the favourite to win the match. While the plus line is for the underdog. The AFL is known for upsets and the plus sign is a great multi-betting option for multiple matches.
Margin betting – Margin betting is a popular AFL betting option as the odds provide good value for punters. The two most common options for a match are: 1-39 and 40+. If a result finishes below 40 points, the 1-39 bet will win. While if the margin is 40 points or more, the 40+ margin wins.
Total points – Betting on the total points for an AFL match also provides value odds. The two total points options are the overs and unders. Typically, we would recommend betting on the over total points unless two teams are struggling to score points in the AFL season.
Propositions – The number of AFL markets in propositions is huge as both teams have 22 players. That’s 44 AFL players per match that can have betting markets. The most popular propositions bet types are: most goals, 30+ disposals, first goalscorer and 30 disposals / 3 goals.
AFL 2017 finals preview
The 2017 AFL season has been one of the closest seasons in recent memory. In Round 14 alone, there were four of nine matches decided by under 3 points. Also in the last two weeks, there has been a draw result in each round. A draw is very rare in the AFL as there were no draws in 2016.
The AFL season is nearing finals and the top eight is starting to take shape. The Adelaide Crows and Greater Western Sydney Giants are tied for first at the top of the ladder. The Geelong Cats are just behind them and they have the AFL Brownlow medal favourite in Patrick Dangerfield. The next four teams on the ladder are 9-6 and they all didn’t make the finals last year.
The Port Adelaide Power are in the top four, Melbourne has won four of the last five, Richmond is 6th and the St Kilda Saints have won four in a row. But the Sydney Swans have been the story of the season. After starting 0-6, they now sit in the top eight at 8-7. They have around 4-5 teams chasing them for the last position in the finals.
We’re hoping for a Grand Final between the Adelaide Crows and Geelong Cats as Dangerfield was a member of the Crows a few years ago. Both sides meet in Round 18 in a potential preview of the AFL Grand Final. The team to watch are the Swans after they lost the Grand Final last year and they’re currently the form side in the AFL.
Thanks for reading our How to bet on the AFL – Betting guide.
