Soccer is one of the world’s major sports and it is played in every corner of the globe from Canada to England to Australia. Major club competitions like the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga, Germany’s Bundesliga and Italy’s Serie A are all popular club competitions, but they are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to soccer betting.
Boosted by attracting major names along with bigger, better broadcasting coverage,
the MLS has also grown to become one of the major soccer leagues in the world. While the big European leagues all graced with rich histories that stretch back a long way, the MLS only played out its inaugural season in 1996.
That itself was on the back of the formation of the MLS ahead of the soccer frenzy that was the USA’s hosting of the 1994 FIFA World Cup. With the inclusion of Canadian teams, Major League Soccer is one of North America’s top sporting spectacles along with the likes of the NBA, MLB and NFL.
The MLS soccer season is held entirely within a calendar year. The pinnacle of the competition is the MLS Cup, the final match of a long season. A popular MLS soccer betting market is a pre-season punt on the outright winner of the MLS Cup. With the regular season matches in the MLS, playoff matches and then the finale of the MLS Cup, there are a lot of live betting calls to make during the season.
Each fixture in the season brings up the popular soccer betting markets. Those are things like the match outrights, over/under, goalscorer markets and goals markets. But the options are expanded even further because of MLS live betting. That’s when picks such as Next Goalscorer, Next Team To score selections are active.
The live in-play betting for the MLS gives punters the chance to bet while watching fixtures unfold in front of their eyes. Catching a broadcast of an MLS match, and having live markets at your fingertips allows you to use the analysis of matches to guide those live betting picks.
The modern game has grown so much that it’s extremely hard to find a day when there is not a soccer match that’s being played somewhere. Football never sleeps and sportsbooks stay active constantly. Even during those MLS off-season times, the European leagues are in full swing for example. Then there is the next level of soccer betting that everyone looks forward to. The international fixtures.
The major international soccer betting highlights include the FIFA World Cup, European Championships, Africa Cup of Nations, the Copa America and the Copa de Oro. Those are the big tournaments that take centre stage and provide fans with more wagering markets, usually when domestic leagues have finished. The big stars from the MLS turn out for their respective countries to play for honours at the top level of soccer wagering excitement.
Yes, it is one of the major sports in North America that also embraces teams from Canada. While there were none in the inaugural season of the MLS in 1996, franchise expansion since has led to Canadian teams participating in the top league.
As the MLS operates with a Salary Cap, teams can have a limited number of players whose salary goes above the cap. Such a player that is signed on, is therefore a Designated Player. The first player to play in the MLS under the Designated Player rule was David Beckham when he joined the LA Galaxy.
This is one match, a winner-takes-all fixture that decides the overall MLS championship winners for a season. This is the final game of the MLS Cup playoffs and it features the winners of the Eastern Conference Final and the winner of the Western Conference Final.
The Supporters’ Shield goes to the team that has earned the most points throughout a regular MLS season. This is out of all teams from both conferences. So it is a reward for the best regular-season record with added incentive for US teams as it also comes with a guaranteed place in the CONCACAF Champions League.