The Best Rugby Betting Sites and Competitions Regarding the Sport

If you love Rugby betting it does not really matter if you are a Union or League fan, you will surely find great bets and very good regular offers from all rugby betting sites in the UK. The last few years a huge rise can be seen in the profile of Rugby. One of the huge changes is that The Rugby Union has moved away from being considered an amateur sport and that has led to higher wages, television coverage and club profiles.

It is no surprise that all of this has had an extremely positive effect on the Rugby betting profile and on the betting sites for rugby union as well.

Nowadays, a Rugby World Cup can command bets of more than £ 100 million. That is thanks to the fact that all of the best rugby betting sites offer promotions, odds and lines. In this article, you will find information about the betting sites for rugby, types of wagers, major tournaments, history of the game and many more.

List of Top-Rated Bookies Suitable for Rugby Bets

Rugby has always been an extremely popular sport in the UK. So it is no surprise that this interest has led to an increased want for gambling on rugby and bookmakers took note. If you want to see who the best rugby betting websites are keep reading.

BetVictor

Gamblers can enter the Rugby World Cup through Betvictor. This site offers a number of different markets and covers everything from the Heineken Cup to all of the international games. Plus, they offer great odds and up to £25 welcome bonus.

Bet365

It really comes as no surprise that one of the most popular gambling sites covers rugby. Of course, they have a variety of markets and great odds.

Paddy Power

This is a great site for a huge variety of sports, and rugby is among them. They offer very competitive odds and a good variety of bets. Paddy Power is definitely one of the best rugby union betting sites. Plus, they offer a lot of match specific promotions and a £20 welcome bonus for new players.

Betfred

They offer an amazing range of markets on both Union and League. Plus, the Double Delight promotion is permanently available. Betfred has pretty decent odds and payouts as well. Unfortunately, there is no live streaming but the live betting has a lot of different pre-event, and in play betting offers.

Major Rugby Competitions

Mentioned below are some of the major rugby competitions with a brief description. We will start with a list of the International Competitions:

Rugby Union World Cup

In 1987 the very first Rugby Union World Cup took place in New Zealand and Australia. Now, this tournament is played every 4 years and there are 20 teams who take part in it. They are formed by the top 12 teams from the last world cup and 8 nations chosen by means of regional qualifying rounds.

The trophy of the world cup is known as the Webb Ellis Cup and as you can probably tell it was named after William Webb Ellis. The Rugby Union World Cup is without a doubt the pinnacle rugby tournament, so it is no surprise you will find some amazing betting offers for it.

Rugby League World Cup

It was first played in 1954 in France, so as you can see the Rugby League World Cup is older than the Rugby Union World Cup. It is played between the national teams of the Rugby League International Federation, every 4 years. Unlike the Rugby Union, the Rugby League is made up of 14 teams – 7 of the top teams from the last world cup and the other 7 are from 4 qualification zones, which are one American, two Australian/Asian and one European.

Six Nations Championship

At first, its name was Home Nations Championship, and there were only four national rugby teams. In 1710 it was renamed the Five Nations because France entered the championship and finally it became the Six Nations Championship in 200 when Italy entered. It is a yearly Rugby Union tournament with 15 games in total because each team plays with each other. If a team wins all of the games, that is known as a Grand Slam (similar to the one in tennis), and if they win only three games, that is a Triple Crown. Outside of the Rugby Union World Cup, this is the biggest bet on a rugby competition.

Rugby League Four Nations

This is an annual competition between England, New Zealand, Australia and one other qualifier. It was firstly known as the Rugby League Tri Nations but that changed in 2009. Thanks to the addition of a South Pacific and European qualifying group, there is a position for a fourth variable team.

The Rugby Championship

Another annual competition this time by the Rugby Union between Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Rugby League European Cup

This championship was first held in 1935, which makes it one of the oldest international tournaments by the Rugby League. Interestingly enough there is no final in this championship, teams compete every 2 years, and the winner is the team that tops the league group.

Other International Rugby Union Tournaments

There are many other International Rugby Union Tournaments like the Pacific Nations Cup, the Asian 5 Nations, the European Nations Cup, the Nations Cup and more.

Other International Rugby League Tournaments

These are regional and trans-continental tournaments, such as the Pacific Cup, the Ohana Cup, The Hayne-Mannah Cup, the Magellan Cup, the Anzac Cup and more.

Rugby Union National Club Competitions

Regarding the games of the Rugby union, there are 15 players per side in each competition. These include:

Super Rugby (Super 15)

Super Rugby, or also Super 15, is an international club competition between New Zealand, South Africa and Australia and it consists of the top 15 teams from these three counties hence the name Super 15.

European Rugby Championships Cup

This is an annual top club competition. 19 teams are qualified based on the positions in the domestic leagues, there are six teams from France and England and seven from the rest. And the 20th spot is formed by a playoff between the best teams which are outside of the qualifying positions.

European Rugby Challenge Cup

Another annual rugby competition, which started in 2014, arranged by the European Professional Club Rugby and it is made up of 20 teams.

Pro-12

This is an annual league, which is made up of 12 teams from Scotland, Wales, Italy and Ireland. The top teams here get to qualify for the Champions Cup.

Anglo-Welsh Cup

Founded in 1971 this annual league features 4 Welsh teams and 12 teams from the English Premiership.

Rugby League National Club Competitions

• World Club Challenge – It was first played in 1976 and after 2000 it has become an annual competition. It is held between the winners of the Australian National Rugby League and the European Super League.
• Challenge Cup – Another annual competition between the clubs from Russia, France, Wales, Scotland and England.

UK Rugby Competitions

Here are the top three competitions that British citizens can bet on.

Rugby Union Aviva Premiership

This league consists of the top 12 English teams. It was first founded in 1987 and one team each year is promoted to the RFU Championship. The top Italian league is known as the National Championship of Excellence, in France it is the Top 14, in Ireland the All Ireland League, etc.

Super League

It was founded in 1996, and it consists of 1 team from France and 11 from England. Each year only two teams are promoted from the Championship.

National Rugby League

Founded in 1997, this is the top professional Australian league, and it consists of 16 teams, 1 from New Zealand and 15 from Australia.

Betting Types in the Rugby Union

The types of bets offered by betting sites for rugby are a huge number. You can find some of the bet types listed below.

Head to Head

This is probably one of the most straightforward type of bet. Here you have to bet on who you think will be the winner. It is important to mention that extra time is included. Also, your bet is considered successful only if your selection manages to win the fixture.

Double Result

If the outcome of a match happens to be split into 2 halves that is when you have Double Result. The possible outcomes are 9: Win/Loss, Win/Draw, Win/Win, Draw/Loss, Draw/Win, Draw/Draw, Loss/Loss, Loss/Draw and Loss/Winn. If you want your sports bet to be successful, you have to guess both halves correctly.

Winning Margin

This is without a doubt one of the most difficult rugby bet type to guess correctly. In order to win you have to rightly guess the number of points that will separate the 2 teams. Margins usually start from 1-5 points, and can go up to the large 46-50 points, but they can also vary depending on the teams themselves.

Line Betting

Here the bookmaker sets a certain number of points and you have to wager whether the stronger team will win by more points than that or if the weaker team will finish the game within that margin.

These are some of the most popular 90-minutes types of bets available at rugby union betting sites. Other interesting bets you might stumble upon are: highest point scorer and first point scorer, total drop goals, point margin markers, and many more such as special bets in which you decide if a player will get a ban or where upcoming competitions will take place.

Live Rugby Betting

There are so many opportunities to take advantage of in-play betting. There is non-stop action in rugby, which means that there are a lot of bet types to be made and you can take advantages of all situations from line outs to red or yellow card markets.

Best Rugby Betting Odds

Like with any other sports, with rugby considering the different odds prices offered by different bookmakers is important. Usually, the top rugby sports betting sites have offers that vary between about 90% to almost 94%.

Special Rugby Bonuses

Promotions and regular bonuses for rugby are not as many as those for let’s say horse racing or football. But at special times of the year, usually around February and March when the Six Nations Tournament takes place, or in June and July when there are summer tours, there are a bunch of amazing offers.

So make sure to check out some of the best rugby betting websites during those months of the year.

Rugby Betting Strategies

Just like with most other sports, one of the most important approaches is to make sure you fully understand the rules and structure of rugby. Because unlike some games like football for example, in rugby the rules are far more complex. Before you make a bet, you need to have a strategy – make sure you know all the rules and regulations and are up-to-date with the International Rugby Board rulings.

Another thing to take into consideration is the playing styles of the teams. The different playing styles affect how a game is being played out and thus making some of the bets less or more likely.

And just with any other sport, you have to do your research on the form of the team, their history and if some of the team’s players are suspended, injured or simply not available due to some other reasons since that can greatly influence the outcome of a game.

The History of Rugby

The first game of rugby was played by the pupils of Rugby School, which happens to be in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire. However, rugby in the 1820’s was very similar to modern day football – the ball was round but you could either catch it or kick it. At first scoring, a try didn’t really give any points but gave an opportunity to try and score a drop goal. Another interesting fact is that the number of players per team was not limited, you could have as many players as you wanted. Because of that games could potentially last for as much as 5 days.

In 1823, William Webb Ellis became the very first boy, who picked up the ball and ran with it. And by the 1830’s this became an acceptable way to play rugby. In 1845 the first written rules of the game appeared. As you can probably guess they were written by the prefects of the Rugby school. Interestingly enough most of the modern terms in rugby such as “knock on”, “touch” and “offside”, come exactly from these rules.

The very first amateur Rugby Football Union was formed in 1871 in England. The Northern Rugby Football Union was formed in 1892. This was a professional body, which paid their players.

The formal separation of Rugby Union from Rugby League happened because the Rugby Football Union issued a sanction against all players, officials and clubs that dared to participate in this new league.

Rugby League is administered by the Rugby League International Federation, while the Rugby Union by the International Rugby Board. The Rugby Union is without a doubt the most popular form of rugby in the world, and it is even the national sport of a few countries like New Zealand and Whales for example.

Like most British sports, rugby has an element of aristocracy in its history. It was a game, which was associated with grammar and public schools in England and it was seen as either an upper middle class or an upper-class game for a very long time. Nowadays, rugby is far more open, and it is even played in almost all state run schools.

Every single one of the UK betting sites for rugby mentioned in this article has great odds and offers for the top rugby games. Like previously mentioned, rugby is more open than ever, and now more than ever huge amounts of money are wagered on the top international matches. Read on if you want to bet on rugby and learn more about how to place bets, the types of bets out there and to know which the best rugby union betting sites are.

Final Verdict

Ever since becoming a professional sport way back in 1995, rugby union has grown significantly in both participation and spectatorship. It has also established itself as an extremely popular betting market not only in the UK but worldwide as well. You will surely notice that the top-rated online rugby mobile betting sites offer an extremely wide range of bets not only on international championships but on overseas competitions as well, which include the Rugby Championship, the Super Rugby Tournament, the French Top 14, Six Nations Championship and many more.

All you need to do in order to make successful bets is to do your research, make sure you fully understand the rules of rugby and pick one of these top rugby betting websites. Every single one of them offers great promotions, odds and a variety of markets and no matter which one you choose, be sure that you have made an informed decision.