Apart from football, rugby is one of the most popular sports on the planet, garnering millions of fans from every country imaginable. And, like football, rugby has a lively betting scene that has become a staple of the sports betting world, and is offered by most international bookmaker sites. Learning to bet on rugby can be extremely rewarding, and allows you to follow a fast-paced contact sport, providing a nice change of pace from the slower sports on the scene.
To start betting on rugby, it’s a good idea to know the kinds of tournaments and championships that tend to the most popular. Not only does it allow you to have a unique insight into the game itself, but there are few better times to start punting than when there’s a big tournament happening somewhere in the world. Smaller events are also worth keeping track; and like their bigger siblings, provide a nice break from other types of betting, like pokies online. There are three tournaments that you should always keep an eye on: The Six Nations Championship, The Rugby Union World Cup, and the Rugby Championship.
Six Nations
The Six Nations is considered the most difficult rugby tournament around, and involves Northern Hemisphere heavyweights England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Italy, and France. Each team plays against each other over a course of seven weeks, and home games are rotated annually. England tend to be the most successful nation in this tournament, and a good place to start punting if you’re new to the scene.
World Cup
The Rugby Union World Cup is set to take place next year in Japan, and involves around 20 teams from a plethora of different countries. Played every four years, this tournament involves nations from both the northern and southern hemispheres. The title for this event is also one of the most prestigious in the rugby world, and since its inaugural debut in 1987, only four nations have walked away with the cup. New Zealand, South Africa, Australia are the reigning champs, but England has seen one victory in the 2003 iteration.
Rugby Championship
The Rugby Championship is the counterpart to the Six Nations: only involving countries from the Southern Hemisphere. These include New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and Argentina. Many prefer the atmosphere of the Rugby Championship compared to the others, due in part to the sunnier, drier conditions that most games are played in. This provides a much faster-paced game that involves plenty of try scoring, and most of the Rugby Championship games will end with a relatively high score.
These three may be the most popular, but they’re certainly not the only ones around, and others include the European Rugby Championships Cup, the Top 14, the Aviva Premiership, the Lions Rugby Union Tour, the Pro12, and Super Rugby. All of these become available on bookmaker sites, and each have their own range of betting options, as well as individual odds, which will always be set by the bookies before the tournament begins.
