Football (or soccer) is the biggest global sports markets for betting. In 2013 the total global sports betting market was estimated to be in the region of $1 trillion. Almost three quarters of that comes from betting on football. For nearly everyone who does it, betting on football is essentially a lottery. Whilst the sport itself involves a significant amount of skill, betting odds adjust to reflect that, with opportunities or mistakes in the prices quickly disappearing as soon as they have been identified. This behaviour is part of what is called market efficiency, with betting odds reflecting all the available information there is about teams and players. Essentially then football betting largely amounts to a game of chance.

Finding an advantage over the market involves a lot of hard work. One way is study form guides, newspapers, football magazines and internet sites with the latest news about the prospects of a football team and its players. Another method involves analysing quantitative data. For those bettors who prefer the latter, Football-Data has been providing historical football betting odds and results since 2001, to allow users to develop and test betting systems that might be capable of beating the market. Covering up to 22 European football divisions, including the major leagues from England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France amongst others, data include full and half time results, shots (on and off target), fouls committed, corners, yellow and red bookings and moneyline (or fixed odds) match betting odds. The full database includes well in excess of 120,000 individual games. Data is made available for use in Excel, with files in both Excel and CSV format.

In addition to helping bettors beat the bookmaker (and win against other players), Football-Data also offers details of the latest welcome bonuses for new players with a variety of sports bookmakers, an odds comparison (helping bettors find the best odds), a football livescore service, betting advice and many articles to help educate the user. Subjects covered include things like the favourite-longshot bias, the point spread bias, luck and skill in betting, the wisdom of crowds, the hot hand fallacy, money management, the importance of closing odds and beating the closing line, the relevance of betshares and many more. If you think you might be interested in developing a quantitative approach to football match betting, then Football-Data is the first place you should visit.