What is Futsal & How You Can Bet on It

It goes without saying that football is the world’s most popular sport. According to FIFA, the 2022 Qatar World Cup saw over five billion people engaging with the event, with its final being viewed by around 1.5 billion fans. Well, futsal is essentially football’s/soccer’s red-headed stepchild, created in 1930 at that year’s World Cup held in Uruguay.

Today, it is somewhat of a global sport, with around twelve million active players, according to one research. For comparison, handball has around thirty million players, and volleyball boasts a player pool of as many as eight hundred million. In truth, it is a very accessible athletic competition, as it gets played on a basketball hardcourt, with goals akin to those in handball. It has similarities to the traditional mini version of football called five-a-side. Yet, it is different in that it has a longer but thinner playing area and slightly different rules.

The standard futsal court is 25 to 42 meters long and 16 to 25 meters wide. Teams here are composed of five players, including the goalkeeper and the futsal ball is smaller/heavier than the football one. This is to reduce its bounce, keeping it grounded, for more dribbling action. The rules also allow far more substitutions compared to regular football to make the game more dynamic. Also, here, the clock gets stopped when the ball goes out of play, and timeouts are allowed.

Is Futsal Developing?

Per Statscore, futsal is gaining traction globally, especially following the 2021 World Cup, which was held in Lithuania. FIFA has organized this event since 1989 when Brazil became the world’s first FIFA futsal champion in a tournament held in the Netherlands. FIFA projects further expansion for this sport, and it has built upon the foundation laid by the AMF Futsal World Championships. Nowadays, many top footballing nations like Brazil, Portugal, Italy, and Spain have their own futsal leagues, and every continent has been running its international club and national competitions for years now. Many footie fans are likely unaware there is a UEFA Futsal Champions League and a Concacaf Futsal Club Championship. It has also been included in the Youth Olympics, and FIFA is pushing for it to be included in the 2028 US Olympics, with many being doubtful that this is possible for that competition, but that futsal being part of the 2032 Brisbane games is probable.

Ex-football legends like Clarence Seedorf, Michel Salgado, Djalminha, Deco, Ronaldinho, and others dabbling in futsal have also contributed to interest in the sport swelling. So, there is no doubt that futsal is growing in establishment worldwide, and its top events/competitions now get included in many online sportsbooks. Here, we look to explain more about this niche sport and the betting options it offers.

Betting on Futsal

For the most part, futsal betting shares many similarities with football/soccer wagering. But, of course, given that sportsbook solution suppliers do not have the same robust sets of data for futsal as they do with football, which is a much more popular sport that gets monitored from far more aspects, futsal matches do not feature the same degree of info that can open the door for the same prop betting opportunities as those that exist in football. One would think that the sport’s faster tempo and higher goal frequency should create more unique opportunities for bettors, but that is not yet the case.

For the most part, sportsbook software usually includes match-winner markets, 1×2 ones, over-under betting, handicap opportunities, both teams to score markets, half-time options, exact score ones, and so on. The top traditional ones offered for football matches include some of the more famous player props, like goals scored by a specific player.

Naturally, futsal live betting is also on the table, and since TV rights rarely get sold for futsal competitions, many of the streams from top futsal games get aired online on YouTube for free. These feeds get taken over by various online sportsbooks, allowing their users to follow the action in real-time and letting them bet on things like the time of the next goal, the next team to score, etc.

Outrights for some of the more well-known tournaments and leagues customarily also get given out, but this happens less often than one would think. That primarily is so due to lower market demand, fewer teams in competitions, rapid tournament progression, and the fact that futsal leagues/tournaments are less widespread and shorter in duration overall compared to what fans and bettors have gotten accustomed to seeing in other sports.

The first and last goal scorer is something we have enjoyed betting on in futsal matches, as this is not available for football due to the lower-scoring nature of that sport. The number of timeouts is another distinctive futsal prop, as is the number of ten-meter penalties, which get awarded when a side commits six or more fouls in one half.

Best Competitions for Futsal Betting

As far as domestic leagues go, Spain’s Primera División de Futsal, founded in 1989, is considered among the most prestigious competitions. The Brazilian Liga Nacional de Futsal – LNF, the Italian Serie A Futsal League, the Russian Futsal Super League, the Portuguese Futsal League (Liga Placard), and the Argentine one are also quality choices and highly competitive national competitions.

Regarding international clubs, aside from the mentioned UEFA Futsal Champions League, Copa Libertadores de Futsal, and the Asian Club Championship are also worth considering.

On the national team level, you have the Futsal UEFA EURO, the already discussed World Cup, the AFC Futsal Championship, the CONMEBOL Copa América de Futsal, the African Futsal Cup of Nations, the CONCACAF Futsal Championship, and the Futsal Finalissima, which is a newer competition that includes CONMEBOL and UEFA teams. We must point out that the EURO, the CONMEBOL Copa America, and the World Cup are the competitions that will probably get most featured at top crypto sportsbooks, while the others are more likely to get limited coverage from the betting sphere.

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