The annual Telstra championship is contended by the 16 NRL teams, consisting of 15 teams from Australia as well as 1 team from New Zealand, and is the most well-attended rugby league championship in the world.
Due to the popularity of the league, NRL betting has become a huge hit and as such many online sportsbooks offer a wide variety of betting markets on individual matches as well the championship as a whole. Sports betting can seem complicated to a new punter, and a simple search for NRL betting presents a variety of options which may seem like they’re written in a different language. NRL betting may seem intimidating at first however this guide will help you gain the much-needed betting confidence.
The National Rugby League
The NRL (National Rugby League) was established in 1997 in the wake of the Super League war of the 1990’s, and contains teams from the Sydney club Rugby League competition which had been competing consistently since 1908. Matches are played across Australia and New Zealand between March and October of each year, with the Grand Final match taking place the beginning of October.
The Telstra Championship attracts record-breaking audiences on a yearly basis, and the first time the Grand Final was held at Stadium Australia in Sydney in 1999 the record for attendance at an Australian rugby league game was broken as 107,999 people attended the match. Due to this remarkable popularity, NRL betting is a very lucrative market, and there are plenty of opportunities available for placing wagers.
NRL Betting Terms
As a novice punter a quick search related to NRL betting will present you with an overwhelming variety of options when it comes to wager types. Before punters decide on a sportsbooks, or even a wager, it is important to know how odds work to order to ensure success.
Odds: There are three major types of betting odds, namely decimal, fractional and American.
The decimal form is widely used by bookmakers in New Zealand as well as off-shore sportsbooks catering to Kiwi players, and will look something like 5.00. This type of odd denotes how much will be gained by a wager of 1 unit including the stake. However, sometimes the unit could be 1, 10 or 100, so make sure to check this before calculating. So if the odds are 5.00, it means if the bet was successful it would mean a gain of 5 times the unit (5 x 1 = 5), less your stake.
Another popular form is the fractional odd, which will look something like 10/1, and denotes the amount you will gain on a bet, as opposed to how much you put in. So if you wager 1 unit, you will gain 10.
Choosing a Sportsbook
Novice New Zealand punters looking for NRL betting will notice that is not much in the way of choices when it comes to online sportsbooks. The betting industry in the country is strictly controlled by the Department of Internal Affairs and as such many punters are turning to offshore bookmakers. When it comes to choosing a sportsbook, there are a few key points that should be taken note of.
A reputable sportsbook will offer a variety of deposit and withdrawal options, and the best ones will provide a huge range of deposit options ranging from credit cards, e-wallets and even crypto currency. Look out for sportsbooks which offer quick turn-around times for deposits, as well as withdrawals as quick access to winnings is highly sought-after.