Pre-Match Betting Explained: What it is & How it Works

In this guide, I'll take a closer look at how pre-match betting works, why odds change before kick-off and some of the things worth considering before placing a wager.

How Pre-Match Betting Works

Betting markets open at different times. You can often bet on a weekend football match several days before kick-off, but a big international rugby fixture might not be available months in advance, even if the date is already confirmed.

Take the upcoming Springboks vs All Blacks clash as an example. Even though the match may still be months away, many bookmakers will wait before publishing odds. That's because there is still a lot of uncertainty around team selection, injuries, player availability and form.

It is normal to see odds changing in the days leading up to the match. The closer a match gets, the more information is available, and markets are easier to price. Odds don’tjust tell you how much you can win. They also show you how likely a bookmaker believes an outcome is.

Why Don't Odds Stay the Same?

Credit: Betting odds for South Africa vs Mexico FFIA World Cup match on 4/06/2026 & 11/06/2026 by World Sports Betting – Captured by Jo Davies on 11/06/2026 10:37

In South African, we are used to prices changing. Every month we wait to see what the petrol price is going to do, and most of us have a few opinions about it. Betting odds work differently, but the basic idea is similar. The number you see is not fixed. It changes when the information behind it changes.

The screenshots above show exactly that. The South Africa vs Mexico odds changed over the course of a week, even though the match had not started yet.

One of the biggest reasons it changed was team news. There were problems with missing visas that had to be sorted out before the team could even take off from Johannesburg. When they did, key members of the team, like the head coach, took longer to get there.

Events like this are rare and even then, they don’t always change the odds, but they do add uncertainty. With every new piece of information, bookmakers and bettors have more data to compare teams.

Pre-Match Betting vs Live Betting

The best way to think about pre-match betting and live betting is timing. Pre-match betting happens before the match. Live betting happens when the action starts. 

Pre-match betting gives you time to weigh everything up. You have time to read some online betting predictions and compare odds.

Live betting is when you bet on a live event and it is much faster. You have less time to think about everything. A lot of it is a reaction to something, like a wicket or a red card. 

Basically, before a match everyone is trying to work out what might happen. When the game starts, it becomes reacting to what is happening.

Some Common Pre-Match Betting Terms

Credit: Pre-match betting markets from World Sports Betting showing Match Result, Total Goals and Both Teams To Score options – Captured by Jo Davies on 14/06/2026 11:20

Betting has its own language, and some terms can sound confusing when you first come across them. Here are a few of the most common phrases you'll see before placing a bet.

• Favourite: The favourite is the team or player expected to win. Mamelodi Sundowns are a good example with 15 league titles in the PSL. ^[1] Because they have dominated for so long, bookmakers will often make them the favourites. 
• Outsider: The outsider is the opposite of the favourite. In Formula 1, you would usually expect teams like Mercedes or McLaren to be fighting for podium places. If you backed Aston Martin to finish on the podium, you would typically be backing an outsider.
• Odds: Think of odds as the price tag attached to a betting market. They show you how much you can win. The favourites will have lower odds than the outsider. Most South African bookmakers use decimal odds, which most people find easier to understand.
• Value: There's value when the odds look better than you expected. It doesn't necessarily mean backing the favourite or the outsider. It's just saying you think the price is better than you think it should be.

Best Sports for Pre-Match Betting

When it comes to pre-match betting, not all sports are created equal. There are some that give you plenty of information before kickoff, but there are others that can be pretty unpredictable. Check out some of the most popular options for South African bettors and what makes them interesting.

• Football: The easiest sport to start with, not because it's easier to predict, but because there's so much information out there. Most of the information is easy to find too. Team news is reported and there is no shortage of statistics if you enjoy digging into the numbers.
  Major football matches also attract plenty of bettors. If thousands of people start backing the same team, bookmakers will often adjust their odds before kick-off.
• Rugby: A Springbok squad announcement always sparks a lot of discussion, especially when a key player is ruled out. ^[2]
  Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu suffered a serious ankle injury in a recent Stormers game. His injury could keep him out of action for several months, which has an influence on the Bokke's line-up.
• Cricket: Cricket likes to keep everyone guessing. You can spend days reading about team selection, form and conditions, then the captain wins the toss and decides to bowl first.
  That's one of the reasons cricket remains such an interesting pre-match sport. There is usually plenty of information available before a match starts, but there are also a few unanswered questions that can hang around right up until the first ball is bowled.
• MMA: There's nothing like a good matchup in MMA. Despite what a fighter looks like on paper, styles make fights. When a wrestler goes up against an elite takedown pro, the discussion is different from when two strikers meet in the ring.
• MMA makes for an interesting pre-match sport. Before the bell rings, there's always a lot to analyse, but there's never a guarantee a fight will go the way you expect it.

How Bookmakers Set Their Odds    

The odds aren’t just pulled out of fresh air. Bookmakers have a lot to think about before they produce the numbers. Everything from injuries to recent performance has to be looked at.

This is all part of how unpredictable sports can be. There is always new information and no sportsbook gets it right all the time. That’s why you see slightly different odds for the same event at different betting sites.

In the end, odds are simply a bookmaker’s opinion about what might happen.

Understanding Different Odds Formats

Most South African bookmakers display decimal odds, which are generally considered the easiest to understand. If you see odds of 2.50, a winning R100 bet would return R250, including your original stake.

You may also come across fractional odds, especially on British betting sites. For example, odds of 3/1 mean you would win R300 for every R100 staked, plus your original stake back.

American odds are less common in South Africa, but they are widely used in the United States. Positive numbers show how much profit you would make from a R100 stake, while negative numbers show how much you would need to stake to win R100.

The odds may look different, but they all represent the same thing: a bookmaker's view of how likely an outcome is to happen.

Finding Value in Pre-Match Markets

Credit: Betting markets for South Africa vs Australia ICC T20 Women’s World Cup at Betway – Captured by Jo Davies on 11/06/2026 15:48.

Take the Women's T20 World Cup match between Australia and South Africa. Australia are favourites at 1.32, while South Africa are available at 3.45.

That doesn't automatically mean South Africa is the better bet. It also doesn't mean Australia is.
Finding value is about deciding whether the odds reflect what you think is likely to happen. If you believe Australia should be much shorter than 1.32, you might see value in the favourites. If you think South Africa has a better chance than the market suggests, the value could be on the outsiders.

The key point is that value and winning are not always the same thing. A team can win and still have been a poor bet, while a losing bet can sometimes be backed at a price that made sense before the match started.

Keeping Your Betting Budget Under Control

You know that feeling you get when you are convinced that you not only knew who was going to win, but that it would be a whitewash? Then remember the disappointment you felt when you where so wrong.

One of the easiest mistakes to make in pre-match betting is putting too much money on a single bet. Even when you think you are onto a sure thing, sport has a habit of surprising us.

The best thing that you can do it to give yourself a budget before you even open the betting site app. Losing a bet is hard enough before you start worrying about how much money you lost.

Common Pre-Match Betting Mistakes

One of the easiest mistakes to make is putting too much faith in a team. Supporting a club and risking bets on it are two very different things, and plenty of people struggle to separate the two. Sometimes it is best to look at taking another bet instead of match winner. Handicap bets can be very handy if your team is up against a stronger side.

Another mistake is betting too early. Sometimes the best price is available days before kick-off, but waiting for team news and market developments gives a clearer picture of the match. 

A lot of people focus so much on picking winners that they forget about the odds. Finding the winning team is important, but so is deciding whether the price on offer is worth taking. On your bet slip, you should find an option to accept odds changes automatically or just to accept higher odds. If you do place an early bet, it might be worth your while to check the box that lets you accept higher odds beforehand.

Then there is the temptation to chase losses. A bad result on Saturday afternoon doesn't suddenly make Sunday’s matches easier to predict. Most pre-match betting mistakes have one thing in common and that is when emotions take over from preparation. Accumulator bets are a good example. It is easy to keep adding "just one more" selection when you are trying to recover a losing bet, but it makes it harder to win.