Having seen its debut in the 1871/72 season, the FA Cup quickly rose to prominence as the oldest and most prestigious club competition on the face of the Earth.
Formally known as the Football Association Challenger Cup, it is widely considered by English fans as the most prestigious domestic competition behind the Premier League itself.
Responsible for the prestige and glory of the competition are the teams themselves. And little do fans know is that the FA Cup is a competition that everyone looks forward to it.
Smaller teams welcome this competition with open hands, and cannot wait for them to be drawn against one of the heavy hitters. The FA cup is also a competition that people like to put a pound or two on.
In this article, we are going to try and tell you exactly why you should try betting on the FA cup. Without further ado, let’s start.
The Teams
Access is given to every team in England’s top four leagues. But also. every registered team in England can take part in the FA cup. This means that the next six levels (which also include non-football leagues) can also take part in the competition. But, to be eligible to take part the teams must have taken part the previous season in eighter the FA Cup, FA Vase, or FA Trophy.
Naturally, this means that even a non-league side can take their chance and try to earn some money by competing. The rewards for a non-league side to make it past one or two rounds are absolutely staggering. Also, if you can predict such an upset, then you can definitely make some money betting on the FA Cup.
The Format
Unlike other cup competitions, the FA cup has 12 rounds followed by the semi-final and final. This means that you have the chance to bet 12 times (excluding replays). The first six rounds are all qualifiers (where the bottom six leagues take part, while the next 6 rounds are formally known as “proper” rounds. After the first 12 rounds, the semi-final round and final are both played on the historic Wembley Stadium.
Reasons Why You Should Try It
Is there a better reason why you should try betting on the FA Cup than the fact you are participating in the oldest club competition in the world?
This competition is held to unprecedented standards in England, and everyone looks forward to visiting the bookies when the time comes. Also, there is a real chance you can earn some money betting on it from the start. If you can manage to predict the winner out of all 736! Yes, you heard that right! There are a total of 736 participating teams, of which 644 will be eliminated by round 7. This means that you have plenty of options to bet on both lower league teams and non-league football.
But how would you know who to bet on? Well, for that, you would need expert advice and analysis. If you’re interested in the best tips, odds, and analysis on the FA cup, then we suggest you visit freebets.uk.com.
What You Should Bet On?
As a general rule, we won’t discuss betting on the first six rounds, but rather on the latter stages.
When betting on the FA Cup, you can place bets on who to win, progress further, goals scored, yellow cards, red cards, penalties, margins, etc.
Before every round starts, there is a live draw. During this draw, teams are drawn against each other. The first team in each fixture drawn is the home side, while the latter is the away side.
Naturally, the home side should have the upper hand if the teams are even, but this is not always the case. A lot of times, a Premier League side can be drawn against a League 2 side, and this will be a hard match for the League 2 side even if they are the home team.
In the case of Manchester City, the Premier League side entered the competition at round 3 when they were drawn home to Port Value, a League 2 side. And while City scored four goals past them, they managed to score an away goal. You can imagine the odds for a club of the size of Port Value to score a goal at City’s ground! Staggering odds, to say the least.
And these are the matches that can bring you a lot of money if you can predict them. But, to put things into perspective, let’s take a look at the biggest upsets in the competition’s recent history.
The Magic of the FA Cup
Liverpool 0-1 Wimbledon – Final 1988
Probably one of the biggest and most painful for the Red’s upset in the competition was their defeat in the final of the cup against Wimbledon.
The league champions should on paper obliterate the side which features the likes of Vinny Jones, Dennis Wise, and Lawrie Sanchez. But, a header from Sanchez was the only goal scored, and Wimbledon came out winners.
Sutton United 2-1 Coventry – 3rd Round 1989
During the 3rd round of the 1989 season, a huge upset occurred when Sutton United eliminated Coventry 2-1 at Golder’s Green Lane.
Coventry was the previous year’s winners, so you can imagine the Sky Blues faces when they were eliminated by a Conference side which featured a community stadium of 8,000 seats!
They were eventually halted but this game went down in FA Cup upset history!
Wigan 1-0 Manchester City – Final 2013
Manchester City were champions-elect during the 2012/2013 season, but their dreams of securing the oldest cup competition were broken when relegated Wigan came to town.
The match ended in a 1-0 victory to Wigan at the DW Stadium, a goal scored by Northern Ireland international Will Grigg.
This was yet another stunner where Roberto Martinez’s men came up against the likes of Carlos Tevez, Yaya Toure, Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero, and Samir Nasri.
Not only did Wigan got relegated that year, but they got an automatic spot at next year’s Europa League.
