Rugy Betting Sites
Rugby is more than a sport in Australia — it’s a culture! Therefore, it should come as no surprise that thousands of Australians are constantly on the lookout for the best rugby betting sites where they can place some money on their favourite team or the Australian national squad. If you are one of them, you can freely abort your search, as this page contains everything that you’re looking for.
Here, you will find some of the best Australian-friendly bookies that feature rugby betting. Apart from just listing these sites, we will also compare their odds and the number of markets while also telling you about everything that has gone into our review process.
f you are new to rugby betting, you should consider reading through this entire page, as we will talk about different types of bets you can place on rugby and the most popular rugby events in Australia and the world.
So, without further ado, let’s get down to business!
Rugby Odds and Betting Markets Compared
If you’ve spent some time betting online, you may have noticed that different bookies offer slightly different odds for the same markets. We had the quality of odds in mind when selecting these bookies, and we can say with certainty that they are some of the best ones you can find. Nevertheless, the odds still vary from one of our recommended betting sites to another.
To determine which of these sites is the best when it comes to rugby odds, we took a single match from the NRL between the Canberra Raiders and the Parramatta Eels and compared the match-winner odds on every platform. Here are the results:
- Unibet — 1.63 on the Raiders and 2.28 on the Eels
- PlayUp — 1.61 on the Raiders and 2.30 on the Eels
- Ladbrokes — 1.67 on the Raiders and 2.20 on the Eels
- Neds — 1.67 on the Raiders and 2.20 on the Eels
- Palmerbet — 1.64 on the Raiders and 2.27 on the Eels
As you can see, the odds are very similar on each of our top selections. Of course, there are some variations, like the fact that PlayUp considers the Raiders even bigger favourites, thus slightly lowering their odds but extending the odds for the Eels.If you wish to bet on something other than the outright match winner, you should look at those bookies that offer the biggest number of markets. After our research, we’ve concluded the following:
- Unibet — 92 betting markets
- PlayUp — 29 betting markets
- Ladbrokes — 140 betting markets
- Neds — 140 betting markets
- Palmerbet — 138 betting markets
It’s clear that Neds, Ladbrokes, and Palmerbet are the absolute winners in terms of market selection. They allow you to bet on virtually any segment of the game — from the half with most tries and first try-scorer to the win-try combo, winning margin, and more.
This is not to say that Unibet and PlayUp don’t offer plenty of variety as well, but if you’re looking for some more exotic bets, the top three bookies should be your choice.
How We Picked the Best Rugby Betting Sites in Australia
Nearly all online bookies available to Australians feature rugby betting, so we had to do a lot of comparing to identify the best ones.
We’ve already shown you what these bookies have to offer in terms of markets and odds, but there are some other things we considered when coming up with our toplist. The reason why we’ve picked these exact sites is that they excel in everything that makes a bookie worth your time and money, starting with licensing and safety.
We would never recommend a site without checking whether it has been properly licensed by a legit gambling authority. Once we confirm that, we make sure that the site is also safe and that you won’t have to worry about your personal and banking information falling into the wrong hands.
Another important aspect is the number of available rugby events. Australians enjoy both rugby league and rugby union competitions. Therefore, we only included those bookies that offer as many of these competitions as possible.
Most Popular Rugby Betting Markets
There are plenty of different bets you can make on rugby, and here are some of the most common ones.
The easiest way to bet on rugby would be to choose the match-winner. Simply place a bet on one team or the other (or draw) and wait for the final score. This is an ideal bet for beginners who just want to test how betting sites work.
There are plenty of rugby matches where one team is heavily favoured to win. In those cases, the odds on that team would be pretty low, leaving little room for any sizable profit. To make their clients interested in betting on these kinds of games, bookies will give out handicap points to the underdog. The goal is to guess whether a favourite can win the game with more points than the given handicap or if the underdog can keep its ground and win or lose by fewer points than the set handicap.
In this market, you will be guessing by how many points a certain team will win the game. This is somewhat similar to handicap betting, but instead of a line, the bookie will offer a range. For example, you can bet that Australia wins their next rugby game by 6-10 points.
You can win a rugby bet even before the match ends. One example of this is the first scoring play — a market on which you need to guess the method of the first points scored in a game. It can be a try, a penalty, a penalty try, or a drop goal.
If you have a good hunch on which players will score the first try, you can bet on that as well. Every major bookie will have a list of players likely to achieve this feat.
Future bets allow you to predict the winner of an entire tournament or league. You can also wager on who wins the series and what the winning margin of that series will be. Some bookies have markets for top points scorer and top try-scorer of a tournament as well.
Rugby Competitions in Australia and the World
There are numerous rugby competitions that you can take bets on from both Rugby League and Rugby Union. All of our Australian bookie sites feature the most popular competitions that take place on Australian soil, but they also offer betting on leagues and tournaments that are played all around the globe.
Let’s take a look at the most popular AU ones.
Rugby World Cup
This is by far the most prestigious international rugby competition. It features top national teams from around the world and is played once every four years. Australia always qualifies for the tournament, and it was even crowned world champion twice — in 1991 and 1999.
Rugby League World Cup
The counterpart of Rugby Union has its own world championships named the Rugby League World Cup. It was instituted in 1954 and is played every four years. Australia has won the RLWC all but three times, having a total of 11 titles
National Rugby League
NRL is a top-tier club competition in Australia. It consists of 16 teams, including one from New Zealand. The typical NRL seasons lasts from March to October. The winner of the NRL goes on to compete in the World Club Challenge against the winner of the English Super League.
English Super League
The English are also very passionate about rugby, and their top-tier league is one of the most prestigious in the world. You can bet on the ESL matches on every major Australian sports betting site.
