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A Guide to the English Women’s Super League

What is the FA Women's Super League?

The FA Super League, also known as the Barclays FA Women's Super League, is the top tier of professional women's football in England. Twelve of the top teams in England play in the league, including Arsenal, Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Brighton Hove & Albion, Chelsea, Everton, Leicester City, Manchester City, Manchester United, Reading, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham. The teams play in a robin round format for the Super League title, with the top three teams also qualifying for the women's Champions League. The team that places last after all the games are played is relegated to the Championship.

The predecessor to the FA Super League was the FA Women's National League, which was founded in 1991. This was the first FA recognised professional women's football league, and it was played by eight teams. In 1994 it was renamed "the Premier League", one year after the men's First Division was rebranded as the Men's Premier League. Premiership teams also competed in the FA Women's Cup and the Premier League Cup, and the winners and runners up of the Premier League also could secure berths to the Women's Champions League and Champions League qualification rounds.

In 2010, the Women's Premier League was restructured and was renamed the FA Women's Super League. In the current format, the League has been won by four teams, with Chelsea winning five times, Arsenal three times, Liverpool twice and Manchester City once.

How to Bet on the FA Women’s Super League

There are many ways to watch the Women's Super League, with games broadcast on Sky Sports, BBC Sport, NBC, and so on. The league has the most of its television viewership in Britain, although there are fans of the league all around the world.

Fans who enjoy placing bets while watching their favourite teams play will be spoiled for choice with the huge selection of bets that are available. There are simpler bets for fans who want to back their teams, but there are also a huge number of specific bets that will interest punters who want to place bets with massive odds.

Match Result

A bet can be placed on either team to win the match or for the match to end in a draw. This is a hugely popular bet as it is easy to understand and offers the chance of considerable returns.

Double Chance

When a game is more difficult to predict, then the double chance bet allows punters to reduce the amount of risk. There are three options in a Double Chance bet, a bet on the home team to win or the match to end in a draw, and a bet on the away team to win or the match to end in a draw, or a bet on the home team or away team to win. These bets come with shorter odds than the match result, but are safer to place.

Handicap Bets

Punters who want to place a bet on the match winner but want longer odds or alternatively want to reduce the level of risk can use handicap bets. These bets offer positive and negative handicaps that can either reduce or increase the odds. Placing a bet on the favourite team to win with a negative handicap can significantly lengthen the odds. The higher the negative handicap, the higher the odds will be, starting from -1.5, -2.5 and -3.5.

Punters looking to place a bet on the underdogs can use positive handicaps to make the bet easier to win. When there is an underdog, placing a positive handicap such as +1.5 may be enough to tip the game in favour of the underdog. The odds will still be high, though the larger the positive handicap, the shorter the odds will be.

Over/Under Bets

Over/Under is a system used by many betting markets. These bets are not directly connected to the full time result of the match, instead they focus on certain in game statistics.

Over/under bets revolve around a statistics such as total number of goals. There is a number provided, such as 6.5, and then there is a bet for whether there will be more and a bet for whether there will be less goals than the value given.

For bets such as number of goals scored, there will be usually be a number of options, such as over/under 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and more.

The over/under bets include things such as total number of goals, number of cards, number of corners, number of goals scored in a half and many more.

Game and Player Props

For fans who want to place bets on even more specific match statistics, there are game and player props that can potentially offer even longer odds. These bets may relate to a player’s performance, such as will the player score in the match, will they score with a header and more.

There are bets on aspects of the match that are very difficult to predict, such as will there be a penalty in the game, will a player be sent off, will a substitute score and many more.

Some game props combine bets such as number of goals with halves, halves and final match winner, match winner and total number of goals, amongst more. These bets offer long odds, so the potential returns are huge. It is always worth exploring these markets carefully as they present some very interesting opportunities.