Rugby is a team-based sport in which two teams consisting of 13 players battle it out to outscore their opponents by scoring tries or conversion/penalty kicks.

Each team defends their respective try line, the ball may only travel in a backwards direction while in play, with the only exception being a boot to the ball swinging it up the field and most likely handing it back to the other team.

A rugby game lasts 80 minutes, 40 minutes per half, leaving punters with ample time for lucrative rugby bets.

Understanding The Handicap

With three possible outcomes to a rugby match, placing rugby bets on handicaps is a favoured rugby betting option.

Handicap rugby bets allows bookies to make betting more attractive to punters evening the betting field into an even spread.

One team is usually stronger than the other, the bookmaker will start the stronger team on minus points and the weaker on plus point’s handicaps.

For example if New Zealand was playing Argentina. The handicap on Argentina may be +5 and -5 on New Zealand. These rugby bets involve points and score line predictions.

If punters place a bet on New Zealand to win on the handicap, they would need to beat Argentina by 6 or more points in order to snatch a winning bet.

Punters placing rugby bets on the handicap for Argentina will secure a winning bet if Argentina wins the match.

If Argentina loses the match by 4 points the bet also wins. The points deficit in the game is 5, this means that if Argentina loose by 5 points or more the handicap rugby bets are a draw.

Kiwi punters will be delighted to know that there are vast arrays of handicap rugby bets available. Various bookmakers will offer different handicaps allowing for a diversified field of rugby bets to select from.

The Draw No Bet Market

Placing rugby bets on this market allows kiwi punters to eliminate the draw outcome. In the draw-no-bet option, punters place rugby bets on a team to win the game.

If the game happens to end in a draw, the bet is void and all wagered steaks are returned, if your team wins you make a profit, if your team loses the bet is lost.

3 Way Market

Place rugby bets on three various outcomes of a match, win, loose or draw, with individual bets geared towards one of these outcomes.

Totals Rugby Bets

Totals rugby bets allow punters to wager on the total amount of points to be scored in the game. Totals rugby bets are also known as two-way over and under markets.

Race To Points Bets

In Race To Points rugby bets, the bookmaker sets a point margin, punters lay wagers on the the team that is most likely to accumulate that number of points first in the match.

Alternatively you can predict that neither team reach the total number of points outlined.

The Winning Margin Bet 

The Winning Margin rugby bet is a firm favourite amongst kiwi punters, here you must predict the winning score margin of a game. Punters will need to have insight into teams to place more valuable rugby bets on winning margins.

Niche Bets

Placing rugby bets is not just all black and white, punters can opt for various niche betting markets including team to score first, number of tries in a game, the time of the first try, the highest scoring half, the team scoring the highest in a half, the team to score last, total team tries and many more.