Football transfer windows can often be the most exciting time of the season. Big money moves happen regularly in the top leagues such as the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1 and Italian Serie A with clubs looking to bolster their squads in time for the start of or the remaining part of the season. Betting on football transfers has become a very popular betting option among fans and with transfer odds fluctuating day-to-day, there can be good money to be made if you’re in the know.
We’ve put together this football transfer betting guide to show you how to bet on football transfers, what options you have when it comes to betting on transfers, the best bookies for transfer betting and some useful tips to get more information on which transfers are likely to happen.
Not all bookmakers take bets on football transfers. It’s often an unpredictable market and so you’ll generally find just a selection of the big bookies such as Bet365 and William Hill offering odds throughout the season.
As with all betting markets, the odds will likely differ between betting sites and so we recommend having accounts with at least a few of them. This way, you’ll always be able to get the biggest prices on your transfer bets and collect the most profit if your predictions are correct.
Below, we’ve listed some of the best football transfer betting sites. All of the transfer bookies listed below are approved and recommended by WhichBookie.
Football Transfer Betting Sites | |||
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Bookie | Transfer Betting | ||
Bet365 | Visit | ||
Betvictor | Visit | ||
William Hill | Visit | ||
Ladbrokes | Visit | ||
Coral | Visit |
After you have chosen a betting site for player transfers, you’ll need to find the betting market on the bookies website. Navigating to the football transfer betting section will differ between sites but you’ll generally find it by selecting ‘Football’ in the list of sports and then on ‘Specials’.
You may find several different ‘Transfer Specials’ such as betting on a players next club, a player to stay or to leave their club or clubs to make the most signings during the window. We’ll be explaining all transfer betting markets further down this guide.
Player transfer betting markets are open throughout the season. However, you’ll find the most betting options during the transfer windows.
Transfer window dates differ slightly between leagues around the world but for all of the major European football leagues including the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1, they all fall within a day or two of each other.
There are two transfer windows each year. During these windows, players are able to move clubs. There is a summer transfer window which opens off-season in mid-June and closes at the beginning of September. There is also a January transfer window which runs throughout the month.
Both transfer windows see a lot of activity but it’s generally the January window that attracts the most attention with last minute deals a regular occurrence on Transfer Deadline Day.
As mentioned above, transfer windows may differ by a day or two between European Leagues. We’ll be taking a look at the English transfer window dates below.
For the 2024/25 season, the transfer window dates are as follows:
The summer transfer window in England opens on Friday 14th June and closes at 11pm on Friday 30th August.
The 2024 summer transfer window is set to be as exciting as ever with some big names rumoured to be making their ways to different clubs. £2.36 billion was spent by Premier League clubs during the 2023 summer transfer window, setting a new record, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see that figure increase this year.
Here are some of the biggest names in football that have moved clubs in the summer of 2024:
Kylian Mbappé
Kylian Mbappé’s long-awaited move to Real Madrid was finalised in the summer of 2024, marking the end of one of football’s most talked-about transfers. After years of speculation and near-misses, Mbappé joined the Spanish giants on a five-year contract, running until 2029.
While the transfer was technically a free move due to the expiration of his contract with PSG, it has been dubbed “the most expensive free transfer in history” due to the financial details involved. Mbappé received a substantial signing bonus of €150 million, spread out in instalments. His move to Madrid comes after an impressive stint at PSG, where he scored 256 goals in 308 appearances and won numerous domestic titles.
Julián Álvarez
Julián Álvarez’s move from Manchester City to Atlético Madrid has made headlines as one of the summer’s most significant transfers. The deal, which was completed in early August 2024, saw the Argentine forward join Atlético for a fee that could rise to €95 million, making it one of the most expensive transfers in the club’s history. Atlético paid €75 million upfront, with an additional €20 million in potential bonuses.
Álvarez, who joined Manchester City in 2022 and quickly became a key player, leaves after a successful stint in which he won six trophies and scored 36 goals in 103 appearances. At Atlético Madrid, Álvarez is expected to become a central figure in Diego Simeone’s attack, especially after the departures of Álvaro Morata and Memphis Depay. This move provides Álvarez with the opportunity for regular first-team football, which he lacked at Manchester City due to competition from the likes of Erling Haaland.
Matthijs de Ligt
Matthijs de Ligt’s move to Manchester United in the summer of 2024 has been a major talking point. United signed the Dutch centre-back from Bayern Munich for £42.63 million. The transfer reunites De Ligt with Erik ten Hag, who was his former coach at Ajax. His career has had ups and downs since leaving Ajax, with underwhelming spells at both Juventus and Bayern Munich.
Dominic Solanke
Dominic Solanke transferred to Tottenham Hotspur in August 2024, with the club agreeing to pay Bournemouth a £65 million transfer fee. Solanke, who had an impressive 2023/24 season, scoring 19 Premier League goals, was a key target for Tottenham’s manager, Ange Postecoglou. Spurs have been in need of a striker since Harry Kane’s departure, and Solanke seems like a good fit, albeit at a hefty price.
Solanke’s transfer marks a record sale for Bournemouth, surpassing their previous highest transfer when Nathan Ake moved to Manchester City. Solanke’s move comes after spending over five years at Bournemouth, where he scored 77 goals in 216 appearances.
The January transfer window opens on 1st January and closes at 11pm on 31st January 2025.
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The most popular football transfer betting market is betting on a players next club.
There are often rules applied to this market such as the player having to sign a contract for their new club by a certain date & time which is generally the transfer window deadline.
There is often a lot of speculation around which players will be moving clubs and rumours are rife on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Reddit. This can cause a flurry of bets to be placed on players moving clubs but it’s important to take your information from trusted sources. You can find some tips for this further down the article.
Usually, a club will be a strong favourite to sign a certain player. However, surprises happen often in football transfers and it’s not uncommon at all for a rival club to swoop in with a late offer and poach a player by putting pen to paper in the final hours or even minutes of the deadline.
Rather than betting on a specific club that a player will move to, you can opt for the more simple choice of whether or not they will remain at their current club.
As there are only two betting options – Yes or No, don’t expect to get big odds with this market. However, it is a much lower-risk bet which makes it more appealing to some punters.
A slightly less common betting market that is available with some betting sites such as Ladbrokes is betting on a player to be a clubs next signing.
If a club have been associated with several potential transfers during the window there may be many betting options. However, if a player is strongly linked to a club and is maybe in the process of a medical or finalising contract terms, they’re likely to be a heavy favourite.
This is an interesting transfer betting market and is available with some of the football transfer bookies listed above.
Some clubs conduct a lot of business during the transfer window whereas others are relatively quiet. Some bookies allow you to bet on which clubs will make the most singings which can get quite interesting as the transfer deadline approaches.
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Betting on football transfers is a relatively simple process but actually correctly predicting what will happen with players between clubs can be very unpredictable.
Here are some tips on how to increase your chances of making a correct prediction with footy transfers.
As with any bets that you place, it’s extremely important to be up to date with the latest news. Sure, you could think that a player is a perfect fit for a club but unless there are some evidence that the transfer will happen, it’s likely that it won’t.
The best advice is to consistently monitor news sources for rumours of player transfers. Every sports website and fan will be voicing their views, opinions and findings across the internet throughout the transfer windows and if you can get a hold of this information early on, you may be able to find value in some of the prices being offered by the bookies on a transfer.
If you are planning on placing bets on transfer deadline day, then it’s very important that you have your eyes glued to the news and on the look out for any hints a player may be moving club. Often by the time the news becomes mainstream, the bet isn’t worth placing anymore. However, this is not always the case and there are some very dedicated fans who look for clues. For example, private jet departures and arrivals from one city to another may be an early sign that a club has flown a player in to put pen to paper.
The great thing about the internet and social media is that we all have a wealth of information at our fingertips. Within seconds our messages can reach millions of people which is great for keeping up to date with football transfer news.
However, this is also the downside of the internet.
Just because Franks brother-in-law said he picked up Harry Kane in his taxi in Manchester, it doesn’t mean that Kane is on the verge of signing for United.
These rumours can be a good starting point but always verify your sources and do your own research after you have come across their information.
The same applies to mainstream media outlets. Although they want to broadcast concrete claims, they also want headlines. Because of this, they’ll often create a buzz around a very minor rumour in a bid to get more views or visits to their sites.
Along with coming across rumours and claims, it’s a good idea to look at things like how long a player has left on their contract, whether or not they have a buy-out clause, their expected wage demands and if there is a suitable replacement for them should they move to another club.
Financial Fair Play (FFP) means that clubs are often restricted on how much they can spend on transfer fees and players wages. This can rule certain transfers out if a player has a high buy-out clause or if their wage demands are likely to be too high.
Betting on football transfers is an exciting betting option to have. The transfer window is one of the most exciting times of the season for many fans and having a small wager on the potential transfers can make it all the more interesting.
Always do your research into potential moves and shop around between the football transfer bookies listed on this page to make sure you get the best odds available.
Have fun betting on player transfers and never bet more than you can afford to lose no matter how confident you are of your bets.
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