Ever since its first kick-off in 2005, Australia’s A-league premier club football competition has seen the involvement of a team from New Zealand. The presence of that one local team is enough for Kiwi punters log on to their favourite online bookmakers and place bets with enthusiasm.
Bookmakers offer match and futures markets with an array of bet types. The regular season, which begins in October, attracts a fair amount of interest, although that can spike when the league’s famous rivals play each other.
The real betting action, however, happens during the finals series, which ends with the eagerly-awaited and appropriately-named Grand Final. That last match is one of the biggest events on the football calendar down under.
New Zealand in the A-League
In 2004, Australia’s National Soccer League went bang after 27 years in operation, and the A-league was born. The organisers decided initially that the league would comprise eight teams, one of which would be from New Zealand.
The others would come from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, and Sydney. The founding teams included New Zealand Knights, Adelaide United, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne Victory, Newcastle Jets, Perth Glory, Queensland Roar, and Sydney FC.
Football fans and punters have seen some interesting changes to the competition since those early days. One of those changes took place in 2007, when it was announced that Wellington Phoenix was to replace New Zealand Knights from the start of that year’s season.
The A-league’s current member teams include Wellington Phoenix, Western Sydney Wanderers, Sydney FC, Perth Glory, Newcastle Jets, Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City, Central Coast Mariners, Brisbane Roar, and Adelaide United.
A-League Online Sports Betting Opportunities
The A-league is replete with betting opportunities for punters doing betting on sports in NZ. The regular season alone features a whopping 27 rounds, which means the teams play each other three times.
The highest-ranking team in the regular season is the league’s Premier team. The six highest-ranking teams from the regular season then go through to the finals series, where they are eventually whittled down to the two teams that face each other in the Grand Final for the title of Champion.
New Zealand’s Wellington Phoenix has yet to muster what it takes to claim the title, but that hasn’t stopped punters from showing their support in the form of bets. The Champion of the 2015-2016 season is Adelaide United.
The league’s previous champions include Sydney FC, Newcastle Jets, Melbourne Victory, Brisbane Roar, and Central Coast Mariners.
Online A-League Markets for Kiwi Punters
Punters can find futures and match A-league markets at online bookmakers that accept punters from New Zealand like added here. The markets include various bet types.
The futures markets tend to have slightly more limited choices than the match markets, with types of bets usually focused on championship and medals bets. Championship bets are placed on the Grand Final, and medals bets are placed on winners of the Johnny Warren and Joe Marston medals.
The match markets include bet types such as correct scores bets, half-time and full-time double results bets, exotic bets such as first goal, and head-to-head bets.
