English Premiership football is one of the most exciting and hotly contested sports in the world. If you’re thinking of spending some of your hard-earned money betting on a new sport, definitely give soccer a whirl. Here are our best bets for English football:

Bet365: Free signup bonus and easy to use UK soccer betting site. Bet in dollars, sterling, etc.

Victor Chandler: Open a football betting account with VC Bet and they’ll match the value of your first bet with a free bet up to £50 (or currency equivalent)

Mansion: With great football odds and the biggest volumes on the Sports Exchange, Mansion now allows you to place football bets completely free at the Mansion Sports Exchange (0% commission). This betting company is also a football sponsor

Blue Square: New accounts receive a free £10 bet after placing one valid bet. Tax free football betting

betfair: Person to person site ideal for football betting - make your own odds with no bookie

William Hill: Online UK football betting from a long standing British bookmaker

Coral Eurobet: Online footy betting

Sporting Index: Football spread betting - New accounts receive a free £200 football bet after 10 bets

Paddy Power: Well designed site featuring football betting on UK and Irish Football leagues plus the big tournaments

Sporting Bet: Bet in 10 languages with 10% bonus for the first deposit for new accounts

Any professional sports league or organization that says it is against betting on sports is either a liar or a damn fool. Betting has been around longer than most sports we play today. In fact, when they were writing up the rules for baseball it wouldn’t surprise me if someone was taking over/under bets on how long it would take them to finally get every minute rule and detail down pat.

The big argument that so many sports leagues put forward against sports betting is that it can infiltrate the game and lead to another Black Sox-type scandal. For anyone that doesn’t know, the Black Sox scandal involved a scheme to throw the 1919 World Series. There have been numerous other betting scandals since, such as Pete Rose, Serie A in soccer, and the most recent Tim Donaghy scandal.

Nobody is saying that professional players, coaches, referees, etc. should be allowed to bet on the sports they’re playing or working on. The thing is though, no matter how illegal you make something it won’t prevent at least some people from doing it. Remember how successful prohibition was back in the day?

The betting scandals also show one reason why the leagues should be pushing for legal online gambling. All of these guys like Rose and Donaghy were making bets with underground bookies or even Mafia-type guys. Allowing online betting would at least separate the sports from these shady outside characters. You can never fully separate yourselves from the shady characters inside the game, but you can at least keep other external forces outside the field of play by providing solid, reliable, secure and regulated options.

The leagues could also make some more money by joining up with some online gambling sites or services. If Master Card can be the official credit card of MLB, and Speed Stick can be the official deodorant of the NHL, why can’t certain sportsbooks like WillHill or Bodog be the official sports book of the NFL? A relationship like this would be win-win for everyone involved, especially bettors, and drive interest in the games even higher than it already is.