British and Irish Lions Betting

The Lions are a once-every-four-years touring team made up of the best players from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales — four rival nations who unite under one red jersey for a single tour. There is no Lions league and no annual fixture: the side assembles only for the tour, plays a handful of matches over six or seven weeks, then disbands again. That scarcity is what makes a Lions tour special, and why the betting around it carries a weight no ordinary Test series does.

The Lions tour the three great southern-hemisphere nations in rotation, once every four years. They toured South Africa in 2021 (beaten by the Springboks), Australia in 2025, and travel to New Zealand to face the All Blacks in 2029 — which puts the next South African tour back around 2033. For the South African market the home tours are the giant ones: a chance to bet on the Boks against the Lions on home soil, an occasion that comes round roughly once every twelve years. See the full schedule on the squad and tour page.

The bet that defines a Lions tour is the series market. The tour is decided over a best-of-three Test series, and you can back the overall result — the Lions to win the series, the host nation to win it, or a drawn series — as well as the correct series score (2-1 either way, 3-0, or a 1-1 draw with one Test shared). What makes it gripping is that it builds across the three Tests: a result in the opener swings the whole market, and a decider in the third Test is one of betting's great occasions. The test series betting page works through every series market.

The series winner is the headline outright — one selection across the whole tour, priced before the first Test and shifting hard after each result. Alongside it, every one of the three Tests carries its own match odds: the result, the handicap to level a margin, and total points. Because the series and the individual Tests move together, timing matters — a price taken before the opener can look very different by the decider. See current angles on the Lions odds page.

Beyond the series there is a full card on every fixture. Each Test offers the match result, the handicap, total points and first try scorer. The tour matches — the Lions against the host nation's franchises and provinces before the Tests — have their own markets too, and they are where bettors read the tourists' form and combinations. The British Irish Lions betting guide runs through each with examples.

A Lions tour is unusual in that the squad itself is a betting event. Before the tour, bookmakers price up squad selection markets — which players make the touring party, who is named captain, and how many from each of the four nations are picked. Once on tour, the top tourist and top try scorer markets run across the fixtures. The squad and tour page covers selection betting, the schedule and the warm-up matches.

On a South African tour the whole event hinges on the Springboks. The Boks are the world's most successful side and start most home Tests as favourites, which shapes both the series price and the individual Test odds. Backing South Africa to win the series, to win it 2-1 or 3-0, or match by match on the result and handicap are the popular local plays. The Springboks v Lions page covers the South African angle in full.

Lions tours are notoriously hard to call — the squad assembles from four nations with little time together, while the host arrives settled and at home, and series are routinely decided by a single Test. The honest read blends the series favourites with value in the tour-match and handicap markets, and treats anyone selling a 'sure thing' with suspicion. Our straight, no-hype take is on the British Irish Lions predictions page.

Nothing else in rugby comes round so seldom or means so much. A three-Test series, a market on every Test and tour match, a series outright that builds to a decider, and — when the tour is here — the Springboks at the heart of it. You bet on all of it at fixed odds, in rand, and a winning bet settles to your balance the moment the result is official. Bet on the British and Irish Lions at CasinOnline.