In Japan, there are quite a few options to legally bet on soccer. Soccer betting has been legal since 1998 with the goal of raising money to promote sports and increase the competitiveness of Japanese teams and athletes across sports on a global scale. However, this type of betting is only legal if made through Sports Toto and on the J-Leagues, the Emperors Cup and the Nabisco Cup.
The four main soccer betting types in Japan are the Toto, the Toto Mini, the Toto Goal 3 and the Toto Goal 2.
Toto
It involves picking home, draw or away for all the 13 matches listed on the card. 50% of the money from ticket sales goes into the prize pool, as with every other form of Toto. When all the results are known, 70% of the pool is shared among the bettors who correctly predicted the 13 results, 15% is shared among those who got 12 picks rights, and 15% goes to gamblers who got 11 out of 13.
Mini Toto
It includes 9 matches and ticket purchasers choose to bet on 5 of them. With the Mini Toto, 100% of the pool goes to the bettors who got all 5 results correct. In this case, the payout depends entirely on the amount in the pool and how many people were winners.
Toto Goal 3
It involves 3 soccer matches. For each of the 6 teams, you predict 0,1,2 or 3+ goals. 60% of the prize pool is shared among those getting 6 correct predictions and 40% with the ones who got 5.
Toto Goal 2
This Toto works exactly like the Goal 3 but there are only 4 teams (2 matches) and to win any reward you must get the entire card correct.
As you can see, the Toto is very different to the American and European way of online or offline soccer betting. if your not a fan of soccer betting you can take a look at some of the casino games Vera&John have to offer