The answer is already there and given by many and there's the distinction between a sport and gambling. Football is a sport and in gambling, there can be any other activity that can be applied to it.
Plus, it also depends on the country that prohibits gambling. If they're a Muslim country then we can easily understand that it's about the belief and that's the same with other countries that prohibits it.
Correct, you can gamble on whatever including politics, economics, etc. The distance between football and gambling is equal to the distance between the Earth and Mars.