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Football Betting Tips
Betting on football can be more than a way of adding excitement to football matches featuring your favourite team. If you’re a dedicated football fan, understanding how and when to place football fans can be the difference between losing in the long term or turning your knowledge of your favourite sport into profits you can bank.
If you’ve been restricting your football bets to occasional flutters on your favourite team, now’s the time to consider thinking through your bets more carefully and increasing your returns by using some of the following useful football betting tips.
Form: You can’t bet on a football team unless you know what form it’s in. Realizing this simple fact provides several pointers to how should proceed with betting on football. For a start, don’t bet on unfamiliar leagues as you’ll struggle to predict which teams and players are in form.
Secondly don’t jump into the football betting markets at the start of the season as it’s impossible to gauge the effect that new signings, player transfers, injuries and the season break will have had on the team’s form.
Stats: Many top UK bookmakers offers comprehensive statistical resources on top leagues. These include recent form, head-to-head comparisons and archives of results from previous seasons. You need to know how your selection has fared against its opponents on previous occasions, how many goals it averages per match, and whether playing home or away has a significant impact on results.
News: Follow what’s happening to your team. Did the manager throw the tea set at the captain? Is a key player attempting to transfer out of the team? All these factors can influence form and performances. The more you know about what’s happening in the world of football the more background information you’ll have to draw on when you play your bets.
Scheduling: If you’re going to bet on a match, look at the schedule for both teams. Schedules affect not only team fitness and freshness, but also the manager’s selections for the match. Look out for teams stretched thin by a tight schedule as well as those that have had ample time recharge their batteries.
Competitions: Treat your bets on each league and competition differently, even if betting on a single team. Form will often be inconsistent across different cup competitions and leagues as managers will often target these with different squads, resting key players for ‘minor’ competitions. A team that’s thriving in its domestic league may therefore struggle in European competition.
Odds: You compare prices when you buy things at the shop, and you should get into the habit of doing the same when you bet on football. All prices are not equal, and finding good odds using an odds comparison service can have a substantial impact on your profit margins. Brand loyalty to one bookie is not unusual, but you’ll be missing out on a world of free bets, betting specials and improved odds if you stick to one sportsbook.
Betting Specials: All sports betting markets are biased in favour of the bookmakers. The best way to overcome this is to take advantage of the cash-back betting specials offered by bookmakers every week. Top bookies like Paddy Power and Boylesports routinely offer cash-back specials that can help you reclaim money if qualifying criteria are met during the course of the match. Other bookies, like William Hill, offer a number of football free bets every week.
Free Bets: There’s anywhere between $1000 and $1500 in free bets floating around the internet at any given moment. If you’re planning on placing a bet you may as well use it to redeem a free bet that can be used to hedge your other bets or to beef up your betting budget. The more bookies you have in your betting portfolio the more betting specials you’ll be exposed to, and the more options you’ll have when searching for top odds on your selections.
Start Laying: If you haven’t opened a betting exchange account yet, you’re missing out on a whole world of football betting opportunities. Betting exchanges allow you to lay (bet against) teams in a match, whilst also ensuring a payout in the event of a draw. Exchanges like Betfair and WBX also tend to provide top odds on dozens of football betting markets.
Stay Disciplined: Once you start winning remember to keep your head. Losing bets aren’t the problem, squandering winnings with overconfident and speculative bets is where most punters come short. When you do lose, avoid chasing your losses as this is the surest way to turn a small loss into a major setback. For more information read our guide to bankroll management.
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