Football is by far the most popular sport in the UK, as it is in most countries around the world. British bookmakers take billions of pounds on football bets alone. But, it’s hard. Football is a sport that many of us feel we know well, but that doesn’t always immediately translate to successful bets; we need to also know a lot about betting, and relying on our football hunch isn’t going to be quite enough.
With that in mind, here are five football betting strategies to help increase your chances of success.
Value betting
The first thing to be aware of when betting on football is value. Value means that you consider the real probability of an event happening, and find odds that surpass this (odds-probability calculators can be found online). This means that if most bookies have a team winning a 60% likelihood, but you spot a bookmaker selling odds at 4/7 (which is 1.57 decimal odds), then you’re getting good value.
Statistics
You don’t need to be a mathematician when it comes to statistics, but the use of stats will help inform your decision-making behind the bets. Bets can be made on a whole host of different things, down to the number of yellow cards or corners there will be. Well, this historical data can be found in datasets online and can be analysed. Finding patterns shouldn’t be too hard, but it does help to be naturally good with numbers.
Price boosts and bonuses
Making the most out of bonuses and promotions is really important. Having a bookmaker that offers free bets regularly can help keep your bankroll going without risking your own money. Taking advantage of these price boosts, too, can help get better value when betting.
1-3-2-6 system
The 1-3-2-6 system is a positive progression betting system where you increase your stakes after a win. Think of the stake in terms of units (i.e. £10 being on unit, but it’s up to you). The numbers are the number of units you bet if you’re winning. But, if you lose your second bet, for example, you return back to the original unit stake.
Form
Form is everything in football; it’s a game of momentum. It’s good that you may know a lot about football and have good instincts, but it’s equally important to read up about form before placing any bets. As we saw recently with United vs Arsenal, one was placed higher in the league, but the other was actually in better form (United, being in better form, won the game). Neglecting these stats would be a mistake.
Bonus tip: Stick to the leagues you know well
Finally, it’s important to not bet for the sake of betting. Currently, the Premier League is on pause because of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. In this example, it is tempting to simply bet on Spanish or French football, but if you know nothing about it, you may find it difficult to get any success (unless you’re absolutely dedicated to the statistics approach above).Image (Max. 20Mb)
