Ok, you just browsed BookmakerWatch.com recommended bookmakers and successfully registered with few of them and now before making your first bet read our advice on sports betting.
- Don't bet more than you can afford to lose! This is the first rule of betting. It's always more fun to bet with your excess money than with your rent or next rate for your car.
- Know yourself. Before starting to bet set yourself a goal and act according to it. Without a goal set things can easily get out of hand. You should decide if you wish to win money fast or you are consent to have a small profit of let's say 10% in a long run. To win money fast you can play accumulators or you can play single bets on outsiders taking use of higher odds. This is risky and as you will read soon it's not recommended, especially playing accumulators. Playing on a long term and small profit is a right thing to do if you want to beat the bookies. You may also be a leisure punter. You watch a game on TV and you bet just for the sake of entertainment. You bet small money occasionally, and you don't care too much if you win or lose. But what happens if a leisure punter wins for example 500$? Will he take 500$ and continue betting like before? Usually answer is no. Now he will start thinking how smart he is, he will feel he's lucky, he will feel that he's in the winning streak. And then all of a sudden he starts raising stakes and starts betting more often. Soon he loses his 500$ and maybe more. It looks like it's in a human nature to give luckily won money back to the bookies. However, this can be avoided with a little bit of self discipline...
- DO NOT change your stakes (unles you have a money managment strategy). After you win don't raise your stake 'cause you think you are in a winning streak and after you lose DON'T RAISE your stakes to return your money. Take a break and don't bet for a while.
- Do your research. Before you decide to bet analyze the match. Look at the stats, read the news. Look at standings, points, home wins, away wins, current form, players form, manager changes, injuries, suspensions and other factors that influence game. Bookies calculate odds usually one week before event and they take standings, form and some other factors in calculations. You have to use your advantage and wait for the last minute before event starts so you can take possible changes in your calculations. After picking your bet, look at the bookie odds. Look for the highest odds. Open account with several bookies, it's free. Difference of 0,10 in odds means a lot in the long run. Do not bet just for betting. Here you can read advice on soccer betting and tips on match analysis. Some sites that cover latest news, team information, inside information, stats and odds comparison you can find in BookmakerWatch.com resources section.
- Find VALUE BETS. What are they? Odds are just probability estimations of a possible match outcome. You can convert odds to percentages. Now if you think that for some reason bookie has underestimated certain outcome you should bet on it. That's a value bet. Of course your estimations have to be better than those of bookmaker to profit from value betting. Here you find guide on odds, odds types and odds conversion.
- There is no such thing as a SURE BET. Especially if your pick plays an away game, however the home team looks bad.
- When you bet eliminate your feelings. You have to be cold as a computer when betting. No discount on your favorite team.
- Bet SINGLE games. People love accumulators. The prospect of winning big money with small stake is always appealing. But, if you bet on single game you have 3 possible outcomes 1(home win), X(draw) and 2(away win), now for example if you play a treble(accumulator with three games) you have 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 possible outcomes and only one of them wins. The more individual bets you make on different competitors, the more times you pay the bookie's margin. Even taking a few of the favorites can make you a likely loser - you're then effectively giving the bookie terrific (and unjustified) odds on the rest of the field.
- Find your system and use a money management technique. You don't have one? Well your bookie has one and it's a fairly complex one. Here you can find some advice on money management techniques.
- And keep records of your past bets. This way you can always see how you are progressing. What bets are you winning? What is your profit? Use you records together with your system.
Good luck!
After reading this article you may want to read soccer specific betting advice.
Other BW's articles:
- Betting glossary
- Soccer specific betting tips and advice on match analysis
- Math and Money Management
- Bet Types and Bet Systems
- Top ten ways to lose against sports!
