Sports Betting Tips – Now it’s time to focus on the betting tips and tricks you can use when you’re actually placing the bets. Just make sure you keep the previous top betting tips in mind as you utilize these. They can’t all be used together, but they can give you an edge over the bookies and make you more successful than the average player.
1. Small Stakes; Big Odds
The best odds and the most value can be found in outsider bets. These are also the ones that vary the most across multiple sports betting website. As an example, if Manchester City is 4.00 to win the English Premier League, you might find odds as low as 3.50 and as high as 5.00 elsewhere, but you’re unlikely to get much better than that.
However, a bet on Newcastle United or Watford might return odds of 50.00 on one site, 100.00 on another and up to 1000.00 on a third. This is considered a highly unlikely outcome, one that very few punters have bet on, and one that the betting site doesn’t really care about. They don’t think it’s going to happen, so it doesn’t matter to them whether the odds are 50.00 or 5000.00.
But the thing is, it can happen, and it has happened. Wins like this are rare, but they are common enough to defy those exceptionally high odds. Greece won the Euros in 2004; Iraq won the Asia Cup in 2007; Leicester won the Premier League in 2016. These are just three of many huge sporting shocks that have occurred in the last twenty years.
A single €1 bet on any of those outcomes would have secured huge returns. Much more than a €100 bet on a favorite. Of course, the outcomes are rare, but they occur at least once a year in every major sport—you just need to check the schedule, peruse the possible outcomes, and predict the shock before it happens.
2. Outright Betting
As hinted above, outright bets are where the big money is because anything can happen over the course of a tournament, especially when that tournament is contested by teams that don’t play each other every year or teams that change drastically from year to year.
Take the FIFA World Cup as an example. This tournament is held every four years by teams from all over the world. These teams hail from several different football associations, from UEFA in Europe to CONCACAF in North America.
The teams in each association are familiar with one another. Not only did they play in the qualifying rounds, but they play many exhibition games and their players compete in the same domestic leagues. However, teams from different confederations are a little less familiar with one another and this can create all kinds of shocks, all of which produce massive odds.
The 2014 World Cup
The 2014 World Cup was a prime example. Group D in this tournament was contested by four teams: Italy, England, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. The latter of these was considered the weakest link. They were expected to lose all their games and others saw them as a team that only existed to help the others build their goal difference.
But in the end, Costa Rica went undefeated in the group stage and finished top, sending the two favorites, England and Italy, packing. Four years later, the tournament favorites, Germany, lost two of its three group games, including a shock loss to South Korea, and finished bottom of the group.
The odds for either of these things happening were huge, even though the group stage spans just 6 games. This is the beauty of outright betting, and it’s something you can use to bet on everything from Tournament Winner to Top Goalscorer and Group Stage Winner in every major competition.
3. Live Betting
Live betting has changed the landscape of the online sportsbetting industry. It gives punters a chance to wager on outcomes as they unfold, whether they’re betting on the next point scorer, the next goal, the next knockdown, or any number of other outcomes.
But it goes much further than that, as live betting also lets punters back their hunches. How many times have you watched a boxing fight and thought to yourself, I have a feeling that Fighter A will be knocked down soon; how many times have you watched a football game and thought, I think Team A will score?
In the past, you just had to grin and bear it, bemoaning your luck when those outcomes did occur and then wishing your hunch had come before the pregame markets closed. Thanks to live betting, you can bet on the outcome that you predict and win big if it happens.
One of the biggest changes that live betting has brought to the sports betting industry is allowing punters to bet that certain teams will overcome a deficit and win, or an outsider will get the unexpected victory. If you see a confidence in the way they play or notice trends that suggest the contest is going a certain way, you can place your bets and watch them succeed.
4. Accumulators
Accumulators are where the big money is. This is when simple sports bets can give you jackpot-sized wins, but you have to use them properly.
Imagine that every week you make a prediction for ten different games/matches in your favorite sport. You don’t need to predict the correct scores; you don’t even need to predict the handicaps; you just need to select the winner from each of those ten games.
If you make that prediction every week, how many successful weeks do you think you’ll have over the course of the year? 5? 10? More?
The average knowledgeable sports fan will expect to get at least 2 or 3 correct predictions, some will fancy their chances of reaching double figures.
If you get at least 2 of those accumulators correct, you’ll make a profit. Every correct selection you make after that will increase your profit considerably.
And if you’re successful with those selections, then you can move onto bigger ones. Add different leagues and sports to your accumulator, increasing the odds and significantly boosting your chances of securing a big return. Profitable gamblers often place at least 1 accumulator per gameday, staking just a fraction of their usual bet on account of the greatly inflated odds.
5. Stick to What you Know
A lifelong football fan should stick with football; a former pugilist and current boxing pundit should stick with boxing. Don’t be tempted to stray from what you know just because there is a live game to watch on TV or because you have nothing else to do. Your money is at stake—if you want to remain profitable then you need to stick with what you know.
It’s possible to become an expert in more than one sport, of course, but it’s better to be a master of one sport than an amateur in several.
Summary: It’s Time to Win
Now that you have taken these free betting tips on board, it’s time to go out there and put them to the test. Remember to gamble responsibly, stick to your bankroll, and if you feel like you’re getting too angry or too frustrated, take a time-out. Sports betting is supposed to be fun—as soon as it stops being fun, then it’s time to call it a day.
