Beginners Guide to Football Betting: Tips and Advice
Here it is – zicoball’s beginners guide to football betting, where we will equip you with the necessary knowledge, strategies, football betting advice and tips to navigate the exciting world of sports betting.
An Intro & A Nutshell:
Whether you’re a big football fan or simply looking to add some extra excitement to your match-day experience, this guide will cover all the basics, provide valuable tips, and help you understand the fundamentals of football betting. By the end, you may be en route to making informed betting decisions and maximising your chances of success.
You won’t find every single drop of information you’ll need on this page, but we will link and signpost the relevant, high-quality websites along the way that will aid your journey, coupled with our own nuggets of wisdom.
For those beginners commencing their football betting voyage, here are some essential tips and advice to guide you on your journey:
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Understanding Football Betting Odds:
One of the fundamental aspects of football betting is understanding odds. Betting odds are numerical representations of the likelihood of an outcome and the potential payout. They come in different formats, such as fractional, decimal, and American.
For example, fractional odds of 10/1 indicate that for every £1 staked, you could win £10, plus your initial stake. If the same odds were shown as a decimal, 10/1 would look like 11.00.
To be able to make informed betting decisions, one must delve deeper into understanding odds. This involves getting your head around the probability indicated by the offered odds and the relationship between odds and potential winnings.
Additionally, understanding the concept of value betting (we’ll touch on this), and comparing odds across different bookmakers, can help you find the most profitable opportunities.
You can use both Oddsportal and Oddschecker as tools to compare the prices of a selection of bookmakers. These platforms streamline the process of finding the best price out there.
Types of Football Bets:
Football betting offers various bet types to cater to different preferences and strategies. Understanding these bet types is crucial for diversifying your betting approach.
Common bet types include match result (predicting the outcome of a match), over/under (predicting the total number of goals scored), Asian handicap (handicapping the perceived stronger team), and both teams to score (predicting if both teams will score).
If you’re going to choose one bet type to get to grips with, make it Asian Handicaps. When used correctly, these are a real handy tool to have in your football betting arsenal. Follow the link above to get to grips with the ins and outs.
As the gambling space develops, you’ll soon see that the sport has a plethora of markets available. Away from the leading 1X2 (Win-Draw-Win) markets, one can now have a punt on goal kicks, shots, throw-ins, yellow cards, and corners, to name just a few.
Exploring and understanding these bet types will allow you to take advantage of various betting opportunities.
Football Betting Basics and how to Place a Football Bet:
Before delving into specific strategies, it’s essential to grasp the basics of football betting and how to place a football bet. This includes understanding key terms like stake (the amount of money put onto a bet), betting odds (the probability), and the payout (the returns of any bet).
Additionally, learning about betting markets (categories of bets available), bookmakers (companies that offer betting services), and online betting platforms (websites or apps where bets can be placed) will provide a solid foundation for your betting journey.
Now that you have a grasp of the football betting basics, let’s explore the step-by-step process of how to place a football bet. This includes selecting a reliable betting platform, creating an account, depositing funds, exploring the available markets, choosing your bet type, and confirming your bet.
The number one bookmaker to sign up for is bet365. This is not a paid promotion or anything like that – they are, by far, the best of the bunch. Nevertheless, each bookmaker will offer their own markets which may differ to elsewhere. It’s important to build a selection of bookmakers to have at your disposal. You will be able to access more promotions, free bets, and higher odds.
Yet, if you’re starting with just one – go for bet365. And that, is, in brief, how to place a football bet.
Bankroll Management:
Successful football betting is built on the foundations of shrewd bankroll management. This includes setting a budget for your football betting, sticking to staking rules, and tracking your bets and outcomes.
You will find that the most common staking system is structure where 1% of a bankroll equates to 1 unit. For example, If you were to start with a £1000 betting bankroll, each 1 unit selection would be a £10 stake. By following such guidelines, and gauging what a selection and attached price is worth in terms of staked units, you can be sure to gamble responsibly and never risk a large portion of your finances on one bet.
Remember, football is a low-scoring sport crammed full of variance. It’s not unwise to expect the unexpected in a game with so many variables. So, considering that, it shouldn’t surprise you that bankroll management is one of the most important aspects to consider when placing a football bet.
By implementing effective bankroll management strategies, you can mitigate risks and ensure long-term sustainability in your betting endeavours.
The Value Betting Strategy in Football:
Look, being a profitable sports bettor on the odd weekend is difficult. And to be profitable in the long term by betting solely on football? That is even harder.
But there is a way to proceed. By analysing odds through thorough research and analysis, gathering relevant information and assessing it objectively, the shrewdest punters can harness value prices and give themselves a percentage edge on any given selection.
This isn’t the stuff you can pick up as a beginner. If you’ve found yourself on this page, this paragraph will likely go straight over your head. And that’s fine, by the way.
We believe the best way to learn such a technique is to follow the professionals. Follow those who have been sourcing value bets for significant periods of their professional careers and are willing to share their expertise. These are not always paid services – you can find free gems, too. However, you must find the right bettor and avoid the Cowboys!
We’ll explore football betting tipsters further below if you think following a professional’s football betting tips and predictions may be the best course of action for your football betting journey.
Avoid The Accumulators and Stick To Singles
A football accumulator is a bet where multiple selections must win to claim any returns. For example, let’s say there’s seven selections – the odds of each add together and accumulate until you’re left with an often eye-watering offering. You’ll see the slips plastered all over social media where a £1 stake has hit a 2000/1 seven-fold accumulator. However, it’s 2000/1 for a reason. A small-stakes accumulator will do no harm if you’re after a bit of fun.
Yet, in terms of a profitable approach to football betting, those accumulators need to be given a wide berth. It’s hard enough to land a single in this game, so you can imagine the necessary luck to call a whole Premier League schedule correctly.
The wise, long-term profitable approach is to focus on singles (single selections with an attached price perceived as value). That’s the way forward, unlike these accumulators.
Finding Your Niche in Football Betting
Punting on the biggest leagues and in the most significant matches is difficult. All the variables that go into pricing up a game or outcome are likely already in place, with the market adapting swiftly as you’d expect on the release of certain news. That’s not to say you can’t be profitable betting on the Premier League, for example, but it’s difficult. And if you’re starting out, it will be tough.
However, if you are knowledgeable about the lesser leagues or, the smaller markets, this may be your way in. As you’d expect, a bookmaker focuses primarily on the bigger leagues – a punters’ usual bread and butter. But, if you can build and sculpt a knowledge base around the National League in England, for example, it could be handy.
Can you build up contacts within the game at that level? Can you be near the front of the queue when finding out about injuries or determining the impact of a changed fixture schedule? You’ll find joy at such a standard if you’re willing to put the work in.
This is one way to approach it. The other avenue is borne from bet tracking. This starts with going about your betting journey as you see fit. Ensure your stakes are minimal whilst you get to grips with football betting.
Bet on what you enjoy and what you think you’re handy at when it comes to determining outcomes. When you’ve built up a substantial history, and you’ve kept a record of all your bets (an Excel spreadsheet will suffice – or websites like Bettin.GS – an online bet tracker), it’s time to analyse.
Find out what markets, leagues and specifics you excel at. You may be surprised. And the results may determine if and where you have an edge over the bookmaker. Give it a go.
Record-Keeping and Bet Tracking whilst Football Betting
We know this is boring. When you think of betting on football, it’s all butterflies and rainbows and one seismic bet victory to send you on your holidays. However, the reality is a successful betting career is built on discipline.
The art of being disciplined should encourage you to track every single bet. You should be fully aware of what markets, leagues, and bookmakers you are profitable with and which you are not. Bet tracking will provide you with valuable insights into your betting journey. As mentioned in the paragraph above, your results may shock you and give an invaluable snapshot of how you should proceed as a bettor.
Losing runs are inevitable in this game. What is essential, though, is to keep calm, never chase losses, and certainly never bet emotionally on the back of a losing run. The art of gambling responsibly isn’t just a sentence peddled by the government and bookmakers in tandem; it will preserve your bankroll and heighten the likelihood of navigating any given season in the green.
Be disciplined and track your bets. Ensure you’re efficient at both, and you have one leg up already. It’s vital. Do it.
Remember, You Don’t Need To Bet
Speaking of discipline – this is important. And it will set you apart from many sports bettors. There are football matches every day, but that doesn’t mean you need to place a bet each day.
FOMO is tough to overcome, but remember this; not placing a bet can be as profitable as placing a football bet. The more selections you make on a whim, just to have something running when the football kicks off, the more you’ll eat into profits. That kind of behaviour is not conducive to long-term success in football betting. If there are no selections or prices that stand out as value, then there’s no need to force anything.
Do your research, find value prices, and place selections in advance, backed up by solid reasoning. Undoing all that research and hard work due to not being clinical enough is counter-intuitive, and it’ll come back to bite you.
Utilising Football Betting Tipsters for Tips, Advice and Predictions:
Finding a decent, profitable tipster supplying football betting tips and predictions takes work. So, to cut through the hundreds on offer, we’ve whittled it down to our top three.
The first two are both paid services from Dean Woodward and Scott Thornton and can be found via the same link: Punters Lounge. The two tipsters have proven public track records and specialise in props betting. However, given the current demand for their services, you should bear in mind that there may be waiting lists to follow either tipster. Each boasts a healthy ROI percentage year on year – they’re popular because they’re profitable.
And the same goes for our free option. Sam Ingram provides his selections and insights here on zicoball’s football betting section, and also on the bettingexpert website.
Additionally, he has a free group where he posts 30+ free monthly picks with reasoning attached for each. Sam’s Telegram channel is a handy educational tool to discover why a professional punter opts for specific selections.
Alternatively, there are websites out there who follow, track and review tipsters. Betting Kingdom offers such a service (free of charge) via their website. BK covers various sports and plenty of different tipsters to offer food for thought for anyone considering following a professional football bettor.
Don’t Go Head-First!
We advise that you refrain from diving head-first into following a tipster’s football betting tips and predictions at the beginning of your betting journey. Watch from afar. Soak up all the reasoning and information given. Analyse why they take selections when they are. Think about what prices are deemed value and why. Look at their staking system – why are some bets 2 unit positions and others 0.5 units?
Furthermore, ask questions. If you need more clarification, reach out – these people don’t bite. You’ll find that, more often than not, they’re happy to help or share their ideas and wisdom.
Soak up every last drop of information you can. If you’re serious about this football betting journey, go out there and be a sponge. You don’t even need to put any finances at stake whilst you do so.
Conclusion:
With this beginners guide to football betting coupled with the signposted linked topics, you should now be on the way to understand the fundamentals, betting strategies, and tips to embark on your betting journey.
Remember to bet responsibly first and foremost. Additionally, focus on staying disciplined and tracking your bets. Furthermore, the art of continuously expanding your knowledge of the game and betting markets will be crucial.
By combining your passion for football with sound betting principles, it’s possible to maximise enjoyment while increasing your chances of navigating this football betting game successfully.
Beginners Guide to Football Betting: Tips and Advice