Sports Betting Strategies

While luck plays a huge part in successful betting, there are many factors that could help you maximise your chances of success and, most importantly, help you stay in control of your betting.

Creating or developing a sports betting strategy can help with this. Being prepared, having a betting plan in place and constantly expanding your knowledge base can all be extremely helpful in ensuring you give yourself the best chance of placing successful wagers.

In this guide, we’re going to look at a number of sports betting aspects. We’ll explore the basics of sports betting, including what betting odds actually mean and the different types of bets available to place. We’ll also examine the most popular strategies many bettors utilise and the positives and negative aspects of each of them. In addition, we’ll look at the most important factors to consider in betting, as well as our top choices of online bookmaker.

Let’s get started.

Basics of betting on sports

Before we get started on betting strategies, it’s important we examine the basics of sports betting. So, what exactly is sports betting? Simply put, sports betting is where you stake funds on a particular event to occur. If your prediction is correct, you’ll receive funds back from your bookmaker. If your prediction is wrong, you’ll lose the funds you staked.

Betting sites provide odds on which you can stake. We’ll look at how to read odds shortly, but at their most basic level, odds are a way of demonstrating the probability of a specific event happening, or not happening as the case may be.

Low, or short odds, imply that an event is likely to happen whereas high, or long, odds imply that an event is less likely to occur. For instance, an event with odds of 2/1, or 3.0 in Decimal format, indicate the bookmaker believes this is likely to happen. An event with odds of 30/1, or 31.0, indicate the bookie believes this event is unlikely to occur.

Let’s look at an example. Manchester City are playing Crystal Palace at home in the English Premier League. The Match Winner market shows us that the bookmaker has priced City to win at odds of 13/25 (1.52), with Palace priced at 22/5 (5.40) and the draw at 17/5 (4.40). These odds show us that the bookmaker believes City are very likely to win, with the draw the next most likely outcome and the Palace win is stated as the third most likely outcome, as far as the bookmaker is concerned anyway.

Implied Probability

When you learn more about betting, you’re likely to come across the phrase ‘implied probability’. What does this mean? Implied probability indicates the likelihood of an event occurring, based on the odds provided. This figure is given as a percentage, which you can calculate yourself using the following formulas. For ease and to keep our explanation as simple as possible, we’ve used Decimal odds to demonstrate:

1/decimal odds multiplied by 100 = Implied Probability

So, to continue our example above, we can calculate the implied probability of all potential outcomes:

• CIty win – 1/1.52 multiplied by 100 = 65.35%
• Draw – 1/4.40 multiplied by 100 = 22.72
• Palace win – 1/5.40 multiplied by 100 = 18.51%

From this calculation, we can see that the bookmaker has given City a 65.35% chance of winning the match, Palace a 18.51% chance of winning the match, with the draw having an implied probability of 22.72%.

If you add up the percentages above, you’ll find you’ll get a result of 106.58%. So where does the extra 6.58% percent come from? This is the house edge, also known as the bookmaker’s over-round, or profit.

Learn about Bet Types

There are a variety of bet types available at almost every betting site you’ll come across. In this section, we’re going to take a look at the most popular and how each of them work.

It’s a good idea to learn how different bet types work. Often, greater betting value can be found in different bet types, rather than a standard Single bet.

• Single. This is the most common bet type. Place a bet on one selection, or in other words one set of odds, on one event. If you predict the event correctly, you win your bet.
• Double. This is made up of two selections on two different events, in one bet. As an example, you might bet on Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets to both win their NBA matches. For your Double to be successful both teams need to win.
• Treble. This is made up of three selections on three different events, in one bet. For example, you might bet on Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies to all win their MLB matches. For your Treble to be successful, all teams need to win.
• Accumulator. Also known as a Multibet, an accumulator generally consists of four or more selections. Typically, the more selections in your accumulator, the higher the odds. For your Acca to be successful, all selections need to win.

There are many more bet types available, though some can be a little more complicated to understand. Other Multiple bet types include the following:

• Trixie
• Patent
• Heinz
• Yankee
• Lucky 15
• Lucky 31

Markets

While the most popular sports can contain upwards of over 100 betting markets, it would, for obvious reasons, be incredibly difficult to learn how all of them work. Instead, it’s a good idea to learn about two or three main markets in-depth, learn which can provide greater value but can still provide a reasonable chance of success. Some markets might not be priced as attractively as others, but can often be easier to call correctly.

Let’s look at a few examples of what we mean, using football. Barcelona are playing Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League. The Match Result odds are as follows:

• Barcelona – 1.34
• Draw – 5.50
• Dortmund – 7.50

As you can see, the odds on the Barcelona win aren’t particularly attractive and don’t offer much betting value at all. So, we might look at other available markets to see if we can find better odds but still maintain a reasonable chance of winning our bet.

From our research, we can see that Barcelona have scored two or more goals in each of their last five games. We can also see that they rarely keep a clean sheet and Dortmund haven’t failed to score in any of their last ten games. So, a Match Result and Both Teams To Score combined bet offers us odds on Barcelona at 2.40, bigger odds than a standard Match Result bet.

Or, we might consider the Half-Time/Full-Time market. Our research suggests that both teams tend to score the majority of their goals in the second half of their games. We still think Barcelona will win the game, but there’s a good chance the sides will go in level at half time. The odds on a draw in the first half and a Barcelona win in the second half are 4.50, again greater than a standard Match Winner bet.

It’s important to note, though, that while longer odds are more attractive, they can be more difficult to get right. Research is key, by conducting research into the match or event you’re looking to bet on, you’re giving yourself a better chance of recognising value and being successful in your bet placements.

Sports

Most betting sites offer a wide array of sports and events for their customers to bet on. It can be very tempting to start placing bets on sports you know little about, just because the opportunity is there to do so. We recommend you refrain from doing this. As we touched upon earlier, research is key to successful betting. While many of us have thrown a spare few pennies on niche events we know nothing about, it’s not the most sensible thing to do.

While the offer of a range of sports is often a sign of a good bookmaker, it doesn’t mean you should bet on everything. Instead, focus on one or two sports, get to know how each works, with specific nods to how betting on these sports works. As with markets, the more you know about a particular sport or event, the better chance you give yourself of making successful betting choices.

While available sports vary from bookie to bookie, you can expect to find odds on the following sports with most betting sites.

Find the best bookmakers

This might sound like an obvious point to make, but signing up to the best betting sites is incredibly important. There are many things to consider when you’re considering which sites to sign up to. We’ll go through the most important aspects here.

Factors to consider

In addition to what we’ve talked about above, there are other important factors we recommend you consider. These are strategies you should pay close attention to before you start placing bets.

• Always protect your bankroll 

This is incredibly important. No matter what betting strategy or system you use, always look after your funds. Never bet more than you can comfortably afford to lose. It’s a good idea to have a set amount of funds to bet with, an amount you can afford, and never go beyond this figure. Keep a record of your deposits, stakes and withdrawals to give you better control over your funds.

• Always conduct research 

The more you know, the better your chance of picking successful bets. Of course, sport can throw up many surprises, but if you carefully research into all aspects of a match or game, this can help you choose a bet that has a reasonable chance of success.

• Never chase losses 

While it can be extremely tempting to try and recoup losses, it’s important you resist. Chasing your losses almost always leads to losing even more of your money. Always have a betting plan in place, with the event or events you want to bet on and the amount you can comfortably afford to stake on them. As with our bankroll strategy above, never go beyond the figure you originally planned to spend.

What are betting systems?

There are a variety of betting systems that some bettors use in order to try and create a profit. You might come across systems like the D’Ambert System or the Martingale System, the Kelly Criterion or Arbitrage Betting.

We have to stress, these types of systems should only be considered by experienced bettors. They can be incredibly complicated to understand and we recommend that beginners especially be extremely wary. Just like in any form of betting, there is no system that can guarantee a profit.