The most popular sport in the world, you can be sure that wherever you turn you’ll come across someone willing to offer their football betting tips. You’ll come across people who are adamant that they know just which team is going to win every week and they’ll come across as though they’re almost bordering on being psychic! The sad truth is that not many of these people prove to be overly reliable.
Of course, there are plenty of football pundits appearing on TV too. These are all happy to share their insights and give their match predictions. The reality is that this type of information is somewhat saturated and doesn’t bring any real benefits when it comes to placing your own football bets.
If you want to have the edge when it comes to gambling on football, there’s no quick fix. Listening to the same advice that everyone is listening to will leave you getting exactly the same results that they do. As tips go, the best action you can take is to learn. You must learn how to interpret data and how to read any details that are provided.
Not sure where to go to learn any of this? Well, the good news is that is exactly what we’re going to cover here. You’re going to find all of the football betting tips that you’ll ever need, leaving you head and shoulders above other punters.
A look at the markets
Before you can get to grips with, and fully understand, betting tips, there’s a need to understand the markets that you can bet on. Yes, this may be basic but it seems a good idea to start at the very beginning. What we’re going to be looking at in this section are the main football markets and why you’d want to bet on any particular one. Ready? Let’s get started!
Match result
This is sometimes referred to as win-draw-win and it has to be the most popular, and self-explanatory, football betting market. The betting options that you have with this market are for one of the teams to win within 90 minutes, plus any stoppage time, or you can wager on a draw. That gives you three options to choose from.
While this market is easy to understand, it’s also one where plenty of money is lost by punters. That’s because people don’t tend to give a great deal of thought as to where they’re placing their bets and they tend to bet on a team that they support or have some other affinity with. As you read through this guide to football betting tips, you’ll realise that this is something that you should never do: you need to remove any emotion from gambling if you’re going to be successful.
Double chance
This is a betting market that comes with odds that are far lower than betting on the match result. It gives you the opportunity to bet on two outcomes of a match rather than just one. The options that this presents you with are:
- Home team to win or a draw
- Away team to win or draw
- A straight bet on either team to win
Obviously, this betting market is much easier to win on than the first one that we looked at, but that doesn’t make it the right one to bet on. Football betting tips include what to avoid as well as what to bet on and this is a market that may be worth giving a wide berth due to the low odds and large bookmaker margins
Over/under 2.5 goals
This betting market allows you to place a wager on whether a match will result in over 2.5 goals ( you’d need 3 or more to win the bet) or whether there will be fewer goals than that (0,1 or 2). You’ll typically find that the odds for this market range from 1/5 up to around 6/4. This can be a great market to bet on when you know that you’ve got a high-scoring team facing one that is defensively weak.
There are options other than 2.5 goals to bet on. Pre-match, you’ll find that you can opt for over/under 0.5, 1.5, 3.5 and 4.5 goals. That being said, betting on 2.5 goals is the most popular option. We’d suggest that this is what you should stick to yourself too.
Correct score
One of the biggest football betting tips that you should take on board is to steer clear of this market. Why? Well, it’s the hardest football betting market to get right and win. If you look at what some bookmakers offer in this market, it only goes to highlight that it’s a tough one to win. The likes of SkyBet will payout £250,000 for anyone that can predict 6 correct scores and there have only ever been a handful of winners.
If you’re adamant that this is a market that you want to bet on, despite the downsides, then these football betting tips may help: statistics show that more than 40% of matches finish either 1-1, 0-0 or they see the home team being victorious with scores of 1-0 or 2-1.
Handicap betting
Handicap betting has really taken off as late and that’s down to the impact of the Asian gambling market. The inclusion of a handicap is all about levelling the playing field when one team may be regarded as significantly better than the other.
Usually, the strongiest team with have a -1.5 handicap while the weak team will have a handicap of +1.5. This means that, if you’re betting on a team with a -1.5 handicap, you need them to win by 2 or more goals.
Half-time/full-time
This football betting market is different to wagering on a team winning, drawing or losing both halves. Instead, what you’re betting on is for a team to be either winning, drawing or losing at half-time and for them to be winning, drawing or losing at full-time.
Other markets
When looking at football betting tips, the number of markets that you can bet on is truly staggering. There are hundreds of them to get involved with and, with the rising popularity of in-play betting, there are more markets than ever before.
Some of the other popular markets, that we don’t have the space to cover, include
- First team to score
- First player to score
- Scorecasts
Accumulators
This is where there are multiple selections made from various markets. The odds get multiplied by each other and this is why they can lead to huge payouts. However, as football betting tips go, we’d advise giving these a miss as winning comes down to being extremely lucky more than anything else.
Ensuring value
When it comes to football betting tips, it goes beyond knowing the markets or even knowing which teams to bet on. To get the most out of football betting tips there is a need to ensure that you’re getting the very best value from each and every wager that you place. So, what exactly does this mean?
Well, you may well have your favourite bookmaker. You may like how their app or website work and you may be a fan of the bonuses< that are offered. However, this doesn’t mean that this particular bookie gives the best value. There’s a good chance that, if you look around, you’ll find better prices and odds elsewhere.
Yes, it can be time-consuming checking each bookie before placing each bet, but it’s certainly worth it. You may find one bookmaker is better at one point whereas for another bet you’ll find more value by wagering at an exchange.
It’s important to realise that value doesn’t translate into winning every time. You can find a bet that represents great value and go on to lose but, over time, you should still end up pulling in a profit. When you are doing things the right way, and following football betting tips, it’s important not to give up when you seem to hit a losing streak. By persevering with the right way of doing things you will end up in a stronger position in the long term.
Football betting tips and managing your bankroll
Before you start to follow football betting tips and placing wagers, it’s vital that you understand how to manage your bankroll. If you don’t then you’ll find that you won’t be gambling for long as you burn through your cash.
Your bankroll is the money that you have dedicated to betting on football. When setting your bankroll in the first place, the golden rule is that you should never bet more than you can afford to lose.
When looking at placing a bet, based on any football betting tips that you may have received, you should only be wagering a small percentage of your overall bankroll. You need to remember that there is no such thing as a ‘sure thing’ and getting carried away can wipe you out in record time. The two big habits that you need to avoid are:
- 1. Betting too much on a single event
- 2. Chasing you losses
Even when you’ve found a betting opportunity that offers great value with a potentially impressive return, you need to take action to protect your bankroll. Growing your bankroll slowly will mean that you’re more profitable in the long run. The reality is that losing streaks happen and when you hit one, you need to make sure that your bankroll is healthy enough to see you through.
Tapping into statistics
This is the area where football betting tips can go terribly wrong. By listening to the wrong people and by following the wrong advice, statistics can be misinterpreted and lead to some extremely poor decisions being made. You need to be sure that you’re getting your information from reliable sources. When you’re happy this is the case, you can then start to study the following.
Pre-match analysis
Part of looking at football betting tips involves ensuring that you are getting value. This value can only be found by carrying out research and analysis. If you carry out research into how a team has been performing, and who they’re about to face, you can start to make educated judgements when it comes to the possible outcome.
You need to be sure that your decisions are based on the statistics as they are and not how you’d like them to be. Any football betting tips that allow emotion to creep in tend to be worthless as they ignore the data that’s available. The data will allow you to see:
- The team’s current form
- Statistics relating to defence and attack
- Injuries
- Suspensions
- The need to win
Looking at current form
Football betting tips can’t be given just based on whether a team has won its last few games. Beyond this, there needs to be consideration given which teams they’ve been playing. Have they been battling it out with title contenders or have they been playing teams that are languishing at the bottom of the table?
As well as looking at this, you also need to look out for any surprise results. If they’ve just been defeated by a team that they should have easily beaten, why? What was different during that game? Is that thing still relevant now?
Attack and defense statistics
Past wins do, of course, matter when looking at football betting tips and what’s likely to happen in the next game. However, wins alone are not the be-all and end-all. It could be that those last few wins have been a little bit lucky. It could be that they’ve had next to no possession and only scored 1 goal but somehow they managed to cling on for a win.
For football betting tips to matter, they need to be based on how the match played out and not just on the end result.
Beyond the stats
Yes, statistics are a vital part of football betting tips as you can learn a great deal from recent past performances. However, there are other factors that should be considered that could have a major impact on the outcome of a match. Just some of these factors include:
Injuries
Are any key players out with injuries right now? When are they likely to return? How have they coped with the player?
Fitness
Have any players been struggling with their fitness levels?
Suspensions
Are any players ruled out because they’ve been suspended?
League-specific football betting tips
As football betting tips go, this one is pretty major. You need to realise that you can’t bet on every tournament or in every league. When looking across the globe, there are a host of major leagues and trying to bet on every single one would take some extensive research.
The best course of action is to dedicate your time to one particular league. You can provide football betting tips of your own when you’ve buckled down and become a true expert on one league or even a tournament.
If you look at teams in England, Spain, Italy and Germany, these have top divisions where there is plenty of international attention. This may mean that you could live in one country but have sound knowledge of a league elsewhere.
Given the coverage that is given, many people find themselves turning to the English Premier League (EPL) to place their wagers. That being said, there is nothing wrong with betting on lower leagues if that is where you have an interest.
EPL football betting tips
The EPL is the most popular football league in the entire world. With masses of media coverage given to everything that takes place on, and off, the pitch, there’s a host of information to tap into that can assist you to place a wager.
There are many websites that you can visit to drill down into statistics and to formulate your betting plan. Of course, we provide a ton of stats and information to assist you with your picks, but another great source can be found by looking at the EPL website itself.
The big watch out when it comes to betting on the EPL is the issue with managers! The clubs can be brutal and a change in manager can have a huge impact and render previous stats worthless.
Why you should choose the EPL over cup matches
If you’ve decided to wager on the English game, then you may be tempted to wager on the likes of the FA Cup or the League Cup. There’s no harm in doing this for a bit of fun, but you’ll find that you can’t rely on the stats in the same way as you can when looking at the EPL.
The reality is that cup games are a distraction for the top clubs. They won’t always field their best teams and so it’s difficult to know how any match will end. With the EPL, you can be sure that clubs are always giving their all and so the data and statistics are worth delving into.
Lower league football betting tips
The reality is that the focus in England is primarily on the EPL. This means that lower leagues often get overlooked and teams tend to become followed only by local fans. As someone on the outside, it can be difficult to get the data and stats that you need. Let’s take a look at how this can be put right and how you can benefit by betting on lower leagues.
Getting an insight
Live broadcasts of lower-league games aren’t common. That’s because the majority of the focus goes on the likes of the EPL, Bundesliga and La Liga. That makes it hard to watch lower-league matches and get a full insight into how a team is performing. The way around this is to watch the highlights but also read every bit of information that you can find. There will be journalists' input as well as fan blogs and the like. Read and take in all that you can.
Home advantage?
When it comes to lower leagues, home and away stats vary hugely. Players aren’t always full-time pros and this can show in their performances. A lack of experience can lead to players feeling intimidated in front of a sizeable away crowd so looking at the age and experience of the team can tell you a lot. You need to decide if a team will only ever perform at home or if it has enough about it to perform away too.
Check injuries
Lower league clubs often rely on one star player. This means that just one injury could completely change the outcome of a match as the team is left without its top performer. If you know that key players are injured this should have an impact on your betting decision.
Pitch conditions
The lower the league the worse the condition of the pitch will be. Poor pitches tend to lead to the long game being played and this leads to higher-scoring games when compared to the top leagues.
The need to specialize
If you want to be a successful better then you need to accept that you can’t possibly bet on every league or even on every market. You need to find your niche so that you become the expert and understand the statistics inside out.
Go out and pick a league. Pick a league and then study it so that you become the ultimate authority and know all that there is to know about it. Of course, no one will win their bets 100% of the time but by knuckling down and learning as much as you possibly can, you can get to a position where your football betting becomes more profitable.
