There’s a widespread perception that betting is always a “mug’s game”, and that if there was any predictable and reliable way to beat the bookies at their own game, they would have long gone out of business by now.
But does that mean you should give up all hope of making money from betting? Definitely not, as our below tips and strategies should make clear.
Develop a comprehensive knowledge of your sport
No matter what people say about the randomness of sporting results, you can maximise your chances of success by keeping yourself well-informed about your chosen sport.
Which teams are showing signs of coming into form, even if they haven’t quite strung together the results yet? Who’s on a great goal-scoring run, or has a record of upsetting the established giants? Have a certain two teams or players met recently, and what was the result?
Minimise the number of selections
Bookies tend to lose money from successful single bets rather than multiple selections. If you want to bet to make a profit, don’t be tempted into putting on a 20-fold accumulator, as that really is as close as you can get to being guaranteed to lose your money.
It seems ridiculously obvious to say that the lower your number of selections, the greater your chance of winning – and yet, it’s something so easily ignored by over-ambitious, foolhardy punters. Between £5 and £10 on one well-researched selection at a time is as safe as traditional betting gets.
Consider alternative betting models
While we would strongly advise against paying for betting advice – after all, if a certain person’s betting knowledge is guaranteed to bring amazing results, why aren’t they just keeping it to themselves? – there are still some decent sources of free advice.
One article that caught our eye, on the 1843 website, detailed how applied mathematics professor David Sumpter generated a 200% return from football betting. His “odds bias” model was based on the bookies’ tendency to give better odds for favourites than for outsiders. It meant that in the 2014-15 Premier League season, for example, “putting money on Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City against teams lower in the table would have given a small but reliable week-on-week pay-off.”
Place matched bets
If you really do want to guarantee that you will generate cash from betting, there’s only one thing to do – get into matched betting. Like the above model, this form of betting is grounded in mathematics, except that all risk is removed from the process, so that you aren’t gambling your money at all. Instead, you can expect consistent winnings over time.
It involves the use of bookies’ free bet offers to bet both for and against a particular outcome in a sporting event, thereby covering the bettor’s bases and ensuring they make money. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but dedicated matched betting sites like Profit Accumulator have sprung up to make the process easy, even for those who have little interest in or familiarity with betting.
With no fewer than 8,809 betting shops in the UK alone as of March 2016, according to the Gambling Commission – to say nothing of the burgeoning online betting market – it’s clear that betting really does remain big business. By following the above advice, you can maximise your chances of enjoying consistent and steady winnings, rather than losing your shirt.