This Blog is about sports betting strategy
-------------------------------
Sports Betting Strategy
Introduction
No doubt if you’re new to sports betting you’ll be keen to know what the best sports betting strategies are that you can adopt. Although we can give you a few more direct hints and helps in this matter, in essence the best sports betting strategy is to thoroughly research the sport you’re going to place a bet on before actually making your wager. Using a horse-racing term, it is absolutely essential that you ‘study the form’ of the participants in the sport you’ll be betting on. This is the only way to understand all of their strengths and weaknesses, in order top maximize the potential of any bet you place. Also, never forget that if the bookmaker is taking a 10% commission on your bet, you need to make a winning on 52% of all your bets - just to break even!
Have a system
As mentioned above knowing the form of the sport you’re betting on is essential, so having a system to monitor the form of the teams/players in the sports you want to bet on is essential. Presuming you want to pick the winner, you simply need to have a system for identifying them. It doesn’t matter what the sport is or what sort of wager you’re going to make, find a system to monitor the form of all the participants and stick to it. OK, if you’re a rookie at sports betting you might want to try a few sports betting systems and refine one to your own tastes, but eventually you need to stick with one system as that is how, over the years, you’ll accrue a massive knowledge on the sports you bet on - with information that will serve you well for years. You need to find out all of the pluses and minuses to do with the horses in a horse race, or the players and teams of your sports betting targets. Time was, the only real source of information on betting form was the newspapers, or following radio and TV broadcasts. Now with so many blogs devoted to sports betting and betting form, the wealth of sports betting data available to you might seem overwhelming. This is where you can devise your own system for monitoring it - utilizing spreadsheets, databases or even sports betting software to help you.
Sports betting strategies in general
One thing to never lose track of when placing a sports bet is that there’ll always be another opportunity, so you can pace yourself over quite a long period. For example, if you’re a fanatic for placing football sports bets - the season stretches out over months not just one or two games. So, don’t think you must have a big win immediately; indeed quite often lots of smaller wins over a season can be more profitable than the occasional big win. If you do want to place a large sports bet, then save it for a special occasion like the Super Bowl or the NBA play-offs etc. One of the main motivating factors behind people placing sports bets is that they believe they can see, or possibly even know, something that the bookmaker can’t - that will turn their bet into a winning one against the odds. In other words, sometimes betting on the favorite might give you a win - but oh the joy when you place a sports bet on a long shot that comes in! However, as a general rule you should always select more sporting bets that stand a good chance of paying out for you, compared to the tempting long shot bets you place.
Keeping the advantage with your sporting bets
No matter how much you might want to place a bet on a sporting event - if the odds on offer don’t sound too good, then don’t place the bet. An example here could be College Football, where the potential form of players and teams against opponents is more difficult to judge due to the big changes made to the squads year-on-year; subsequently the odds on offer might not be to generous. Also, don’t forget that you could go to a different book maker and be offered different, possibly better, sporting odds for the same bet anyway. However, if you’re particularly looking for online sports bets, then do make sure you use an online sports betting website dedicated to responsible gambling. The first thing to keep the advantage when placing a sporting bet is to remember to always and only bet on the team/player that you want to bet on, rather than being swayed by the bookmaker or some sports professionals advice. So, remember to use your own analysis of the available data, picking and choosing the games/events to bet on, and never be afraid to turn down a sports bet if the odds aren’t good.
John Banks, who owned a chain of betting shops in Scotland, and who later became one of the biggest racecourse bookmakers, described the shops as 'money factories', a description that attracted the Government's interest. In 1966 they introduced betting tax.
The following year, Done started out on his own. 'Two weeks after we opened our first shop, foot and mouth struck. I had no cash and thought we wouldn't make it through. Most bookmakers closed, but we kept going with the dogs, and the punters came. They wanted to bet.'
One of the first men to realise the potential of betting shops was Cyril Stein of Ladbrokes. He acquired shops, no matter how run down, no matter the location. He moved the licensed premises, refurbished them, and turnover soared. 'Cyril was a man before his time,' says Done. 'I've never liked Ladbrokes. They've always been too aggressive, but I looked up to them. I think they've lost it now.'
Betting tax was increased and the Government, under pressure from football pools companies, imposed a 33 per cent tax on the fixed-odds coupons issued by bookmakers. The number of High Street shops began to decline, and now there are just over 8,000.
Until the mid 1980s, punters could listen only to an audio commentary on races, provided by the Exchange Telegraph Company. Each region had a commentator with an appropriate accent. 'When the regular man had a day off, a cockney took over. We hated him.'
Not until 1986 was regulation relaxed. Television screens were permitted which, a year later, would bring live racing via satellite to the majority of shops. Bookmakers were allowed to have two amusement-with-prizes machines and to provide soft drinks and refreshments. They were permitted to open in the evenings and on Sundays, but duty at 10 per cent (nine from 1996) was driving punters to illegal bookmakers. Still operating in pubs, clubs and factories, they account for a reputed 10 per cent of betting turnover.
'The tax killed off big punters in the shops who wanted to bet the odds-on chances, the man who would have £4,000 to win £1,000. Since offshore betting began, some of my biggest customers have been coming into the shop to see the prices and watch the races, but walk outside to call Victor [Chandler, who pioneered offshore betting] to bet on their mobile phones.'
Frankie Dettori rode all seven winners at Ascot in September 1996, and the betting industry shuddered. 'I wrote out cheques for £1.5 million. Even my gardener won £10,000 off me.' Bookmakers suffered another blow when the Government introduced the National Lottery six years ago, although a strange logic denied betting shops the right to sell tickets.
'The Lottery was a blow. Not necessarily the jackpot, but the scratch cards. They took away significant business.' The advent of off-shore bookmaking, with lower deductions, was the final punch. The Government conceded.
Betting duty will be abolished, perhaps as soon as the autumn, to be replaced by a 15 per cent tax on bookmakers' profits. 'If they hadn't done anything,' says Done, 'the number of betting shops would have been halved within five years. Now, I believe there will be an increase in the number of shops. It's an exciting time. I can't wait to get to work in the mornings.'
Done closed his credit business a decade ago - too much hard work betting against a shrewd clientele that didn't always pay up - but he will be tempted to start again. 'It's a different business now, with punters using Switch and Delta cards - you don't get knocked. I'll also be looking at starting a fixed-odds coupon for football.'
He should do well. Over the years Done's policy of giving more concessions than his rivals has built up a loyal clientele. A Manchester United devotee for more than half a century, Done pays out early those who have backed the Old Trafford team to win the Premier League when they are clear at the top. In 1998 Arsenal finished the season strongly to overtake United for the Championship, a late run that famously cost Done half a million.
The government will study the report of the Gambling Review Body, due in July, before contemplating further changes to betting-shop legislation. The Tote want to install their terminals in pubs and clubs, but the betting industry has one of the most efficient lobbies in Parliament.
John Brown is chairman of William Hill. Apart from a break of eight months when Grand Met took over the company, he has worked for Hills since 1959. The late William Hill was one of the best-known rails bookmakers of the past century, whose credit-betting company boasted 400,000 clients. Initially sceptical, Hill began to buy betting shops in 1966 and now the company he founded owns 1,500.
Brown's father ran a newsagent's shop in the East End of London, and took bets on commission for a local bookmaker. The chairman of Hills, who has bet since he could write a slip, believes that the abolition of betting duty will wipe out illegal bookmakers instantly, boosting turnover.
'One of the biggest changes in my time has been the decline in greyhound betting. In the old days, the dogs represented a third of turnover on Saturdays. You would go to work on a Monday and have hundreds of bets to settle from Saturday night's results. Now it's only a couple of dozen. The Greyhound Express closed, and then the tracks decided that results could not be made available race by race at night to outside agencies. That killed it.'
Brown, too, is now optimistic about the future. 'I think the betting shop will become a mini Las Vegas. Horse racing will flourish, and dog racing. Betting on football will continue to grow and I think we will see a new generation of slot machines in which the result is not determined within the machine.
'If we are paying the Government 15 per cent of profits, we will be able to put in machines that return 95 per cent of stakes to punters.' Numbers games, similar to the Lottery, have proved popular in the last few years. 'We would like the ability to bet on the Lottery, even if we can't sell the tickets.
'The number of shops should increase, but I don't think they will become significantly bigger. You will want one on every street corner. It is still the case that 80 per cent of our customers spend less than 10 minutes in the shop. The British public enjoys betting on horse racing and I think the whole business, horses, dogs, everything, will prosper. In one sense, the high deductions of recent years have protected us. They froze out the skilled punter. The big hitters, the really shrewd punters, will come back, and we are going to have to be proper bookmakers again.'
Such men were scarce in my youth. I might have put on weight in the sixth form but, strangely, when betting became convenient, every ounce I gained seemed to be matched by the corresponding loss of a pound from my pocket.
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
---
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.