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Sports Betting |
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Sports betting
means betting on sports other than horse and dog racing. It is a term
interpreted loosely now and so anything is up for grabs. The wide ranging
possibilities make this an increasingly attractive thing for the Good Gambler
to investigate. When there is so much to understand and know, the person
offering a bet can often be disadvantaged by a punter who has done the hard
work necessary to fully understand the sport. Be warned however, it goes
without saying that money inducement for participants to change the outcome of
the sporting event can only become more widespread with time.
With so
many sports and bookmakers it pays to look around for the best
online free bets to get the most value
for your money, and if you want to compare bookmakers then find our
bookmaker page. |
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| Basics |
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 For the casual gambler, sports betting has more real interest than
horse racing which can seem just a blind gamble without being privy to a lot of
turf mumbo-jumbo. Most people have a favourite sport and a view point that goes
with it. Everyone is tired of hearing it so putting your money where your
mouth is is a good alternative.
For the major sports there are four
clear ways to get on.
Bookmakers, Spread Betting, Bet Swap (on-line or private) and Tote. For most
sports the Tote, or pool
betting, is a non-starter.
The most popular choice is to bet with
Bookmakers either directly on-line or in a betting shop. The Bookmaker
prices the event according
to their understanding of the odds and punters select either an
emotional bet (i.e. betting on your favourite football team) or a
calculated bet (made because you think the bookie got his sums
wrong).
Spread betting is growing in popularity, especially with those
educated in risk undertaking. Really though, it is not difficult to get to
grips with the possibilities, but one thing must be understood. A spread
bet is a two way lay,
that means to say that when you place your bet, you are also accepting a
counter bet from the spread betting firm. In other words your potential
downside is variable and dependent on the outcome of the event.
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third alternative is to find an individual who will take your bet on. This
could be a friend, a Private Bookmaker (not completely legal) or someone found
using one of the new Bet Swap web sites (explained later). |
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| Professionalism |
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Professional Sports
Bettors rely on understanding their sport, or a single aspect of one,
better than the bookie (we'll use bookie to mean all bet outlets). The word
'understanding' means one hell of a lot in this context because the bookies
will have lots of help, resources and experience to give them a clear picture
and a way to work out the true odds of an event. However, and this is
important, a bookie must also cater for his clients and create prices
that will attract money across the board.
- e.g. Arsenal Football
Club has a lot of big money support in London and elsewhere. The sentimental
betting on their success will force low odds on them and consequently higher
odds on the opponents.
This example
highlights the possibilities of finding imbalances in the market due to the
weight of money on home teams or favourite people. The combined ability to
understand a sport really well and spot the bookies direction on market
sentiment is the key to successful sports betting.
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| Bookmakers |
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The Bookmakers job with a
sporting event, lets say the U.S. Masters (Golf), is first to calculate what
they think are the true odds of each individual player winning the event,
and/or finishing ahead of one or more of the other players (match bets and
group bets). Having done
that they consider sentiment for the key players and price up the event
accordingly.
- e.g. An out of form
Greg Norman may really be 100-1 to win the event but there'll be a lot of
punters happy to take 50-1 when they see it. The pro's won't bet him either way
and so the bookies get more money in with a lower liability.
The professional will
take advantage of the opposite of what occurred in the example. Many good
golfers have unfulfilled potential and when one starts gaining in confidence
their chances of winning dramatically improve. However, because they are
unknown they will not attract a lot of money and their odds may remain above
their true value. The pro is then taking advantage of an
overlay.
The
casual punter, or a professional, may stumble across a piece of knowledge that
the bookies do not know and thus will be able to take advantage of an overlay,
a price that is higher than the true odds. Examples of this are injuries or a
tennis player really doesn't like a particular surface or they are having
emotional problems, etc. In the financial world this would be called "Insider
Dealing" because basically they are pussies when it comes to taking a loss on
the chin. In the real world it is precisely what everybody is trying to
do.
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| Spread
Betting |
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Spread Betting comes into
its own with Sporting events as the whole spectrum of
possible performances by a team or individual can be represented in one bet.
Its all about numbers so get yourself a calculator. Its quite simple to work
out your result once the event is over but in conventional odds betting you
would be advised to use an odds calculator to evaluate each way, rule 4
deductions, bonus values and dead-heats.
- e.g. how many runs are
scored in the One Day cricket match between England and Australia.
Quote : 450-460
The example shows a
quote of the market maker, in this instance a spread betting firm.
Theoretically no runs could be achieved and thus the result would be 0. Also
over a 1000 runs could be made. They are the limits of the spectrum but the
most likely total of runs will lie somewhere in the middle and hence the quote.
This example highlights another feature of spread betting, namely the ability
to bet something will perform badly. In this case if you sell at the 450 number
you hope the total number of runs scored will be lower than that number. If it
is, you will win the difference in the numbers (450 - 415 say) multiplied by
your stake (£10 say) and thus win £350.
Spread Betting can
be applied to any aspect of the sport in question, some quite random or
apparently inconsequential. The number of bookings in the Football World Cup is
one example. You may say that people are not trying to get booked but that is
irrelevant. The point is a market has been created around this aspect of the
sport and you take a buy position (positive with upside) or a sell position
(positive with downside) if you have an opinion.
Professionals who play
the index markets must develop a way of analysing the particular market that
they think is vulnerable. It can all get very esoteric or mathematical but it
comes down to hard work or having some inside information.
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| Our section on Spread Betting
Explained |
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| Exchanges |
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Swapping your bet with
someone else is
 something that has been going on since time began. If
friends bet between each other on the result of a football match then they have
swapped wagers. If Arsenal beat Liverpool (as an example) then friend A gets
paid by friend B. If Liverpool wins then friend B gets paid by friend A. Money
doesn't usually change hands before the result is known.
There is a
breed of bet swapping promoted by 'brokering websites' which are called
'Exchanges'. The basic principle is, you think of a bet and it gets posted on
the website. Web surfers who come to the site get to view the bets on offer by
other ordinary people, including yours, and can take your bet if they like the
terms of what is on offer. The broker takes full payment from both sides as
soon as the bet is accepted and will make their money by taking a small
percentage of the money bet. See Ways to Bet for
more on Bet
Exchange.
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| Golf
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 Golf is one of the easiest of games to understand and the most
illustrative when it comes to showing the potential in sports betting. Standard
bettors and Spread bettors like the game because all the aspects of sizing up a
sporting event are involved in understanding a Golf Tournament. The attractions
are:-
- TV
coverage
- Weekly events all
through the year
- International players
attracting sentimental support
- Clear
results
- Corruption
free
- Strong trend analysis
possible
The first three
things are obvious to all. The last three make the game attractive.
- Clear Results
- Professional
associations around the world look after the job of establishing
 records and statistics which are used as the definitive results
reference
- Corruption free
- Money can be bet to
any limit free from the suspicion of cheating in the sport
- Strong trend analysis possible
- Golf players exhibit
strong trends of confidence, attitude, physical ability and course likability
which gamblers and bookies analyse in great detail
Golf also has the ability to be bet in many different ways :-
- Outright
winner
- Match bets between two
players
- Group bets between
several players - e.g. Americans, Past Winners, etc.
- Spread Betting on the
above
- Spread Betting on the
value of the scores, winning margin, Eagles, etc.
- Spread Betting on the
finishing position of a player - i.e. 76th out of 150
There is a lot to get
into for the serious professional
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| Football |
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 Football has vast support through the world and thus
when only a tiny percentage of that population bets on it then the volume
becomes large. Football betting is big and is getting bigger.
All kinds
of betting markets have grown up to stimulate interest in football due to the
fact the basic game is dull from a traditional gamblers point of view. There
are only three possible outcomes, Win, Lose or Draw and so betting on the
scores, or correct scores, was developed by bookies with their
coupons.
Now with Spread Betting bods dreaming up esoteric markets it is
possible to bet on the total of the shirt numbers that score goals and many
other apparently random events. Of course they are not random and you can be
pretty sure the firms have done some serious homework on these things. It is
also true to say that some professionals have been able to understand these
things even better. However, the number of them is so small that Bookies and
Spread Betting firms make good profits from football.
To get a favourable bet with the bookies on a
regular basis means choosing one aspect of the game that is regularly bet on,
and doing work on it. What this entails is breaking the game down into its
constituent parts and understanding them each in tern. For example, a popular
market is Corners, which may on the face of it seem random. But when
taking a closer look it clearly depends on the defending tactics and attacking
tactics of the two teams involved. Still further there are key players who have
particular habits, they may or may not be playing. Yet more things effect
changes to the likelihood of corners, like pitch condition, weather and home or
away.
In the above example if you manage to evaluate all the building
blocks that go into the corners aspect of football then you can put them
together whenever, whoever and where ever a game is played. When you see a
difference between you and the Bookie or Spread firm then its worth a bet. Its
not easy!!
Click here for our dedicated page on Football Betting |
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| Minor
Sports |
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They'll bet on
anything these days and the principle motive for Bookies and Spread Firms for
creating these markets is to get people involved with gambling who would not
ordinarily bet. There is not a lot of money to be made from the Tour de France
but if just a fraction of those newbies open accounts and start betting on
 other stuff, then its all worth the firm's time.
If you are
someone who is really knowledgeable about your sport, maybe you work for
McLaren F1, then your knowledge is going to give you a strong head start when
it comes to finding value bets. Mind you, just because you have the right side
of a bet doesn't mean you are certain to win. |
| Go ahead and have a crack at a sport
that you know about. The most important lesson to learn however, is that when
you think you have a fantastic bet because the Bookie must have got it wrong,
that is when you are most vulnerable. If that bet fails you must avoid the
temptation to 'chase' that
money with more money. You must sit back and await another day. |
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| U.S
Sports |
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Americans love their
own sports which are dominated by NFL (American football), Ice Hockey and
Basketball. Big money moves on these sports through legal "sports books" which
reside in the casinos all over the country and even more so through unofficial
outlets (private bookmakers).
The Americans live on a very restricted
diet of betting variations (outright winners with or without a points handicap)
and you will not find any of the exotic markets there. Over in the U.K. however
we can bet ourselves on these sports because many of them are televised through
SKY and even national channels.
All these sports can be analysed in just
the same way as in the example for Golf, but of course the firms have access to
some pretty good information from the States. They know what they are doing.
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