Football Betting Tips for Experienced Bettors

The world of football betting is exciting and surprisingly fast-paced. A game can take any number of directions over the course of 90 minutes, and this can often lead even the most experienced of punters guessing what the outcome will be.

However, even if you are an experienced bettor, there are a few tips of the trade that you should be following in order to increase your odds of success when betting on a game like football.

While the principles of betting are pretty straightforward, there are a number of more complicated betting options available to bettors these days that can take some time to really master and understand.

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Parlay or Accumulator Betting

Over the course of any given game, the average bettor is likely to have a few bets going rather than just one. The idea of this is that you increase your odds of success by having a few horses in the race, so to speak, rather than just one. Gambling is essentially a probabilities game and this means that the more bets you place, the higher your odds of winning are.

Now, accumulator or parlay betting is basically when you set a number of bets in play, and then group them together to form one much larger bet. This acts as a kind of multiplier and helps to increase your profits if you win.

While that might sound simple enough in principle, the trick to winning any accumulator style bet is that you have to win all of your bets in order to win the accumulator - miss just one and you lose the whole bet. One trick that some of the pros tend to do is open two accumulator bets with different bets on both teams. In the one that you think is your favourite, you can increase the amount spent on your bets and the accumulator slightly.

For the second bet, you basically just decrease the amount to at least half or even a third of what you spend on your favourite. This way, you essentially bet against the odds and help increase your chances of winning something - regardless of the outcome of the game. Just note that while this tactic is a little safer, it is a little more costly as you will essentially lose one bet. So best pay attention to your budget here and if you lose too many in a row, be sure to know when to stop, as the larger amount will still definitely leave a hole in your pocket in a short space of time.

A great alternative to placing two accumulators is to look for a sportsbook that offers a free bet if your bet loses by just one leg. That way you’ll have somewhat of a safety net if you’re let down by one losing team. According to safebettingsites.com, there are also bookmakers that will give you a bonus on winning accumulator bets or even a free bet if a game you bet on ends up a 0-0 draw. So, it’s always worth shopping around and picking the best site with promotions and guarantees like this before placing your football bets.

Shots on Target

This is often an undervalued football betting market when considered by the average bettor, but it can be hugely profitable if you get it right. As most advanced betters will already know, the aim of betting on shots on target is to guess the amount of shots on target a specific player or team is going to make during a game.

You can also bet on an amount or above it, or below it. This gives a somewhat wider window of chance with which to make a winning bet. And, because you have so many players to choose from in a game, it makes a pretty decent bet to include in an accumulator because the final outcome of the match is irrelevant - just whether you managed to garner the statistics about the players accurately.

The other nice aspect of shots on target bets is that you can access all this information about players online and do a little research into what their average numbers or percentages are in a game. This gives you a much better indication about how they’re likely to perform in any given match, and can help to guarantee a few more winnings. Even if you don’t win the accumulator, by winning a few of these in a game, you can at least make up for your losses quite significantly.

First Scorers

This is one of the more common bets placed on football games and takes a little more finesse, even though it seems simple in principle. Now, these types of bets add a layer of safety by allowing you to not only bet on which player will score first in the game, but also which team will win or lose - or whether the game will be a draw.

The win, lose or draw bet is appealing because it basically gives you a 33.3% chance of winning or 1/3 odds - which are pretty good odds when you consider it compared to others out there. However, guessing which player will score first is a little tricky and it’s definitely important to do some research when deciding who is most likely to score first on either side. The idea is to find out who the top goalscorer is for the team as well as comparing odds on different sites, as this will give you a good indication of what a strong bet might be.

Manage Your Budget

While more experienced punters might already know this, it’s always important to be reminded of your budget. Responsible gambling makes the whole process a lot more fun as you never wind up harming your finances on the betting market, and this allows you to enjoy more bets with less risk.

Set out a budget for what you can spend on a game, or in a week, and even a month and stick to it. If you’ve ever wanted to level up your betting, then setting a budget is the first thing you should do as it’s crucial to making the difference between an emotional amateur simply betting for the fun of it, and a calculating bettor who takes the game and the odds very seriously.