I know that a lot of people bet as a bit of a pastime, or follow their favourite club or player. I have had a betting account for the last few years and always eventually lost whatever money I put in, but this year I decided to actually try and make some money out of it. Myself and a friend of mine have talked about it before, about how it could be done if you're disciplined enough to stop yourself taking a "flyer" on someone, but this is the first time I've actually tried it. I actually decided to do it after reading about some bloke who makes a living out of it and actually has employees researching games for him! I only bet on football from the European big leagues (England, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Holland, Scotland) because they're easy to follow with plenty of information available and as a keen football fan I generally know how the big teams are doing in those leagues anyway without having to do too much research. Out went the silly accumulators and bets on teams who were "due a win", "good value" etc. In came betting with some very narrow criteria on home teams who are way overmatched against their opponent. Sure you get rubbish odds, but so far I've made my initial £10 into £111 at the last count. 1000% profit can't be sniffed at. I'm not looking to make a living out of it or anything, but to take £50 out of my account every so often will make me feel a whole lot better than putting money into it! Anyone else trying this and if so, how are you getting on?
haven't bet on any matches this season. Last season I would do a $5 parlay every weekend. i hit a few of them and made about $40 on the season, i was just doing it last year for fun, and to have some mroe beer money
If you're purely trying to make money from betting, it may be better to concentrate on some of the lower leagues. The trouble with the leagues you mention is that with so much information available, you will be lucky to find value in any bookmaker's prices - though you seem to be doing well this year. If you concentrate on lower leagues in England (Conference and its feeders) you'll find that team news has an effect on the value in bookmaker's prices. The same goes for the SFL divs 2 & 3. Michaec, I've sent you a pm.
I've done much better this season by cutting down on the number of games I bet. I usually bet only one game per weekend, or none. Also, I've restrained myself from trying to parlay 3 or 4, or more results, looking for the jackpot. My original stake from April has increased a little over 50%. Money management has hurt my monetary results. Invariably I lose when I increase my bets. So, now I'm keeping my wagers flat. A problem with the major leagues is that you can never have as much information as the bookies. I get the feeling that if Frank Lampard stubs his stoe in the bath tub, every major oddsmaker knows about it in 15 minutes. MLS is different. They don't devote the resources to it because the total amount wagered each week is incredibly small. There is a better chance that the MLS fan may have information that the European oddsmakers don't have.
To make money out of betting you would have to be better at assessing probabilities than the bookies, and by some decent margin as their cut is around 8-10 percent. So you would have to be say 15% percent better at that than them. And they do that for living. Having knowledge on football is irrelevant, except if it’s something crucial that the bookies don’t know. Usually, whatever you know the bookies know it even better, and express it in their odds. The exception is if it’s a low profile league/match and you might know someone from your home town team and have some inside info. This season the favorites in the major leagues have outdone themselves. Barca, Chelsea, Bayern ,Juve, Lyon (if that’s who you’re betting on ) are on track to set points records in their leagues. It seems you decided to bet on favorites in a season which has seen them do even better than expected.
Hey all, would like some advice... trying to read up on any methods .. my betting is very up and down .. serie A and EPL and MLS .. believe it or not I do ok with MLs ... where and what can I do
Here’s my recipe for making money out of betting. Pick a completely random match. Your bookies will probably have some sort of special every day, a game which has better odds than others. If not then just pick some game which doesn’t have a clear favorite. Bet a small amount on say the outcome with the “middle “ probability . If you miss, do the same next day but ( and here comes the tricky part) increase your bet so that the winning makes up for the loss and gives you some profit as well. If you miss again, raise the stakes again. Before you start with this you have to know hw much money you’re willing to sacrifice for a chance to win something.
Hi Aloisius, Your system is known as 'stop at a winner' or as a variation of the Martingale system. If you pick a completely random match without a clear favourite and bet on the middle of the three prices you will probably end up (if I understand you correctly) backing one of the teams at around 2.75 Let's say your original intention is to return a profit of 5% on your original bank. At the start, the figures will be: Bank 100 pts Win target 5 pts Required stake 2.86 points If that bet loses and you still target 5% profit from your original bank, the figures will be: Bank 97.14 Target 7.86 Stake 4.49 After two losses: 92.65 12.35 7.06 After three: 85.60 19.40 11.09 After four: 74.51 30.49 17.42 After five: 57.09 47.91 37.38 After six: 29.71 75.29 43.02 So that after six losses your required stake will be larger than your remaining bank. Even the shrewdest punter can expect a run of six losses from time to time. Clearly the shorter the odds you select the quicker your bank will be exhausted - do the same calculation assuming odds of 2.0 for each bet and it will happen after just four losing bets.
Yeah I realize the danger of it. If I had my calculator with me I’d be able to tell you exactly what the probability of missing 6 times in a row with the 2.75 odds. The chances would be relatively small. If I don’t get 6 misses in my first attempt I would have enough after that cycle to go for 7 bets in the next cycle . After completing say 2 or3 successful cycles I could withdraw the winnings to have a reserve to start again if I ran into 6 or seven consecutive losses. It’s a fun game to play.
The trouble with the Martingale is that eventually you run into a long enough streak to clean you out. I had a bad experience with it in Las Vegas a number of years ago.
Agree about bettingadvice. For general stuff about betting strategies: http://punterslounge.com/ For stats, lots of sites available, but I use http://www.h2hstats.com/index.php For odds comparisons, look at http://betbrain.com/ Otherwise, if you are going to concentrate on the less high-profile leagues, look at a site based in whichever country you are thinking of covering. For games in the Conference and below in England, I look at http://www.nonleaguedaily.com/ which is useful for discovering which teams have lost players/coaches and may hence be worth opposing the following weekend.
William Hill is ok, Tom. It's one of the big three bookmakers in the UK - the others being Ladbrokes and Corals. Generally I'd use them for placing bets in their shops rather than on the internet. Sometimes their odds aren't so generous, and they don't cover games below the Conference in England, but they will cover games below the top division in European leagues outside England and Scotland. Some bookies will limit your stakes if you get too successful, I'm not saying Hills don't do it though they don't do it as much as some of the internet bookies.
Have a look at www.bettingadvice.com - already recommended by Eric - and you'll see a bookmakers evaluation site. As far as I am aware Hills does accept custom from the US, but I only use their high street shops and I live in the UK so I couldn't be sure. My favourite bookmaker is bet365, for the breadth of games they offer - though sometimes their limits are laughably low and it the last few months other bookies have begun to offer prices on the same games. Eric, canbet's website used to be aalmost unfathomable - has it improved recently?
Can try gamebookers and pinnaclesports. They offer a wide variety of leagues and other sports as well and various betting options.
A long time member/moderator/tipster there, once was a great forum/site, and still has it's advantages, but with 15000+ people coming in it's hard to mantain quality and chase away spammers and one-liners - "Juve will win". But still there are quite a lot useful members posting and you can find good bets on a daily basis. As far as my punting goes, I'm a semi pro bettor, I have my money management and staking system (1-10 unit definitions, in which units don't represent probability of a certain bet going through but OVERALL VALUE (personal odds calculation/perception + probability). 10/10 units equals 5% of my overall bank and therefore it prevents me from going bankrupt even in cases of severe losing streaks, which weren't noted so far (4 years of betting on this level). I mostly wager on NBA, MLB and european football, but have made most of my profits on US sports.