The Best Football Betting Strategies 2020 | BettingOnline
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Football Betting Strategies

Best bookmaker for Football Betting

Below you will find a list of betting sites that are great for betting on football. Further down you will find a mix of the most popular football betting strategies.

Best Bookies for Betting on Football

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Best Football Bets: Betting for Money or Fun

There are two different types of football bettors – possibly more, but in general two main types. There are those who bet for fun and passion, and those who make a wager to make a profit. The latter type are the bettors using football betting strategies.
The biggest difference between the two types is ‘rationalisation’. With the World Cup upon us, more people will be betting than ever. Success won’t just depend on getting the best Champions League odds, but also employing the best strategies.

Punters who bet for fun and passion normally bet on their favourite team and their favourite players to score and don’t really weigh up the real chances of success. For example, a hard-line West Brom fan would never bet against their own team, even if it was playing away to Man City.

Now, you can admire their loyalty, but the chance of this bet being successful is pretty slim (although if it does come off, it could reward quite handsomely). This is a fun way to bet, for sure, but unless you support the best team on winning form, it’s unlikely to lead to constant success.

Then there are serious money-making bettors.

These are the guys who aren’t betting out of misguided loyalty. They are betting for the sole purpose of making a win. They will look at the two opposing teams objectively and research them.

They’ll look at previous head to heads, current form, injuries and players out, and then they’ll make their decision. They put the money on who they think will win, not who they want to win. Football betting for them is about making a profit and not just getting swept away on a wave loyalty.

These are the guys who make use of the best football betting strategies. Here we are looking at some of the best football betting strategies that work, used by the best bettors around.

The Over/Under 2.5 Strategy

Next to match betting, this is one of the most popular ways to make a bet on a football match. This is similar to the boxing betting strategy Over/Under. Statistically, the average number of goals scored in a match, in leagues all over the world, is 2.5.

This is where this strategy comes from. Your job here is to make an educated guess – preferably with research involved. You decide whether you believe there will be more or less than 2.5 goals scored in a match.

This strategy has a huge number of advantages and can offer some great ways to make a profit.

Obviously, it is impossible for 2.5 goals to be scored in any match, but when all matches are added together and the goal number divided equally between those matches, this is the number produced. This is perfect, as there is zero chance of it being 2.5, so it is an evens bet. It’s either under or over, there are simply no other outcomes possible.

So, if you should decide to bet Under 2.5, then ideally your game will not be one of the more exciting games, as the only outcomes allowed in order for you to win are: 0-0, 1-0, 0-1, 1-1, 2-0 or 0-2. As soon as there is any other scoreline, you’re out.

The problem with this is that you want teams not to score and are holding out for a boring game. This is why many people bet Over 2.5. Here, every goal counts and no matter who scores the goal you can get excited. Needless to say, betting on over 2.5 is just much more fun.

Betting on Over 2.5

Clearly, betting on Over 2.5 comes with advantages. Firstly, this is a strategy that you tend to get very decent odds on. Obviously, different leagues come with different odds.

If you bet on over 2.5 in La Liga, with teams such as Barcelona and Real Madrid, then your chances of winning are pretty high. These are generally high scoring games, so expect odds of around 3/10. However, if you bet on Over 2.5 in France’s Ligue 1 or Greece’s Superleague, then your odds will be as high as 3/2 as these are generally lower scoring clubs.

The best part about betting on this is the thrill of watching a game. You just want goals to be scored. You don’t care who scores them, but balls in the back of the net mean money in the pocket.

There are some disadvantages on betting on Over 2.5 though, although not many. There are the options in some bookmakers of betting on Over 1.5 or Over 0.5 and obviously these others have a higher chance of success.

Also, because it is the average score, around 50% of your bets will win and about 50% won’t. Also, you might find yourself getting highly frustrated waiting for that prized third goal… that just never quite crosses the line!

Getting it right

If you’re going to have more chance of success, then don’t just pick Over or Under from out of thin air. As in most football betting strategies, it doesn’t pay to go in blind. If you want to bet on an Over 2.5 then you want to research a team that often finishes by scoring 3 or more goals.

This is where consistency is key.

It is better to take a chance on teams that regularly score around 3, than teams that vary between scoring 6 and 0, depending on the form; these should be avoided. Any goal after 3 is completely irrelevant, so forget about that – getting 3 more often is much better.

It’s so easy these days to check out the form of a team and the scoring history, so do it. The better informed you are, the more chance of success in this popular football betting strategy.

Betting Against the Favourite Team

This is the kind of strategy that initially you might look at think is just plain silly. On the surface, it sounds like it. Why would want to put your money on a team that is nowhere near as good as the opposition? It would seem crazy to put your money on League 2’s Newport County if they were playing a top Premier League club like Tottenham. However, it’s not as ridiculous as it may first appear.

This is one of the football betting strategies where you need to be rational when making your decision. It needs to be done with thought and care. To successfully employ this strategy, you need to look up the favourite club’s other matches that are close by. If the favourite team has other matches against other top teams that week, which have more of an impact – either in the country’s league or in a European cup, then there’s a good chance that it will rest its best players when playing lower teams, to make sure they avoid injuries and have fresh legs when needed. This is when the chances for the underdog are at its highest. A ‘Mickey Mouse’ cup is much more important to a lower league team.

Everyone Loves an Underdog

So, if you manage to find a game where you believe that the favourite team won’t be putting out it’s A team, then it’s not a bad idea to place a decent bet on the underdog to win. This is where it can get a little more interesting… and even more profitable possibly. Before the match has begun, the odds on the underdogs winning would be pretty high, but as the game starts, the players realise that they stand a chance and push for a win, and then the odds of them winning will start falling.

This is where you could then lay the bet back. The chances are that the favourites won’t want the underdog to win, so they might put on a better player to hold out for a draw at least, so in the first part of the game, if it looks unlikely that the underdogs will manage a win, then laying it back would increase your chances as there will be better odds by then. This is great for any matches where the game is viewed as unimportant by the big team and use it as an opportunity to give its B team a run-around.

Betting on a Draw

Football betting strategies, unlike tennis betting strategies, can focus on draws. Homework needs to be done on this system for sure. This is one of the football betting strategies where you need to look out for patterns. That pattern needs to be the regularity in which a team finishes a game on a draw. For this strategy, you need to focus all your attention on a particular team. If you notice that there’s a team that you’ve seen many times and most of the results are a draw, then this would be a good team to pick. You could also do research into the historical results of teams, in fact, the more research, the better. Generally, there are some leagues that are better than others for this strategy. Avoid La Liga like the plague and opt for leagues like French Ligue 1 or the German Bundesliga, both have fewer goals and more draws in comparison to others.

Pick that one team and then make sure you follow it throughout the season and be sure that you always bet on it for a draw. If you should choose Marseille, for example, then make a £10 bet on a draw. If the bet is lost, then raise the stake by 50% the next game – so bet £15 on a draw. It won’t be long before you’ll come up trumps, and because you have progressed your bet, then not only will you minimise your losses, but hopefully, by the end of the season, you’ll have a pretty decent profit.

As you can imagine, betting on a draw is a little tedious. Betting on games that are low scoring and draws is not the most exciting past-time. However, if it’s a money-making football strategy that you want, then this isn’t a bad one to try out.

The Asian Handicap Strategy

This is a great strategy to use if you want to make a bet on a game that looks as though the outcome is obvious and its odds reflect that. If Man City plays Southampton at home, the chance of Southampton winning is minimal. So, you could either put your money on Man City, which is rather pointless, as the odds will be so negligible that you’ll probably just about get your wager back, or you could bet on Southampton that may have high odds, but the chance of winning is pretty remote. This is where Asian Handicap Betting Strategy comes into play.

The best online bookmakers offer Asian Handicap odds and this makes the game much more exciting to bet on. Simply put, it will put a goal handicap on the teams. So, where Man City v Southampton is a pointless bet, if a handicap of -2.5 is placed on Man City, it becomes much more interesting. Then, if you place a bet on Man City to win the match, it is effectively starting the game with -2.5 goals, so in order to beat Southampton it would need to win by 3 clear goals. Conversely, if you put your money on Southampton, as long as Man City don’t beat them by 3 clear goals, Southampton wins with this strategy. This makes it much more even and because of this you’ll get better odds for Man City and more chance of a win for Southampton.

So, what if the handicap is -2 and Man City win by 2 goals? Then, according to the handicap, it’s considered a draw. Another benefit of this strategy is that if the outcome is declared a draw, the bookmaker will simply return your stake, making it a completely even bet.

A Double Handicap

There are variations to this strategy which can also change the odds. Sometimes a team will have two different handicaps next to its name i.e. Man City -2.0&-2.5. This simply means that the bookmaker will split your bet into two for the two different handicaps. Therefore, if Man City wins by 2 goals, then you’ll only get half your stake returned (the half that went on the -2.0 handicap). However, if Man City wins by 3 goals then you’ll win on your whole wager.

However, this strategy isn’t just good for games that have reasonably obvious outcomes. You can also use this betting system to bet on closer teams. So, if Man City was playing Man Utd. and both are in good form, then they would probably both have 0 handicaps, so you are simply betting on a straight win. However, the reason you would use this over a straight match bet is that if the teams draw, you will get your stake back, which wouldn’t happen if you bet on Man City for a win with a straight match bet. This makes your chance of losing your stake less likely.

Free Football Predictions

Scorecast / Wincast Strategy

So, these are football betting strategies in which you can make some good money.  As such, they are becoming more popular in the world of online sportsbetting. But what exactly are they and how do you go about using them properly?

The Wincast

Well, firstly there’s a wincast bet.  This is similar to a double betting strategy. With this, you make bets on 2 different events during one match; you may predict the overall winner of the game alongside the person who you believe will score a goal in the match. Now, your bet will only win if both of your predictions come true.

The Scorecast

The scorecast event is very similar but takes the concept a little further. This bet is also like a double bet, but you have to know a little more; not only do you have to guess who will win and a goal scorer, but you have to accurately predict the actual score of the match also.

So, let’s look at an example of this. Imagine Liverpool is playing Everton. You might make a wincast bet that Liverpool will beat Everton and that Firmino will score once in the match. Now, if both of these come to pass – Liverpool takes the 3 points and Firmino scores, then you win; however, if Liverpool loses or draws, or if Firmino remains goalless, then you don’t win.

Should you place a scorecast bet on this, then you might predict that Liverpool will beat Everton 3-1 and that Firmino will score. In order to win this bet, it’s not enough for Liverpool to get a win with Firmino scoring. To win your bet, Liverpool needs to win 3-1 and Firmino needs to score in the game.

As you can imagine, this is more than just an ordinary bet. As a result, the odds on these bets are higher than many other types of bets. If you decide that you want to play the odds in order to get that bigger payout then research, as always, is the key to success. You need to look at the recent history of the team, look at the score lines and look at the players who seem to be on a good scoring streak, as they tend to be on better form. This is one of the football betting strategies reserved for the brave and the knowledgeable.

If you take the time to do your studies and if you are brave enough to take the bet, then this strategy could reward you well. This is a high risk, high paying football betting strategy. The scorecast is definitely not for a bettor simply reliant on a lucky guess.

Betting on Accumulators & Cashout

All of the above strategies are based on betting on singles but, as you know, sports betting sites also offer the chance to place bets on multiple matches and, sometimes, multiple outcomes of the same match (see BetBuilder). Given that betting on multiple matches reduces the probability of a bet being a winning one, bookies often give bonuses and promotions based on your accumulator betting activity.

As one would expect, with the increased risk comes a bigger reward, too. In fact, placing an accumulator bet gives user a chance to win bigger by staking lower amounts. For example, combining 3 outcomes at odds of Evens would give you a return on investment equal to 8 times your stake if the bet is won.

Some of the most experienced acca (shortened version of the word “accumulator”) punters are the most frequent users of the so-called “cashout” function which allows them to close the bet in advance by taking a smaller return than the one they would get by waiting the natural settlement of the bet.

What’s the advantage of doing so? Well, let’s assume you placed that bet with 3 selections at odds of Evens each and you won the first one already while the 2nd and 3rd match are being played. Let’s also assume the other 2 pending selections are in a winning position, it is likely the bookie would be offering you the chance of cashing the bet out for a return of roughly 5 times your stake. What would you do at this stage? Cashing out would allow you to get a positive return on your initial investment. On the other hand waiting for the bet to be settled may give you a bigger return but also a loss should one of the 2 selections turn out to be a losing one.

When placing accumulator bets you should then try to place them on matches that are being played at different times of the day or even different days. That would give you a chance to follow your bet and its potential return and decide whether it’s worth taking a lower (but guaranteed) return or go all-in and wait for the whole bet to be naturally settled.

If you would like to find out more about accumulator betting, please check out our accumulator guide for beginners and our daily high odds accumulator tips.

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