One of the areas of sports betting that has benefited the most from the advancements in technology is live or in-play betting.
Live betting and mobile betting have completely transformed the betting industry, allowing bettors to place wagers while on the go, even if the game has already started.
Because of this, more and more players are starting to venture into live betting waters, and if you are debating the same, you are at the right place. In this article, we talk about the advantages of live betting.
Getting Better Insights
Getting a better feeling for the game is one of the main advantages of live betting. If you place pre-match bets, you rely on statistics, theoretical player form, and publicly available information. While you can find many interesting facts on sites like sportsfanbetting.com, seeing the game in action is still a different experience. However, if you decide to place a live bet, you can use all of the factors you consider before the match, along with your view on how the game looks, and make even more accurate predictions.
For example, if all of the information you gathered before the match is telling you that the host is a bigger favourite than the odds suggest, but you are having second thoughts, you can wait to see how things will develop during the match and then place a bet.
Most bettors that are new to in-play betting assume that the bookmakers immediately adjust the odds based on the developments on the field. However, this is not always the case, there is plenty of situations where the odds don’t accurately portray the situation in the match, and you can take advantage of this.
Getting Better Odds
If you place pre-match bets and then follow your bets in the in-play section, you will notice that almost always, at some point in the match, the odds for your selection will be greater than they are on your ticket.
This is especially true for sports that are time dependent such as football, basketball, American football, etc.
Although we believe that when we place a bet on the favourite, he will take control of the games from the start, this is rarely the case. Sports are too dynamic and unpredictable to be one-sided throughout the match.
If you understand the game plan and strengths and weaknesses of the teams you are betting on, there is no denying that you can make better decisions with live than pre-match bets. Of course, you might not be offered crazy prop bets to choose from, but all of the main markets are also usually available in live betting.
Faster Settlement Of Bets
Depending on the sport and the league you are betting on, some bookmakers can take hours and even days to settle pre-match bets. This is not the case with live bets, as most bookmakers will settle these kinds of bets immediately.
For example, if you bet on the next goal market, and a goal is scored, the betting platform will settle your bet immediately, so if you have a winner, you will have the money from your bet available right away and place further bets.
This can be a deciding factor for bettors with limited bankrolls and who don’t want to deposit more money into their account just because the bookmaker is taking too long to settle their winning pre-match bets.
Taking Advantage Of Specific Situations
So firstly, we need to say that to take advantage of specific situations with live betting, you will need to watch the game, just following the live updates will not be enough. Luckily there are plenty of sports streaming giants like ESPN, where you can track almost any game.
What we mean by specific situations is that sometimes in sports, during matches, things that no one expects can happen. Injuries, fouling out, minute restrictions, certain weather changes, etc. can drastically change the conditions.
Although bookmakers have sophisticated algorithms that adjust the odds during live play, not even these algorithms can promptly account for some of these situations.
For example, if you are watching a football match, and you see that the pitch is soaked with water giving the players a hard time creating changes and organising play, you can take advantage of this by betting the under on the goal market.
Or if you are watching a basketball match, and one of the main players is in foul trouble, you can bet against that team, or you can bet the under on the game if he is a big scorer.
These situations are some of the most profitable for live bettors because they can use their experience and knowledge to adapt their bets, which even the most sophisticated betting software sometimes cannot do immediately.