How to improve your football betting

Before you place any bets this weekend, we wanted to share with you our 8 Top Football Betting Tips for improve your bet (as put forward by a variety of punting experts) to help you bash the bookies.
Each tip has been compiled with the help of tipster monitoring service Secret Betting Club.

How to improve your football betting:

Don’t Bet On What’s Popular

Doing what everyone else is doing can often be a pointless exercise and some would go as far as suggesting that you can’t make money in the long run backing “popular” bets. It might be psychologically re-assuring to read lots of people agreeing with a bet you fancy, but in reality the fact that lots of people want to back something means you are unlikely to be getting a value price.
There’s a reason most bookies list their top 10 most popular bets on their homepage. Be your own person, learn to truly ignore what everyone else is saying and don’t be afraid to go as far against the grain as you find comfortable to go.

Bet With A Sound Staking Plan

We know of nobody who bets seriously and doesn’t follow a suitable staking plan. It’s a must to keep your staking sensible and to use a set strategy – not least as it will help you ride out the inevitable losing runs that will come your way! It can also help rein you in if you get carried away during a purple patch of winners. Remember, you can get carried away during a losing run, but you can also get carried away during a winning run.

Avoid Bets Where The Market Offers No Value

Checking out the margins on any given book is another bit of sage advice and we suggest avoiding any bet in a market that doesn’t have a minimum of a 97% book. If the bookies are taking a big cut you’ve got to beat them just to breakeven.

Focus Away From The Big Markets

Every man and his dog knows about the top sides in all the major leagues and so the further down the football pyramid you go, the greater your chances of finding a value bet are.Many football tipping experts focus on lower leagues for this exact reason with one of the best football brains we know betting only on non-league football. Take top football tipster Jeremy Price for example, he barely bets on the top five leagues as he finds value where the bookies aren’t looking.

Become A Master of A Few Leagues, Not A Jack of All!

If you can also specialise your betting in just a handful of leagues (especially lower leagues), then it can also help you keep one step ahead of the bookies. Hone in on one or two leagues and stick to them. Get to know each side well using club websites and forums (great for getting ‘insider’ info on things like injuries and suspensions) and the chances are you will know more than the bookies before long!Football tipster Christopher Silenoshas made great profits from backing the draw, a bet that most tipsters ignore!

Price Up Your Bet Before You Check The Odds

Before picking out a football bet, many experts recommend that you price up a betting market yourself before looking at the actual odds available. This helps give you the best possible chance of forming an unbiased opinion. Try doing this across a league or game where you have an interest and see what sticks out as a value bet once you check the odds!
Of course if you don’t have time to do this, Bet Advisor’s Senior and Junior tipsters are there to find the bargains for you!

Bet with a Minimum Value Threshold

Tipsters will often provide suggested odds, but you have to know when not to chase a bet down.
Here’s an example of why this is so important: If you expect to make 10% ROI when backing a team at 4.00 (3/1), what happens if you place your bet at 3.50 (5/2)?
If you place your bet at 3.50, your profit expectation has gone! You’re looking at a long-term loss of -3.75% instead of a profit of 10%.
If you placed your bet at 3.75, you’d be looking at a potential profit of +3.13%.

Bet @ 4.00: Profit = 10%

Bet @ 3.75: Profit = 3.13%

Bet @ 3.50: Loss = -3.75%

There is a sliding scale of diminishing returns so remember price is everything! Resist the urge to bet regardless of the price and only bet if the odds are still sufficiently in your favour.

Place Accumulators As ‘Fun’ Bets Only

This last point is a controversial one, but in our experience accumulators are very poor value bets and shouldn’t be taken too seriously. There is a good reason the bookies constantly push them on punters – they very rarely come in and they only serve to swell their coffers.
Although the attractions of bagging a big acca are obvious – don’t be fooled into thinking they are anything but a bit of fun and treat them as such.