Tips on How to Bet on Football

In this article, our experts will share the basics of football betting in India and what you need to watch out for.

In our 'how to bet on football' guide, we teach how to bet for as well as against your favourite team. We also explain how to use mathematics to win football bets.

We have provided detailed explanations of football bet types. These include accumulators, double chance, draw no bet, handicaps, half time-full time, outrights and over/under markets. We go on to explain how to hedge football bets as well as how to exploit betting odds.

Besides, we elaborate on the virtues of live football betting and show how punters can benefit from it. We conclude our tips on how to bet on football by showing how to know if football betting tips are trustworthy.

Important Tips for Football Betting

In football betting, adhering to some golden rules will always help. In this section of our tips on how to bet on football, we show you what they are:

Tip #1 – Rely on football predictions of an expert

Those who win football bets rely on their experience and knowledge. How can you figure out such a winning strategy if you don't have prior experience?

Find a professional tipster and follow his advice rather than trust your own gut instinct. Using such a bet tip, win the wager, and bank your winnings.

Many knowledgeable tipsters offer free football betting tips online. They corroborate their claims with verified results accompanied by such stats as monthly profit, ROI, and average amount of stake.

Tip #2 – Use matched betting

Matched betting can help eliminate risk by placing two opposite wagers -- the first with a bookmaker and the second with a betting exchange. The bets cancel out each other. It's a zero-risk strategy.

Both new and existing customers of most online betting sites are offered bonuses. Matched betting will make your betting experience exciting thanks to free bets and promotions offered by bookmakers. The process is quite simple and involves a few easy steps:

1. Create an account with a bookmaker offering a free bet

2. Make a qualifying wager to grab the offer

3. Make a second wager: a lay bet

4. Use the free bet to place a second lay bet

5. Bank your profit

Tip #3 – Maintain a record

Maintaining betting records will help you to win more regularly. Your records should include:

• the bets won and lost by you
• what amount you staked on bets
• how much you won or lost on every bet
• the betting site(s) you used to bet with

Set a betting target. A record of betting gains will help decide whether you are on track to achieving your betting target. If you are making a profit, you can stick with the current betting strategy. If not, find out which bets are causing most losses and tweak your betting tactics accordingly.

Tip #4 – Use different bookmakers

Don't stick with betting on just one betting site. Keep visiting different bookmakers' sites. There are more than a hundred great football betting sites to choose from. All bookmakers will try to convince you to bet on their sites. However, you need not be loyal as you will find many other opportunities with other sites.

From time to time, bookmakers offer their new and existing customers numerous promotions including free bets. Take advantage of these offers that can vary every day. Among the best promotions for customers are sign up offers.

Look for differences in odds offered by various bookmakers. These are more commonly seen in less frequented markets such as over/under goals, or anytime goal scorers. These differences can be attributed to varying information a bookmaker may receive with regard to pricing a market. Alternatively, some bookmakers may offer better odds -- such as a price boost -- to attract more customers. You can take help from price comparison websites such as oddschecker.

Tip #5 – Make objective rather than emotional betting decisions

You can remain in control by analysing the merits of each bet. An emotional betting decision could cloud your betting judgement, leading to losses. You may have a favourite team.

Keep your emotions aside and refrain from betting on the team if your research and football analysis show that the team is unlikely to win. If you sense that your emotions are beginning to influence your betting decisions, take a break from betting. Return to betting only when you feel more analytical.

Tip #6 – Arm yourself with knowledge

You must have complete knowledge of the current form of the teams in both attack and defence. You must also analyse their recent results, and team selections including injury lists. Such In-depth knowledge will make for a more enjoyable football betting experience. You can boost your knowledge by watching as many live games as possible.

Importantly, you must also know your markets very well. You must be aware that there are more markets other than popular ones such as Win/Draw/Win. These include team to win both halves, number of yellow cards, and so on. In such markets you can get better odds.

Mistakes to avoid during football betting

In this part of our tips on how to bet on football, we focus on common football betting mistakes. Our tips how to bet on football for beginners include teaching how to avoid these common mistakes must be :

1. Avoid backing favourites blindly

Bookmakers are aware that punters will stake more money on a favourite in a game. Accordingly, the punters will be given little value for their bets regardless of the match outcome.

Further, punters often bunch favourites together in an accumulator bet. They fail to analyse whether all the favourites are likely to win their respective games.

2. Don’t engage in speculative punts at large odds

Often, a football bettor is tempted to stake a large amount, just because a bookmaker offers huge returns. For instance, a bookmaker may quote odds of 8/1 on a team. If that team won, a punter would receive an eight-fold return on his stake.

The punter must not be lured unless he genuinely thinks the odds offered misrepresent the team’s winning chances. Bookmakers will not quote big odds without a good reason for the price. A punter must consider an alternative bet unless he is genuinely convinced that the team will do well.

3. Don’t neglect to consider every available market

Many punters prefer to place wagers on the 1X2 market. Some place accumulators involving numerous football teams. In the process, they might fail to find the value available in a more obscure football betting market.

Also, you could benefit by analysing for yourself how a match could pan out before reading the odds offered. For instance, if you expect a high scoring game, ‘both teams to score’ could be the best market for you. Likewise, if you expect a low scoring match, you can opt for an over/under bet.

4. Minimize your losses

Keep a daily or weekly record of bets placed. After a number of wagers, analyse to find out which bet type is proving better. Finetune your betting strategy. You would want to be able to limit the damage on losing bets. A well-thought-out strategy can help you optimize your football bets.

Trusted Sites for Football Betting

How to bet on football for beginners: Step-By-Step

Our tips on how to bet on football would be incomplete without a step-by-step guide for beginners:

1. Choose a bookmaker for football betting

Do some research to find a football betting site that suits your needs. You could consider factors such as a welcome offer, a good live betting platform and friendly payment options.

2. Open a sportsbook account

After you have zeroed in on one of the many football betting sites, create an account. To do so, you would have to provide some basic information. These would include your name, your date of birth, email, postal address, a preferred user ID and a password.

3. Opt for a payment method

After being directed to a banking page, you must opt for your preferred deposit method from a dozen or more options.

4. Deposit the amount you wish to bet

You must state how much you want to deposit along with personal details related to the deposit information. These could include a credit card number and its expiration date.

5. Place your bets

On the site's sports menu, select football. Thereafter, choose the game, the betting odds, and the bet type. You may want to place many bets. On your bet slip, enter your staked amount for each bet.

6. Bank your winnings

After a match is completed, check to see how much you have lost or won. If your bet is successful, claim the winnings and ensure that the bookmaker transfers the amount to your account.

How to bet for your favourite team?

Regardless of which team you back, you can find numerous pre-match betting markets offered by new bookmakers.

You might choose to back your favourite team to win the game. They could be in prime form, without injury worries. Also, they could be up against a much weaker side, justifying an expectation of three full points. Furthermore, you could grab the chance to include them in an accumulator bet.

If the team wins, it gives you double cause for celebration. You are happy that your team won and earned you a return on your wager. If the team loses, you are not only unhappy but are also deprived of the money you staked on the side.

How to bet against your favourite team?

Not everyone would want to bet against their favourite team. Let’s assume that you are a fan of Inter Milan ahead of their Champions League final versus Manchester City.

Manchester City are rated the strongest club side in the world. Football knowledge tells you to back Man City. However, the thought of your favourite team suffering a loss could prove hard to bear. Nevertheless, you choose to bet against Inter.

When Man City goes on to win, you suffer mixed emotions. On the one hand, you are sad that your favourite team lost. On the other, you find yourself a little richer thanks to the winning bet.

If you do go on to bet against your favourite team, avoid betting more than you can afford to lose.

How to win football bets mathematically?

Learn about value betting if you want to know how to win football bets mathematically. However, while value betting promises a high profit, it also entails greater risk.

Every punter would like to know how to never lose a football bet. Value bettors usually employ risk-free betting strategies such as matched betting and arbitrage. Very often, a punter may sense a betting opportunity when wrong odds are quoted. However, to grab the opportunity, the punter must be able to recognize an overpriced market.

We rate arbitrage bets among the easiest football bets to guarantee a satisfying betting experience. To use an arbitrage betting strategy, you must first find markets and outcomes wherein overpriced odds are offered. Bookies usually replicate betting lines and odds quoted by other bookmakers. Hence, you will rarely see any odds difference in most markets.

However, there are instances when different bookies receive different information about the possible result of a match. Consequently, punters can take advantage of what are known as arbitrage bets.

For instance, bookies might offer odds of 2.20 for scoring over 3 goals in a game. However, some bookmakers receive insider information about the absence of a key striker and they predict fewer goals. This could lead to the offer of similar odds of 2.20 by a bookmaker on fewer than 3 goals in the match. You can take advantage of a free bet offer at a new site and use the same stake to bet on both outcomes.

Football betting types

We dedicate this segment of our tips on how to bet on football to listing popular types of football bets. We explain in detail the various types and show how punters can seek to benefit from them.

Outrights

These are bets placed on the result of a whole competition. For instance, to place a Champions League bet on Outright Winner, you must predict which team will win the title in that particular season. You can also place bets on results of tournaments, cups, or entire leagues.

Handicaps

A bookmaker gives the weaker team a handicap, allowing for a more evenly contested game from a wagering standpoint. For instance, a bookmaker has assigned a handicap of 1.5 to the weaker team.

Hence, the weaker team is presumed to be up by 1.5 goals before the start of the match. So, if you back the stronger side to win, the stronger team must score two goals or more.

Over/under markets

Football betting sites list this bet using an over/under format. For example, a punter may wager on a bet listed as “over/under 2.5.” The punter must predict the number of goals likely to be scored in the game. Assume that the punter opts for the “over 2.5” choice. He is effectively saying that at least three goals will be scored. This type of bet gives a punter a fifty percent probability of making a correct prediction.

Accumulators

Before making accumulator bets, punters try to predict the outcomes of many matches. Arguably the most popular bet type, an accumulator is a multiple bet offering relatively higher potential returns. However, all the selections must win.

As the name indicates, an accumulator has several legs. The return and returned stake relating to the first leg will form the stake for the second leg. Likewise, the return and returned stake relating to the second leg will form the stake for the third leg.

Double chance

A Double Chance wager requires a punter to predict two of the three possible results of a 1X2 bet. Also called a result bet, a 1X2 bet can have three possible outcomes.

The three outcomes include a win for the home team, a win for the away team and a draw. In a double chance bet, the punter can choose any two of the outcomes to define the bet winning condition.

Draw no bet

In a Draw No Bet, a punter can bet on either an "Away" win or a "Home" win. If a punter bets on a football game that ends in a draw, the bookmaker will fully refund the punter’s stake. Safe bettors can use the draw no bet as a strategy to minimize the risk.

Half time/Full time

In this type of bet, the half time and full time result wagers are combined into one bet. In other words, a punter who chooses this type must predict which team will lead at half-time and which team will win the game finally. Note: this bet does not take into account extra time, injury time, stoppage time or penalty shoot outs.

What are Hedging football bets?

Hedging football bets present a betting strategy to guarantee a profit or at least to reduce the potential loss. We rank this among our most useful tips on how to bet on football.

If the odds drop after you place a lay bet, you can hedge by placing a back bet. Likewise, if the odds drop after you have placed a back bet, you can hedge by placing a lay bet.

Assume that in February, you placed a ₹1000 bet on Team A to win the English Premier League 2022-23. The bet attracted odds of 1.70

However, in April, it was obvious that Team A had not performed as well as expected. You realized that Team B could also win the league. Therefore, you decided to place a second bet of ₹1000 on Team B. The bet attracted odds of 1.40.

If the first bet wins, you will earn a payout of ₹2700. You staked ₹1000 EUR for the bet. If the second bet wins, you will earn a payout of ₹2400. You also staked I₹ 1000 for this bet. Thus, you spent ₹2000 in all, but could end up earning either ₹2400 or ₹2700.

Football betting odds explained

When bookmakers calculate odds, they account for cash flow projections and add their margins before releasing the price.

You can use the betting odds to calculate what returns you can get if you bet on a match. Odds are usually presented in fractional or decimal formats.

In India, fractional odds are the most common. Using fractional odds, you can find out your potential winnings proportional to your placed stake. For instance, if you place a ₹100 bet on Arsenal to beat Manchester City at 4/1, You will get a pay out of ₹500 if your bet wins (₹400 profit in addition to your ₹100 stake).

To convert fractional odds into decimals, multiply your stake by the quoted odds. Betting exchanges usually employ decimal odds. Below we have listed a few examples:

• 11.00 odds = ₹100 bet will return ₹1100 including your stake
• 4.5 odds = ₹100 bet will return ₹450 including your stake
• 1.5 odds = ₹100 bet will return ₹150 including your stake

Good knowledge of the game combined with research will help you recognize when bookmakers get the odds wrong. Good knowledge can also help you decide where to place wagers.

How to do live betting on football?

Punters do not have to restrict themselves to placing a couple of bets before a match kicks off. They can engage in live betting in real-time.

Many betting sites support their live betting platforms with live streaming of matches. The odds change as fortunes change on the field of play. Thus, in live betting on football, punters can take advantage of odds movement.

By analysing how a match is progressing, a punter can evaluate his current bets and minimise losses by placing new bets. Here’s how you can make the most of live betting:

Engage in a combo of live betting and pre match betting

Starting with a pre-match bet, continue to research and keep an eye on team news. Live bets will also help to compensate for some losses suffered in pre match betting.

Avoid making hasty decisions

In live betting, things happen very quickly. The pressure of the fast pace could induce you to make hasty betting decisions. Don’t bet unless you feel confident that you will make an educated betting decision.

Live betting can be tough for beginners

To benefit from live betting, you need lots of knowledge, some of which comes from experience. The pressure of time does not allow you as a punter to consider all your actions carefully. You are on your own with nobody to guide you at that critical moment.

How to know if the football betting tips are trustworthy: Our Experience

Many tipsters provide betting tips today. To find out if the football betting tips we receive can be trusted, we generally ask the following questions:

Is the site legitimate?

There are several sites offering tips for football betting. First, we would do a visual check to determine how legitimate the site is. For instance, we would look for a footer with links to responsible bookmakers’ sites.

Does the author have an online presence?

We would certainly check out the social media accounts of the author. Also, we would study the reaction of other punters. If they are asking for more tips from the author, we consider that a good sign.

Are the tips backed by data?

We wouldn’t use any tips on how to bet on football, if they were not backed by data. We want tipsters to provide in-depth stats about the performance of teams and players. Further, we would like to see them justify those tips by using the stats.

Are other punters using the tips?

We would check social media replies as well as the comment boxes on tipsters’ articles for clues.

Tips on How to bet on Football FAQs

In this final section of our tips on how to bet on football, we answer some frequently asked questions:

What is the best way to bet on football?

The best way to bet on football involves a few do’s and don’ts. Importantly, you must arm yourself with knowledge of the game. Follow experts’ predictions and make objective rather than emotional betting decisions.

How to bet on football without losing?

To learn how to bet on football without losing, employ the numerous tips in our article above. You can minimise losses by keeping and analysing daily or weekly records of your betting.

What is the best bet to make on football?

Arguably the best bet matched to make on football is a matched bet. This would involve grabbing a free bet offer from a betting site and making a backing bet to qualify for the offer. Thereafter use the free bet to make a lay bet on the same outcome.