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Sports Betting |
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 Sports
betting means betting on sports other than horse and dog racing. It is a term
interpreted loosely now and so anything is up for grabs. The wide ranging
possibilities make this an increasingly attractive thing for the Good
Gambler to investigate. When there is so
much to understand and know, the person offering a bet can often be
disadvantaged by a punter who has done the hard work necessary to fully
understand the sport. Be warned however, it goes without saying that money
inducement for participants to change the outcome of the sporting event can
only become more widespread with time. |
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| Basics |
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 For the casual gambler, sports betting has more real interest
than horse racing which can seem just a blind gamble without being privy to a
lot of turf mumbo-jumbo. Most people have a favourite sport and a view point
that goes with it. Everyone is tired of hearing it so putting your money
where your mouth is is a good alternative.
For the major
sports there are four clear ways to
get on. Bookmakers, Spread
Betting, Bet Swap (on-line or private) and Tote. For most sports the Tote, or
pool betting, is a
non-starter.
The most popular choice is to bet with Bookmakers
either directly on-line or in a betting shop. The Bookmaker
prices the event according
to their understanding of the odds and punters select either an
emotional bet (i.e. betting on your favourite football team) or a
calculated bet (made because you think the bookie got his sums
wrong).
Spread betting is growing in popularity, especially with
those educated in risk undertaking. Really though, it is not difficult to get
to grips with the possibilities, but one thing must be understood. A spread
bet is a two way lay,
that means to say that when you place your bet, you are also accepting a
counter bet from the spread betting firm. In other words your potential
downside is variable and dependent on the outcome of the
event.
The third alternative is to find an individual who will
take your bet on. This could be a friend, a Private Bookmaker (not completely
legal) or someone found using one of the new Bet Swap web sites (explained
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| Professionalism |
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Professional Sports Bettors rely on
understanding their sport, or a single aspect of one,
better than the bookie (we'll use bookie to mean all bet outlets). The word
'understanding' means one hell of a lot in this context because the bookies
will have lots of help, resources and experience to give them a clear picture
and a way to work out the true odds of an event. However, and this is
important, a bookie must also cater for his clients and create prices
that will attract money across the board.
- e.g. Arsenal Football
Club has a lot of big money support in London and elsewhere. The sentimental
betting on their success will force low odds on them and consequently higher
odds on the opponents.
This example highlights the possibilities
of finding imbalances in the market due to the weight of money on home teams or
favourite people. The combined ability to understand a sport really well and
spot the bookies direction on market sentiment is the key to successful sports
betting.
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| We emphasize that this is really
tough as with all professional gambling activities. |
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| Bookmakers |
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The Bookmakers job with a sporting event, lets
say the U.S. Masters (Golf), is first to calculate what
they think are the true odds of each individual player winning the event,
and/or finishing ahead of one or more of the other players (match bets and
group bets). Having done
that they consider sentiment for the key players and price up the event
accordingly.
- e.g. An out of form
Greg Norman may really be 100-1 to win the event but there'll be a lot of
punters happy to take 50-1 when they see it. The pro's won't bet him either way
and so the bookies get more money in with a lower liability.
The professional will take advantage of the
opposite of what occurred in the example. Many good golfers have unfulfilled
potential and when one starts gaining in confidence their chances of winning
dramatically improve. However, because they are unknown they will not attract a
lot of money and their odds may remain above their true value. The pro is then
taking advantage of an overlay.
The
casual punter, or a professional, may stumble across a piece of knowledge that
the bookies do not know and thus will be able to take advantage of an overlay,
a price that is higher than the true odds. Examples of this are injuries or a
tennis player really doesn't like a particular surface or they are having
emotional problems, etc. In the financial world this would be called "Insider
Dealing" because basically they are pussies when it comes to taking a loss on
the chin. In the real world it is precisely what everybody is trying to
do.
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| We recommend the casual gambler to
bet on the sport they really know about and of course stay within your limits.
If it hurts when you lose then you have bet over the top. Understand the
implications on the odds of your bet. |
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| Spread
Betting |
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Spread Betting
comes into its own with Sporting events as the whole
spectrum of possible performances by a team or individual can be represented in
one bet. Its all about numbers so get yourself a calculator.
- e.g. how many runs are
scored in the One Day cricket match between England and Australia.
Quote : 450-460
The example
shows a quote of the market maker, in this instance a spread betting firm.
Theoretically no runs could be achieved and thus the result would be 0. Also
over a 1000 runs could be made. They are the limits of the spectrum but the
most likely total of runs will lie somewhere in the middle and hence the quote.
This example highlights another feature of spread betting, namely the ability
to bet something will perform badly. In this case if you sell at the 450 number
you hope the total number of runs scored will be lower than that number. If it
is, you will win the difference in the numbers (450 - 415 say) multiplied by
your stake (£10 say) and thus win £350.
Spread
Betting can be applied to any aspect of the sport in question, some quite
random or apparently inconsequential. The number of bookings in the Football
World Cup is one example. You may say that people are not trying to get booked
but that is irrelevant. The point is a market has been created around this
aspect of the sport and you take a buy position (positive with upside) or a
sell position (positive with downside) if you have an
opinion.
Professionals who play the index markets must develop a
way of analysing the particular market that they think is vulnerable. It can
all get very esoteric or mathematical but it comes down to hard work or having
some inside information.
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| Our section on Spread Betting
Explained |
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| Bet
Swap |
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Swapping your bet
with someone else is
 something that has been going on since time began. If
friends bet between each other on the result of a football match then they have
swapped wagers. If Arsenal beat Liverpool (as an example) then friend A gets
paid by friend B. If Liverpool wins then friend B gets paid by friend A. Money
doesn't usually change hands before the result is known.
Now
there is a new breed of bet swapping promoted by 'brokering websites' or
'exchanges'. The basic principle is, you think of a bet and it gets posted on
the website. Web surfers who come to the site get to view the bets on offer by
other ordinary people, including yours, and can take your bet if they like the
terms of what is on offer. The broker takes full payment from both sides as
soon as the bet is accepted and will make their money by taking a small
percentage of the money bet. See Ways to Bet for
more on Bet
Exchange.
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| We recommend having a look at the bet
swapping sites. Always consider that you will be paying some tax on winning
bets.. |
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| Golf
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| Check out our News Page |
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 Golf is one of the easiest of games to understand and the most
illustrative when it comes to showing the potential in sports betting. Standard
bettors and Spread bettors like the game because all the aspects of sizing up a
sporting event are involved in understanding a Golf Tournament. The attractions
are:-
- TV
coverage
- Weekly events all
through the year
- International players
attracting sentimental support
- Clear
results
- Corruption
free
- Strong trend analysis
possible
The first three
things are obvious to all. The last three make the game attractive.
- Clear Results
- Professional
associations around the world look after the job of establishing
 records and statistics which are used as the definitive results
reference
- Corruption free
- Money can be bet to
any limit free from the suspicion of cheating in the sport
- Strong trend analysis possible
- Golf players exhibit
strong trends of confidence, attitude, physical ability and course likability
which gamblers and bookies analyse in great detail
Golf also has the ability to be bet in many different ways :-
- Outright
winner
- Match bets between two
players
- Group bets between
several players - e.g. Americans, Past Winners, etc.
- Spread Betting on the
above
- Spread Betting on the
value of the scores, winning margin, Eagles, etc.
- Spread Betting on the
finishing position of a player - i.e. 76th out of 150
There is a lot
to get into for the serious professional
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| See the Golf
Page for Ratings and Bet indications |
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| Football |
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 Football has vast support through the world and
thus when only a tiny percentage of that population bets on it then the volume
becomes large. Football betting is big and is getting bigger.
All kinds of betting markets have grown up to stimulate interest
in football due to the fact the basic game is dull from a traditional gamblers
point of view. There are only three possible outcomes, Win, Lose or Draw and so
betting on the scores, or correct scores, was developed by bookies with their
coupons.
Now with Spread Betting bods dreaming up esoteric
markets it is possible to bet on the total of the shirt numbers that score
goals and many other apparently random events. Of course they are not random
and you can be pretty sure the firms have done some serious homework on these
things. It is also true to say that some professionals have been able to
understand these things even better. However, the number of them is so small
that Bookies and Spread Betting firms make good profits from
football.
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To get a
favourable bet with the bookies on a regular basis means choosing one aspect of
the game that is regularly bet on, and doing work on it. What this entails is
breaking the game down into its constituent parts and understanding them each
in tern. For example, a popular market is Corners, which may on
the face of it seem random. But when taking a closer look it clearly depends on
the defending tactics and attacking tactics of the two teams involved. Still
further there are key players who have particular habits, they may or may not
be playing. Yet more things effect changes to the likelihood of corners, like
pitch condition, weather and home or away.
In the above example
if you manage to evaluate all the building blocks that go into the corners
aspect of football then you can put them together whenever, whoever and where
ever a game is played. When you see a difference between you and the Bookie or
Spread firm then its worth a bet. Its not easy!!
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| Minor
Sports |
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They'll bet
on anything these days and the principle motive for Bookies and Spread Firms
for creating these markets is to get people involved with gambling who would
not ordinarily bet. There is not a lot of money to be made from the Tour de
France but if just a fraction of those newbies open accounts and start betting
on
 other stuff, then its all worth the firm's time.
If
you are someone who is really knowledgeable about your sport, maybe you work
for McLaren F1, then your knowledge is going to give you a strong head start
when it comes to finding value bets. Mind you, just because you have the right
side of a bet doesn't mean you are certain to win. |
| Go ahead and have a crack at a sport
that you know about. The most important lesson to learn however, is that when
you think you have a fantastic bet because the Bookie must have got it wrong,
that is when you are most vulnerable. If that bet fails you must avoid the
temptation to 'chase' that
money with more money. You must sit back and await another day. |
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| U.S
Sports |
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Americans
love their own sports which are dominated by NFL (American football), Ice
Hockey and Basketball. Big money moves on these sports through legal "sports
books" which reside in the casinos all over the country and even more so
through unofficial outlets (private bookmakers).
The Americans
live on a very restricted diet of betting variations (outright winners with or
without a points handicap) and you will not find any of the exotic markets
there. Over in the U.K. however we can bet ourselves on these sports because
many of them are televised through BSKYB and even national
channels.
All these sports can be analysed in just the same way
as in the example for Golf, but of course the firms have
access to some pretty good information from the States. They know what they are
doing.
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| It can't be bad to have all of these
choices to bet on. The more options there are, the more chances there are f to
pick a good bet. |
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