Five methods to increase your chances of winning football bets

A lot of people who place bets on football follow their gut instinct and team loyalty but, to improve the chances of winning, you need to follow your head – not your heart. Also, you do not want to just be betting on the favourites like Manchester City or Barcelona to win.

If you’re tired of regularly losing long-shot bets, this article will discuss five methods to dramatically increase your chances of turning a profit from your flutter on football.

Focus on an area of expertise

Studying form and statistics takes hours of work and trying to make yourself an expert across the board will make your task impossible. A much more straightforward tactic is to focus your efforts on a niche area of football betting. This could be a particular market, like under/over bets on goals scored or corners taken during a game.

This could then become the easiest market for you to make money betting on football.

Sometimes you can find anomalies of an overpriced market that the average punter wouldn’t pick up on. For example, certain bookmakers have been known to price corners based on the relative strengths of the teams involved in the game, rather than their track record of winning or conceding corners.

Corners betting is a market a lot of Bet Dynamo customers have a huge amount of success in, just from using our Insights and Stats. You can also read more on corner betting strategy HERE.

Lay the draw

This popular trading system has been around for 20 years. You will need to sign up to a betting exchange, but if you get it right then betting exchanges can make you a lot of money.

Laying the draw involves bettors basically playing the role of bookmaker to sell a bet, instead of buying it. This means, if the match ends in a draw, the bettor will have to pay the liability.

If things go to plan, when a goal has been scored the odds for the draw will generally increase, offering a profit to trade out. There can be the opportunity to bide your time if it appears 2-0 is likely, but an equalising goal will seriously damage the bet. In any event, it is best to get out before the hour mark in the match.

This method works best in games where there are likely to be a lot of goals so look for teams that often win by margins such as 3-1, 4-1 or 4-2. To minimise risk, most bettors stick to games where the odds of the draw are below 4/1 and never above 5/1.

Trade the markets

Predicting the outcome of a football match is never easy. Thankfully, with this method, you don’t have to. Rather, you can make a profit from the movement in odds by moving in and out of trades before the final outcome is decided. But be warned, the exchange betting markets are not easy to master.

Discover a passion for successful, low-scoring teams

They might not be the most entertaining to watch, but sides that consistently churn out low-scoring wins are worth paying attention to. The correct score market can often be priced according to the superiority of one team over another, rather than their style of play. This means there are generous odds to be found on 1-0 or 2-0 scorelines. In recent years, Atletico Madrid have been specialists of the low-scoring wins.

Likewise, you can make money betting on high scoring sides such as Manchester City, Barcelona and Real Madrid by correctly tipping them to score over 1.5 or 2.5 team goals. Our Insights and team Stats can help you identify which games and teams you should be betting on to conquer the over/under goals market.

You can read more on betting on the Over/Under Goals market HERE.

Let’s face it, we don’t always have the time or energy to be scouring leagues, like the Spanish third division, for the best value bets. Following a tipster will take away much of this effort as they’ll put in the hard work for you.

But beware, while there are hundreds of tipsters out there claiming to make their followers thousands of pounds, very few actually deliver. And the question ‘Who are the best football tipsters?’ is one that does not have a straight answer.

For the vast majority of these services, you’ll be paying for their insight. Do your own research beforehand to find honest reviews or track down a free tips website.

These are just a few of the methods that could help you turn a profit from betting on football. But remember, no system is guaranteed to bring you success and every system you follow comes with its own risks. When betting, it’s important to remember the following ground rules:

1. Come up with a clear plan and stick to it. If you opt to keep your stakes low, don’t go raising them because you have a good feeling about a certain game.
2. Start off with a sufficient money for the system to work. Set aside money to bet with to withstand losing runs and break this down into smaller units so you are never risking a large amount on a single bet.
3. Only bet what you can afford to lose. No profits in betting are ever guaranteed and never bet if you can’t afford to. Using money you need will only make you more stressed and hinder your judgement.
4. Never chase losses. Bets lose and the best thing to do is move on. There will be plenty of future opportunities to bet, so do not get hung up on winning back money as it will often only make the situation worse.
5. Record your bets. Make a spreadsheet for all your bets – win or lose. This will allow you to track your spending and also see patterns of which type of bets are winning and losing.

Now all that is left to say is good luck!