Another weekend is over and your bookie balance is down to zero, again. Where did it all go wrong? The Over 3.5 bet that lost between fierce Northern England rivals in a Super Sunday derby that ended 0-0. The 4-fold Acca of Over 1.5 goals, three of them won, but one lost, do you blame that one, or maybe it was the £50 you put on a late-night Chilean League second division match when you were trying to win back your losses for the weekend.

If this is happening to you then you need to take a long, hard look at the way you bet on football matches. You need to ask yourself a few questions, are you betting with your head or your heart? Are you coming up with informed opinions before making your betting decisions? Are you looking for value in the markets or are you just going with the odds on offer? Do you bet after or when you’re drinking a few beers with your mates? And, finally, are you betting with money you can afford to lose, is betting just a bit of fun for you or do you want to take it seriously? Let’s address these questions.

Are you Betting with your Head or Heart?

We’re emotional animals, well, most of us are anyway, there are a few politicians we can think of that are devoid of any feelings, but look, let’s not get sidetracked, if you’re betting with your heart you’re on the road to ruin my friend. In all sports, statistics are king.

Stats don’t lie, you’ll have heard that before and it’s true. For some reason a large amount of the betting population seem to think that stats aren’t trustworthy and should be ignored, this really comes from a failure to understand stats. Maths is your friend here and really you don’t need to write a thesis on the intricacies of betting on Over 2.5 goals in Korea’s K2 League. You just need to be able to understand some basic statistics, how to calculate probabilities and understanding averages. Don’t be afraid to use tools to help you too, the internet is full of wonderful websites that will help you convert odds to probability immediately.

But most of all, you need to take a critical look at what you’re betting on, understanding the actual chances of an event occurring and making sure that you’re betting on good odds.

Are you Making Informed Betting Decisions?

The Bet Dynamo Insights Page is a fantastic resource and by using it you can immediately see the previous percentage occurrence rate of an event when two teams come up against each other. But that’s just one part of the puzzle. You also need to look at things like team news, team motivation, i.e. is it a relegation 6-pointer clash, are both teams chasing European places, is it a derby match etc.

Pay close attention to the statistics that matter, we’re written previously about this subject, so have a look here. These include Head to Head stats, Recent Form stats, Team News and Motivation, and really take the time on our Bet Dynamo Insights Page and take a deep dive into the statistics and learn as much as you can about the teams facing off against each other.

Are you Betting with Value?

We’re written about value betting plenty of times before, it’s a favourite subject of ours because it’s so important for people who take betting seriously to understand. If you’re not betting with value on your side you cannot possibly win at sports betting in the long term.

Basically value betting is when you make a bet at a price that you think is higher than what it should be. For example, in an upcoming match between Liverpool and Man City the price for Over 3.5 goals is 2.35, from your research you believe it should be around 2.18, so you’re getting value and you take the bet. The importance of value is massive, the European bookies charge large commissions, or overrounds, on their odds, read more about that here, and if you take a bet just on their prices alone you’re pretty much just giving them free money. Read up on our articles on value betting and add it to your arsenal, your betting will never be the same again once you truly understand what it is.

Are you Betting while Drinking?

We all love a pint with our mates and putting on a fun bet from time to time can add a bit of fun to a night out, it’s more so for the bragging rights at full time than the money to be won, but you have to be very careful when it comes to alcohol and betting, a subject we’re written about before. If you want to take sports betting seriously then you cannot mix alcohol and betting, ever.

Is Betting Serious or Just Fun for You?

For many of us, sticking a cheeky fiver on a long shot acca every Saturday is the only betting we do. For some of us though we make one or two bets per day, researching and looking at the statistics for a long time until a value pick can be identified.

If betting is just something that adds and extra bit of fun to a match that’s perfectly fine and putting a small stake on a bet you have a ‘feeling’ for certainly does make a match a bit more fun to watch. But if you really want to succeed long term at betting then you will have to take it seriously and you’ll need to learn some discipline in your approach to making value picks in football matches.