Last week we wrote an article called 3 Tips on How to Win More Football Bets. In it we wrote about Value Betting and why it’s so important to always look for value. We also spoke about how bettors need to always be willing to learn new things and use new stats and technology to help with their betting decisions and finally, the importance of betting on what you know. So, betting on the teams/leagues and betting markets that you’re the most familiar with.

Today we want to write about a three more tips on how to win more football bets; Managing your Betting Bankroll, Recording Bets and Finding the Bet Odds.

Managing your Betting Bankroll

For new bettors who want to take it seriously this can be a bit of a minefield. How much should I stake? Should it per a percentage of my overall bank, or a flat stake? Or, maybe I should stake an amount that will always win me the same amount? So, for a bet of Over 2.5 goals at odds of 1.80, I’d need to bet £12.50 to win £10 and for odds of 1.60, to win a tenner I’d need to bet £16.66, a number that those of us who are suspicious wouldn’t touch with a bargepole.

First and foremost betting is risky but we can mitigate the risk by making informed decisions about what we’re betting on. Using our betting knowledge we can decide if we should be on Over or Under 2.5 goals but we should only ever bet what we’re comfortable with losing. If that means you can start with a betting bankroll of £1000, or £500 or £100 well that’s up to you, but starting out we’d recommend erring on the side of caution and get to know the markets and how they work before going all out.

Different staking methods will work depending on your personality really. Some people will prefer to put on bets of doubles or trebles with a few events priced around 1.50 to get decent odds over 2.0 and if that’s the way you bet and it works for you them keep doing it. Some people, particularly ‘traders’ that use the Betting Exchanges, prefer to use a percentage staking system, say 10% of their bankroll on wagers because they usually just want to win a few percentage points per day. If you can risk 10% of your bankroll and increase it by 2% per day then you’re doing well and while it may be slow it’s a good way to build money over a longer period.

Staking to win the same amount every time can be riskier, but it’s pretty easy to do with a betting calculator and while it will involve changing stakes to ensure you win the same every time it can also be successful provided you have a big enough bankroll at your disposal.

The important thing here is to try different methods out before placing any bets by paper trading your picks and this leads us onto our next tip.

Recording Bets

Some people scoff at this tip because they think that their betting history page with their sportsbook account is enough. However, you really need to have more than one sportbook account if you’re serious about betting, but more on that later.

By recording bets you will be able to see a few things very quickly and easy. Just open up Google sheets, it’s free and set up a simple spreadsheet for yourself and log your bets; date, match, pick, stake, profit/loss, it’s that simple.

As you look back over your picks you’ll be able to see what you’re getting correct and what you’re getting wrong, maybe you need to regig your betting strategies and your methods for picking matches and events in those matches. You’ll also be able to see that you’re good at some markets and awful at others, Over 2.5 goals might be a disaster for you, but you’re good at choosing underdogs in Asian Handicaps. Looking at your betting history on a betting website won’t be as good as your own handiwork here and really it only takes a moment to write in your bets as you place them.

Finding the Best Odds

Sticking with the same bookmaker doesn’t make much, if any, sense these days. There are so many bookies now all competing for customers that by shopping around for the best prices you can add extra value to your picks.

Let’s say you think that Over 2.5 goals in an upcoming Premier League is overpriced, it’s currently 1.85 on average and you think it should be 1.79. But if you use a website like oddsportal, you can look at that market and see that a couple of sportsbooks have it priced at 1.90. Why then would you place a £10 bet at 1.85, to win £8.50, if you can place the same £10 with a different bookie and possibly win £9.00. OK, 50p isn’t going to make a huge difference overall, but if that happens five times per day for a week, you’re losing out on £2.50 per day, or £17.50 per week, or £910 over a year.

Shop around and place your bets when they have the highest odds. You’re getting better value for your money and you can win more money and sure, isn’t that what this is all about?