[dropcap]N[/dropcap]o matter how hard you try, you’re bound to make one lousy bet every now and then. If it were as simple as staking your money and always reaping the reward, everyone would do it, but alas, it isn’t. Many factors come into play when it comes to betting. You have the odds and understanding them and how to choose them. You have the bookie you’re dealing with, which is probably the most important factor of them all. Can’t very well go and bet with a bookie you don’t trust and expect good out of the equation. You have also the sporting event you’re betting on and understanding the game and when to stake your bet and when to play it safe. Last but not least, you have the very important element of dumb luck. Sometimes your luck is going to be awesome; others you’ll feel like you have a gipsy curse on your back. Different factors or not, you need to be well aware of the importance of choosing good odds for yourself as well as the importance of choosing a good bookie.
The importance of choosing a good bookie
Some people will go ahead and hold several open accounts with more than one bookie; others deal with only one. The number of available bookmakers right now is beyond huge, each with their own website and their own set of odds. Choosing the right bookmaker is personal; you have to find someone who is offering exactly what you need. It’s not like in the old days when you could just bet with whomever your friends are betting with. Now the options are more and the markets are even more.
You need to ask yourself ‘when’ and ‘how’ before choosing your bookmaker; when and how do you place your bets? The answers to these questions can narrow your choice a bit, because not all bookies will offer services that are convenient to you. And the last thing you want is to change your betting system because you changed your bookie into a less convenient one. The only reason people should be changing bookies for is getting better odds and better convenience, and a huge part of that is being able to bet when you want and how you want it.
Special offers
You’ll come to find that almost all bookies offer their punters special offers on a weekly basis. For example, openodds.com offers free betting offers, which means basically you bet on something without paying anything. This is a way many bookies use to attract new customers and keep old ones coming back. Everyone likes a free treat. You should always be on the lookout for new deals because this would always be the nudge you need to go ahead and make some bets without having to worry much about the outcome. You also need to act smart about taking advantage of these offers; just because there are free bets, doesn’t mean you should go open several accounts so you could bet on them all. You should find a sport or an event you know and understand to bet on, not just any random event that looks tempting because it has been promoted or is free. You also need to find a bookie you trust.
Why it’s important to bet for value
Many sports punters make the mistake of not betting for value, but rather for the most possible outcome in their point of view. While this might feel like the reasonable thing to do, it really isn’t. Yes, you’ll bet on the thing that’s more likely to happen most of the time, but you won’t be making much profit out of doing so. That is why you need to be looking for good value in your betting odds, not exceedingly probable outcomes. It’s not about choosing most probable winner; it’s about choosing a sporting event or the odds are in your favor so you can stake money and actually make money out of doing so.
You can have positive value or negative value when it comes to sports betting. A positive one means the probability of winning is bigger than the odds suggest. For example, if you have a coin toss, there are two probable outcomes, meaning there’s a 50/50 chance of getting either heads or tails. But if you were told that heads has a 5.0 odds of winning, you’d probably bet on heads, wouldn’t you? It’s this positive value that means there is an implied possibility of heads winning more than tails, which is why if you bet on heads, you’ll win more. So, if you bet a 100 times, theoretically you could win 50 out of those 100. Winning 50 times with these odds means you’ll make an overall larger profit than your losses if you bet on tails.
When it comes to sports betting, you can’t just rely on your sports knowledge to make a successful wager. You need to identify value in the odds you’re betting on. The logical approach if you can’t find positive value in betting on either teams –– which does happen a lot –– would be to save your money and wait for better odds. It might not seem to make sense if you bet on someone less likely to win, but if that someone offer better odds, then it’s the sane choice to back them up. That is because if they win, you’ll get much bigger profit than if you bet on their competitors who offer no positive value.
Choosing your betting odds is important, and it’s not something you could master easily. It takes time, practice, and a little bit of courage. But when you do master the knowledge of betting odds and finding value in these odds, your bets will come easily and naturally. You need to choose sports you know because it will make you learning the process of betting much easier. You should also find a bookie you trust and deal with him. If you choose your odds correctly and for a positive value, you’re more likely to turn profit than not, and eventually, isn’t that the purpose of the whole betting thing?
