Any popular sports betting strategies were created to maximize winnings. But there are no win-win betting strategies. In this article, we’ll look at six betting systems for football and other sports – and how to turn them in your favor. These strategies include bankroll management strategies such as a fixed percentage of the bank and betting strategies such as value betting.
What is a Sports Betting Strategy
When you hear the word “strategy”, many people imagine complex calculations and formulas. In fact, betting strategies are rather a set of principles that bookmakers’ players have formulated based on their experience.
Good strategies do not guarantee success, but they allow you to avoid the bumps that others have already made. Particularly important in this regard are strategies for managing the bankroll you allocate to betting.
Choosing a strategy means that you will follow the rules described in the strategy for a long time. This requires discipline and trust in the scheme that the betting strategy describes.
Testing Betting Strategies
Experienced bettors do not advise to play the strategy immediately for real money. To understand the essence of the system, learn how to select matches and understand the rules, start testing the strategy on paper or in a spreadsheet. You only need to select matches and determine the size of the bet according to the rules of the strategy, but do not bet real money. The results of bets should be recorded or tracked in a demo account, and then analyse how successful the game was on the chosen strategy.
If at least one month you were successful on the distance – go to real bets. But remember that real money psychologically complicates the unbiased selection of matches and bets for the strategy.
Martingale Strategy
The essence of the strategy Martingale is to double the amount of the bet after each loss, in order to win the amount of the first bet.
Let’s say you bet $100 on the victory of the first team, and the bet lost. You choose the next match and bet $200. In case you fail again, the bet amount for the third match will be $400. And so on until you win.
You need to bet on events with odds of 2.00 and above to get a net profit. Usually, the player calculates how many bets can painlessly cause his bank to lose. Based on this, the initial amount of the bet is as follows: Usually, at most 1-2 % of the bank.
The player only sometimes has enough steps calculated in advance, so there is a risk of losing the bank. It is important to know that bookmakers often limit the size of the maximum bet, so the player may not accept a bet on the right amount of money on the Martingale strategy.
Strategy of Betting on Quarters in Basketball
Dogon is also actively used as an element of other strategies, for example, in betting on quarters in basketball. The approach is based on the hypothesis that a team in a single match rarely loses all quarters.
Players bet on the outsider’s victory in a quarter. If the odds are too low or high, you can take a handicap. In case of a loss, the size of the bet for the next quarter is doubled. And so on until the bet wins. If the last quarter of the match does not bring profit, you should continue catching up on the winning quarter in a new game.
Experienced players advise betting on teams with a short series of losing quarters and choose matches with a clear bias in favor of the favorite. Like any strategy based on overtaking, betting on quarters in basketball is dangerous because the series of failures can drag on and force you to bet too much to win back the losses.
Ladder Betting Strategy
If you want to bet small amounts with minimal risk, use the “ladder.” The strategy is based on betting on odds from 1.10 to 1.30. The player makes the first bet, and if he wins, he bets it, and the whole won amount on the next match. And so on.
The player pre-determines the number of bets – the steps of the ladder. When the highest step is reached, the bettor starts from the first step, leaving a net profit in his pocket. The ladder strategy can lead to failure. Even the lowest odds sooner or later lose; one minus is enough to lose the entire game bank.
So, the ladder is by no means a win-win sports betting strategy.
Betting Strategy on Statistics
Some players bet only on sports statistics: corner kicks and penalty kicks in football, the percentage of shots on goal in hockey, and the percentage of successful serves in tennis. The more popular the sport and the richer the bookmaker’s list of bets, the more chances you have to bet on statistics.
A significant disadvantage of this strategy is that the margin on such small markets is very high to compensate for the need for more accuracy in assessing the odds. Therefore, you must have perfect knowledge of the sport you are betting on to find favorable stats bets.
Flat Betting Strategies
With a flat strategy, you bet the same amount of money. It does not change depending on the odds, the pot amount, or the event’s probability.
This is the most straightforward strategy for managing your bankroll and is an excellent place to start. But since it has no flexibility, it is the hardest to win with.
The Strategy of Fixed Interest from the Bank
This strategy takes into account the bankroll’s size. Therefore, the amount of the bet is constantly changing, adjusting to the current size of the bankroll. Usually, 1-2% of the pot is bet, and only experienced players bet up to 5%.
What You Need to Know About Sports Betting Strategies
Any strategy requires discipline and adherence to the rules. If you want to improve a strategy or combine it with another, do so – but test the new plan on paper first.