Sports Betting School – Tutorial Two of Six

Goals are arguably the most important component in a game of football and at Betsson there are many exciting ways to have a related bet. Betting on the total number of goals in a match, the total number of first half goals, home or away team goals totals and over and under a set mark, such as 1.5 goals per match, are among the most popular and are worth exploring. However, betting on football is not confined just to goals and the markets that accommodate them directly. Ante-post (or long-term) markets are a whole different proposition. These markets allow you to bet well ahead of the outcome of an event and to take the odds on offer at that time. The betting will of course change with fluctuations in the season, but if your judgement is right, you can secure good value. For example, Betsson’s ante-post Premier League winner’s market is popular among those who like to have a bet that could provide excitement for a long time – even throughout the whole season. If you had a bet on Manchester United at 3.4 to win the title and they are six points clear, their price will probably shorten significantly, let’s say to around the 1.9 mark, meaning you secured a bargain. It can of course work the other way though. In addition to the Premier League, there are similar ante-post markets on all major leagues in Europe and South America, as well as the biggest tournaments the planet has to offer; the World Cup, European Championship and Champions League among them. Ante-post football markets on all of these leagues and competitions usually allow you to also bet on other outcomes. For example for a fraction of the odds, you can bet on a team to finish in the top three or four overall – in tournaments this will usually involve betting on a team to get to the semi-finals with only the cup winner producing the biggest returns. Likewise, at the start of a season, often a handicap market is available where you might be able to back your outright fancy at much bigger odds if you are prepared to give other teams in the market a head-start – you can of also receive a points advantage if you do not back the ‘scratch’ team... For example, Manchester United started the 2009/10 Premier League season as outright favourite and in a handicap market would have been given a scratch (often called Scr) start of zero points and been available to back at 18/1 to win the league, giving every other team a start – most likely starting with a couple of points to the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea all the way to 40 or 50 points to clubs expected to struggle like Wolves and Burnley. There are more complex markets we will look at in future tutorials, but among the simpler to describe are player markets, where the final result makes no difference at all to the outcome. Back to the game Rather than back a team to win a match, you can back a player to score a goal instead – for example if your research reveals Fernando Torres has a great record of scoring goals for Liverpool against Hull City, then you might take advantage of the odds on offer for that. At times you can even find odds for individual players to score a hat-trick. The number of corners is another market that is gathering popularity amongst soccer bettors and again research can be important. Many who play these markets think that the market is related to the total goals market – not true. You may have heard people say that in a game that is expected to be cagey and low scoring there will not be many corners – and conversely, that in a game where both teams are expected to be gung-ho and free-scoring there will be lots of corners. Research over the years has proved that the rises and falls in goals scored in a game does not correspondingly give a rise and fall in the number of corners awarded. On the more negative side of the game, bookings markets have become popular over time in correlation with the amount of headlines referees have made, and odds are often available for players being booked or sent-off, as well as prices on the total bookings. These will often be given a numerical quote, for example you might back bookings at over 50 points, when one yellow card is 10 points and a red card is 25 points, if you think a game might be a little on the tense side or it is, perhaps, a derby game between two fierce rivals like Arsenal and Spurs. These markets, and many others, are also available on the betting exchanges as well, for example the one on offer at Betsson, where the punters act as bookmakers and offer prices that they are willing to lay. The bookmaker, in this case, takes a percentage of returns in the form of commission and backers and layers are matched up, without actually ever knowing who the other is. Prices do vary from the fixed odds but in effect the end result is still the same – someone wins and someone loses! Exchanges offer a dynamic way of betting, with changes in price more frequent and more extreme, especially at the time the match is actually being played – in-running betting as it is widely known, which will be covered in another of the forthcoming tutorials. So the next time you look at a match take a glance at the wider picture and consider a bet in these markets - you might not be able to see an edge for a team in the goals related markets but it’s not all about the goals is it? Put your new betting skills to the test at Betsson.com - the bookie with the most markets and the best odds.