How to Bet Smart on the Soccer
The beautiful game is named just that for many reasons, one of them being how exciting and rewarding soccer can be for punters who love to bet on sporting events. From results, goalscorers and clean sheets even down to how many corners and cards a team receives, there are a wealth of opportunities for betting within a single game.
Any kind of sportsbook across the world will offer you odds on any of these aspects but it’s key to know what to think about when approaching sports betting, especially in regards to a game as dynamic and open as soccer.
Know both sides
Anyone will tell you that the most important part of sports betting, in general, is to know your stuff. This absolutely applies to soccer, as knowledge of the team’s form, injuries, past results against their opposition and even who they’re playing in the near future will help you make a measured and considered decision.
For example, a team who’s on red-hot form may come up against a bottom-of-the-league side who haven’t won in their last 6. But taking the time to find out that the favoured side’s star striker is out with an injury and that the underdogs have signed a new goalkeeper could be key knowledge heading into the game.
Bet with your head
No one wants to bet against their own team. In a perfect world, your club would rake in your winnings every match as your favourite player adds to his goal tally – but that rarely happens.
Even if your team’s sponsor offers generous odds on them, it’s a wise choice to stay away from your favourite team’s matches altogether, betting experts will always tell you to bet with your head rather than your heart.
Take advantage of the handicaps
Soccer betting has a number of tricks up its sleeve that it offers to punters, who can use them to their advantage. Asian handicaps, which allow a greater margin of error for results-based bets and European handicaps, which allow for a +1/-1 goal difference to be considered on a game’s result can turn what might be a lost flutter into a winning outcome.
Alongside these, there are double chance bets, which allow you to bet on either a home team win/draw or an away team win/draw or perhaps over and under betting, which opens up the chance to win on how many goals are scored by using a .5 number to incorporate two possibilities.
Accumulators
Accumulators are the most popular way for a player to bet on soccer odds. They allow for one stake to cover multiple results and offer a high payout depending on how specific you want to be.
Betting on underdogs to win, betting on specific scorelines, predicting how many corners one team will have in the first half or even filling your slip with a mixture of them all can result in a potentially massive payout. It’s always worth taking the time to explore more generous odds that can build up your accumulator so that your chances of winning are greater.