10 Steps to Serious Football Betting

Football betting, like cooking, is a great deal of fun and I enjoy the same thrill before placing a football bet as I do when I am about to cook a great meal.

However, there is nothing fun about seeing a meal or a football bet turn out badly.  I have worked hard to ensure I never cook bad meal and how would you like to become a serious football bettor?

  • Steps you can take to improve
  • How to react when winning and losing
  • Serious betting means a serious attitude

Serious football betting is not easy and you will find some great tips below to help you on your way.  However, you must be prepared to put in the work if you want to begin making a profit when betting on football.

So, are you ready to become serious with your football betting and reap the rewards?  Let’s begin!

1. Start with the Basics

As an experienced chef, I sometimes have the opportunity to train new chefs.  While many of these chefs have been cooking at home for fun, none of them have ever cooked in a pressure environment, such as a top restaurant.  To get them started, I always run through the basics because without that, the rest is meaningless.

  • Understand Terms
  • Understand Betting Markets
  • Take time to learn

The same applies for serious football betting.  You cannot expect to take football betting seriously if you do not understand the basic markets available at bookmakers.  So, we will begin with the basic football betting markets you must understand to become a serious football bettor.

Match Betting

Match betting is also referred to as 1×2 betting, with the ‘1’ being the home team the ‘2’ the away team and the ‘x’ the draw.  This is usually the first market listed at most online bookmakers and very straightforward.  You must bet on whether you think the game will finish with a home win, away win or a draw.

Both Teams to Score

This is another cornerstone market for serious football betting.  If you have ever looked at any football betting tips online, you will definitely have seen the both teams to score market.  When betting on this market you must either back both teams to score by betting ‘yes’ or go against both teams to score by betting ‘no’.

Correct Score

Another big football betting market is correct score.  You may not see this tipped as often as the two markets above because it is more difficult to predict.  However, the odds are often very good and any serious football betting person will need to get to grips with the correct score market.

First Goalscorer

This is a popular football betting market for both casual and serious football bettors.  You must predict which player will score the first goal of the game and much like the correct score market, this is not always easy but can bring a nice profit when successful.

Handicap Betting

Another favourite for serious football betting is handicap betting.  This is not as easy to understand as some of the other football betting markets above but basically involves giving one team a head-start and the other team a handicap.  If Manchester City are given a -1 goal handicap for example, they must win the game by 2 goals for the bet to be a winner.

In-Play Betting

In-play betting is one of the biggest recent introductions to online betting.  It allows you to place bets on a football match as the game is in progress.  This is another must-know market for serious football betting and you will need to become accustomed to in-play betting if you want to progress as a football bettor.

Accumulator

An accumulator involves combining two more bets into one bet.  You could predict the outcome to five football matches for example and add them together into one bet to increase the odds.  However, if one match is not in your favour you will lose the bet and this makes it a high risk strategy which is used sparingly in the world of serious football betting.

Now you understand the basic football betting markets and terms we can step into the kitchen and turn on the oven as we begin to look at the steps to serious football betting.

2. Analysing the Ingredients

Every dish I make includes several ingredients and I study each of them to make sure they will combine nicely to make the perfect meal.  I do not throw a meal together with no understanding of the elements which combine to make it.  If you want to get serious about your football betting, you should never place a bet without knowing the facts surrounding a match or tournament.

  • Analysis
  • Know the facts
  • Research

There are several aspects to a football match which you can analyse before the game to help you make the correct bet.  Below you will find the most important.

Team News

Wait for the team news before placing a bet on a match.  If one team relies heavily on a player for their goals and he has been injured in training and misses the match, you will be devastated if you have placed a bet on that team.  Wait until you know the teams before placing your football bet.

Form

Always study the form of both teams involved before placing a bet.  Serious football betting means analysing the teams and trying to pick out trends.  Does one team play well at home?  Does the away team score a lot of goals when playing on the road?  Is one team on a long unbeaten run?  Have there been a lot of goals in previous games between the two teams?  These are just some of the questions you must be asking yourself when football betting.

Motivation

Serious football betting involves looking at a match from all possible angles and one of those is player motivation.  A group of players fighting for the lives at the bottom of the league are going to be more motivated to win a match than a team who have secured third place in the league but have a Champions League final coming up the following week.

The team battling relegation will be the underdog but they will be the team more determined to win the match and that could make a big difference to the bet while the odds do not change.

3. The Best Ingredients

There are many places available for me to purchase my ingredients but I look around and always find the best.  Having a choice means there is always going to be a wholesaler or grocer who is offering me a better deal than the first one I have found.

  • The best odds
  • Compare odds
  • Always bet on the biggest odds

The same applies in football betting and you must look at the various bookmakers to find the best odds.  Those who participate in serious football betting always compare odds between bookmakers to find the best odds available.

Imagine placing a bet only to later find odds for the same market at a much better price.  Every Euro counts when betting seriously on football and you cannot afford to bet on anything other the best odds.

4. Finding Value

When sourcing ingredients for my kitchen, I not only look for the best priced products, I also look for those which provide value.  I do not want to buy green beans for example, if the price I am being offered is not good value for the quality of the beans.  I will only buy them if I feel I am getting good value for money and the same principle applies with odds for serious football betting.

  • Value odds
  • Your own judgement
  • Only bet when there is value

Finding value when football betting basically means locating odds which you believe are in your favour.  Much of the time football betting odds will favour the bookmaker but there will be occasions when they are in your favour and you must learn to identify and take advantage of them.

It is not easy and takes a special judgement to know when value odds are available but those involved in serious football betting take their time and study the odds to find what they believe to be value.  There is no set criteria and you must use your own knowledge and research to find great value bets.

5. Keeping Records

Whenever I order products for my kitchen, I always keep a record of what I am buying for my accounts.  I need to register them for tax purposes but I also like to know how much I am spending and if an item turns out to be value for money.

If you want to become serious about football betting, you must always keep a record of the bets you place.  You could create a spreadsheet on your computer and make a note of the amount you have bet, the type of bet you have placed and the outcome of the bet.

  • Note down every bet
  • Identify trends
  • Monitor your spending

They are three simple things but over time you will build a large record of your football betting exploits.  Firstly, this is a good way to keep track of how much money your are spending and how much you are winning or losing.  Remember, never bet more than you can afford and if you set yourself a limit each week or month, keeping a record will allow you to see if you are within your limits.

Secondly, keeping a record will help you identify trends in your betting.  Serious football betting is all about betting to your strengths and your records will show you if you make a lot of profit on a specific betting market.  When you have placed enough bets to form a good pattern of betting, you can assess which football betting markets are best for you and continue to bet using those and avoiding the ones which see you lose money.

6. Keeping Calm in the Kitchen

There are several things which can go wrong when I am cooking.  I have many examples of times when something has happened and it would have been easy to panic and let things spiral out of control.

I once had an electrical appliance catch fire and while some people panicked about the situation, I kept calm and got the fire extinguisher and put out the fire.  I also learned not to leave that appliance plugged in when not in use because it can overheat.

  • Keep your discipline
  • Know when to walk away
  • Never Chase losses

Serious football betting professionals know how to keep their discipline in testing circumstances.  One of the worst feelings when betting on football is to do a lot of research prior to a bet only to see the bet lose.  It will leave you questioning the time you spent on the bet and many casual football bettors will immediately place another bet, without thinking because they are angry and want to make up for their loss.

You must keep your discipline, whatever the circumstances.  Ask anyone involved in serious football betting what the most difficult yet important aspect is of their betting and the answer will be keeping their discipline.

If you begin chasing your losses, you will only lose more money.  Do not do it.

7. Resist Temptation

I bake a lot of cakes and when I do there is a huge temptation to start eating one myself.  I love cake and if I am baking one for an order I have received, I will always consider making one for myself as a treat for when I have finished.  However, if I did that, I would be eating several cakes every week and clearly that would not be good for me.

  • Resist risky bets
  • Accumulators rarely work
  • Big odds are there for a reason

I have managed to resist temptation and the same applies for serious football betting.  When scanning the betting markets, you will see many offers from bookmakers regarding accumulators and the odds linked to them are fantastic.  For a few seconds you can see Euro signs flashing in-front of your eyes and you know if you can land just one eight-fold accumulator, you will win big.

The reality is accumulators like this rarely come through and you will waste all your previous hard work if you fail to resist temptation and place a bet on an accumulator or similar bet with massive odds.

Yes, on some occasions an accumulator bet can win but it is not very often this will happen and unless you have identified some true value in an accumulator or other form of multi-bet, you are advised to stay away.

8. Remove Emotion from Your Work

There are times when a guest will order a dish I have spent many days perfecting only to ask for it without a specific ingredient.  It could be a sauce or a type of vegetable for example but whatever it is, I do not like removing ingredients from my dishes.

To maintain a successful kitchen, I cannot allow my own emotions to distract me from what the guest would like to eat and it is my job to give them what they have asked for, however strongly I feel about the situation.

  • Do not let emotion cloud judgement
  • Never bet on your team
  • Remove all distraction

Serious football betting is another aspect of my life where I cannot allow emotion to come into play.  As with the majority of football fans, I support a football club and when they are playing, I want them to win.  However, there are times when I know in my head the statistics says they are going to lose a match but my heart keeps telling me to bet on them to win.

To prevent this conflict of interest, I have stopped betting on football matches involving my favourite club.  It is a simple way to prevent any conflict and I can concentrate fully on my football betting without being distracted by the thought of betting against my own team.

9. Become a Specialist

As mentioned previously, I enjoy baking cakes and consider it to be one of my specialities.  I receive many orders for cakes due to my expertise and if I am going enter a competition, it will usually be a baking contest as that gives me the best chance of winning.

  • Understand your league
  • Use local knowledge
  • The lesser known the league the better the odds

I decided to focus on baking from an early age and this is why I have developed into a top baker.  This principle is also found in serious football betting.  Some gamblers know a lot about a specific league and the teams within that league.  It does not matter if it is the English Premier League or the Vietnamese League but the lesser known the league the better.

So, if you have access to the Germany Oberliga Bremen for example and have seen many matches in this league, why not use that in your betting?  You are guaranteed to find superior odds betting on games at that level and that means bigger profits.

10. Mentality

Serious football betting is as much about your mental approach as anything else and you must adopt what I call a ‘masters mindset’.  This is something I use in the kitchen because a master focuses on his own performance and does not let other opinions sway their own.

I have many people helping me in the kitchen and I am happy for them to offer their own ideas.  However, I am the one responsible for the kitchen and must take responsibility for my actions, whether the results are good or bad.

  • Take responsibility
  • Accept losses as your fault
  • Never stop learning

When betting on football, the temptation is to search for betting tips online and use them.  If the bet loses it is not your fault and it feels comfortable knowing you can blame someone else.  The problem is you will never become good at football betting by taking this approach.

You must be responsible for every bet your place and serious football betting masters know how to accept mistakes and that losses are part of the process.  You must remember you are on a learning curve and that means you must keep developing your skills and accepting a setback when it happens as being your responsibility.

If you can do that and follow the other steps highlighted above, you will become a serious football betting expert.