The first thing you should acknowledge when starting to wager on football is that it’s not a win-win lottery. Some bets work, some don’t. This happens even with the most experienced players since it’s impossible to predict the outcome of a sports match with 100% accuracy.
However, you can minimize the risks if you follow the basic football betting rules. Even though the guidelines are quite simple, they require strict adherence and excellent, in-depth preparation. So how to make your football bets work? Let’s sort things out.
Football Bet Types
Newcomers often feel a bit confused when they visit a gambling site for the first time. It’s especially true for those starting GGBet betting, as the bookmaker offers the widest range of bet types to suit the preferences of both novice and experienced gamblers. With such a huge variety of options, it’s easy to get lost in the terminology and end up losing your stake, so familiarize yourself with the basic betting markets beforehand:
- 1×2 – the most popular stake type in football. The bettor chooses between three outcomes (victory of the team 1, draw, or victory of the team 2).
- Double chance – team 1 or draw, team 2 or draw, or there will be no draw. This is a simplified version of the 1×2 bet.
- Total Over/Under – this market requires you to predict the total number of scored goals and decide whether this value will be higher or lower than the one set by a bookmaker.
- Handicap – allows you to equalize the odds in a match by giving a disadvantage to a superior team.
- Correct score – you need to predict with what score the game will end. Only regular time is taken into account.
- Combined (accumulators) – give you a chance to make multiple predictions in one bet (e.g. team 1 to win + total over, 1st half – team 2 to win + both teams to score, both teams to score + draw, and the like).
- Other offers – there are many additional bets related to goals and match statistics. Thus, you can try to guess the author of the goal, the score of the first half, the number of corners, etc.
How to Choose Tournaments for Betting on Football
Don’t try to cover the entire bookmaker’s line, it’s better to choose several familiar tournaments (EPL, Serie A, Champions League, etc.). The fewer competitions you wager on, the more time you will have to analyze the matches within each league. After all, you need to understand football and know the strengths of teams and their play styles, so watch more live matches and take notes. The following criteria will help you choose a tournament:
- matches take place at a time convenient for you;
- the tournament is widely covered in the media;
- statistics for all tournament participants are publicly available in a language you understand.
Basics of Pre-Match Analysis
Pre-match analysis should be an integral part of any prediction you make. These are the primary aspects to keep in mind if you are eager to make money on football betting:
- weather conditions;
- statistics of head-to-head matches;
- team results in the 5 latest league games;
- motivation and physical condition of players;
- tournament standings;
- list of injured and suspended players;
- match referee.
When It’s Better Not to Bet
Football betting is meant to be enjoyable, so you are free to place stakes whenever you want. But if you are eager to make it profitable, it’s better to refrain from betting when you:
- don’t have a clear idea of the upcoming game (unfamiliar tournament or teams);
- feel unwell (you didn’t get enough sleep or got sick and are now unable to think objectively);
- don’t have time to analyze the match;
- don’t have enough money to place a stake.
