Every week, we post a couple of articles bringing you the latest sporting events and our top tips for those events. Now of course, you are free to ignore this as you see fit and go with your own instincts on what to bet on instead.
And if you are someone that does indulge in a little sports betting, perhaps alongside your poker or casino gaming, then what is the best advice we can give you about enjoying sports betting and getting the most from it?
Now, this advice that I’m going to give you below is the same whether you are betting with cash, or whether you have used your bet365 bonus code to claim some bet365 credits. Whether it is your own cash, or bonus cash you are betting with, it doesn’t matter – the advice is still good to follow!
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Responsible Gambling
Now before I give you my advice, I must add a very important caveat here. At any point, and
for any form of gambling whether that is playing poker, bingo, casino games or sports betting, then you should always ALWAYS gamble responsibly.
Sites like bet365 take responsible gambling very seriously and there are a huge amount of helpful articles, links and similar on the site to help you ensure that you are betting responsibly.
All the top gambling sites are fully committed to responsible gambling and you should be too. So for the purposes of this article, we are already assuming that you are gambling responsibly by:
- Only betting with money you can afford to lose.
- Ensuring you are controlling when and how much you gamble effectively.
- Not chasing any losses you may have incurred.
- Remaining honest and open about the amount and time you spend gambling.
- Being able to stop gambling whenever you want to.
So, with that very much in mind, let’s now look at some more specific advice we can give to people who may be taking their first steps into the world of sports betting.
Top Sports Betting Tips
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Get Used To Losing!
I’m sorry if it sounds like we are starting this with a negative aspect of sports betting, but we
do have to be realistic. As is the case with any form of gambling, the odds are not in your favour when it comes to landing success regularly.
So, it is imperative that you get used to losing bets. It is going to happen, and it is likely that it may well happen with your very first bet.
Now losing isn’t a bad thing if you gamble responsibly. Remember, the sports book services do try to keep the odds in their favour and it does make any eventual winning bet all the more sweeter.
This is more about having realistic expectations about sports betting. Sure you may have read about a punter who landed a 456,713/1 accumulator for a €1 stake, or who turned a £5 bet into £100,000, but they are the exceptions, not the rule.
So when you bet, do so expecting to lose. Then on the occasions you win, you view that as a bonus. Frame your experience positively, not negatively, and you help foster the right attitude to sports betting from the very start.
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Stick With What You Know
Now we’ve got the negative aspect out of the way, let’s focus on some more positive advice about sports betting and the best advice I can give any person starting to bet, is to stick to the sports that you know best.
It doesn’t matter what that sport is. Sites like bet365 Sport offer an incredible array of sports to bet on and a wide range of tournaments, competitions and fixtures for each. You won’t be short of opportunities to bet if you focus solely on your favourite sport (unless it is something crazy like international cheese making or tug of war).
The key to making better bets that have more chance of success is by betting on markets and events that you know more about and the more knowledge you have, the better the chances you will judge what bet to make more clinically.
For example, in a horse race, you can pick a horse by any number of factors if you follow the sport. You may know about the horses breeding, how in form the jockey or trainer is, what its form is, whether the horse has been handicapped, the level of opposition it is running against in this race compared to previous races.
Knowing and using this to decide which bet to make is so much more effective than simply picking a name at random, or betting on a horse because “you like the name” or “the odds were good”.
All of which brings us neatly onto our next nugget of advice.
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Research, Research And Research!
Have you ever wondered why some people seem to be ‘luckier’ at sports betting than some
others? The answer to that is often that the ‘lucky’ person is the one that has put in the most research when it comes to placing their bets.
This is the case even for a market you know very well. In the NFL for example, you may follow the fortunes of the teams and understand the results and their standings in each division. You’ll likely know the best players and whatnot.
However, additional research can tell you key information to help inform your bet. Such as the form of the two teams playing, what players are injured and not playing for the teams in the fixture you are interested in. How the team has performed at home or on the road.
This additional level of detail can help shape your bet and help you narrow down the selections you think have the best chance of success.
The more time you spend researching your bet before you place it, then the more chance you have of picking a market that stands a better chance of winning.
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Accumulator Fans – Remember: Longer Odds = Less Chance Of Winning
Parlay or Accumulator betting is hugely popular as a form of bet as it is a great example of a
low risk, high reward bet. You don’t need to bet a huge amount of money to earn a big profit if you can land this type of bet.
However, one thing you must realise is that the more selections you add to a multiple selection bet like an accumulator or parlay, then the longer the odds will get. The longer the odds are, the less chance there is of that being successful.
So, while landing a 1,000/1 accumulator would be fantastic, you are far more likely to land an accumulator of odds of 5/1.
These types of bets are great fun, but it is always important to remember that while seeing the odds increase on your bet may increase the excitement, it also decreases your chance of landing the win.
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Don’t Have Time To Research? Use Tips!
If you don’t have the time to research your bets, then what’s a better option? Well one is to use tips articles and let someone else do the work for you!
I am always the first to say that tips are never 100% certain, but you at least know that the person making them has done at least some, if not a great deal, of research about the market and has come to the conclusion that the bet they suggest is a good bet to make.
Do be wary of tipsters that put on social media about “certain” wins or “huge acca wins”. Some people do this simply to try and ensure that they appear to be successful.
I know of one tipster who regularly posts about successful accumulator bets on Twitter, but what they don’t tell you is that while they have landed one 30/1 accumulator bet, they have actually placed 50 other acca bets that same weekend, that all failed (which they don’t tell you about), so they are making a net loss most weekends.
Find a trusted tipster who doesn’t promise the earth and you won’t go far wrong as a beginner, but then when you get the confidence, try a few things for yourself and you will quickly discover all of what sports betting has to offer, including the occasional free bet at Bet365.
