OUR Meet The Team series gets inside the minds of some of WLB's brightest stars with their favourite resources, valuable insight and greatest memories of betting shared, with Jack Wright (@JackWright_BSB) up next.
When did you first start betting? Can you remember your first bet?
My first interest in any kind of betting was doing the football pools for my parents – they let me pick the draws one week and I nearly missed out on a nice win as I was “taking too much time”. My parents used to just do a random 10 games – whereas I was using the league tables – my first taste of stat-based betting back in 1983! Although I never won again after that first time.
Individually it would have been when I was in my late teens doing the usual old school trip to the bookies and doing a Saturday afternoon £1 accumulator.
What sports or leagues do you focus and bet on?
My focus lies with football and although my knowledge of the English game is strongest I am comfortable dipping in to most of the top leagues across Europe. I certainly don’t buy in to the notion that you shouldn’t bet on anything other than the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga or Ligue 1.
Where there is stats, trends, strengths and weaknesses there is normally an edge to be found and proof in point being back in April, when Belarus was the only league in action whilst the rest of Europe went in to sporting lockdown and as a result Dynamo Brest and their corner exploits will always have a place in my heart.
As for betting I am lucky enough to have found some great tipsters, several through this very website, who give me enough confidence in their well reasoned selections to part with my hard earned – I particular enjoy betting on golf and basketball.
What sites or sources do you use to follow them?
I have to say Bet365 takes some beating – even when not actually having placed the bet with them I usually go over there to set alerts for corners, cards, penalties and substitutions – although I tend to avoid the goals alert having been burnt on more than one occasion with the cancelled notification abruptly ending by dance around the living room celebration.
FlashScore is my go to for goals alerts with WhoScored.com, Stats Zone and SofaScore taking care of my “was that a shot/tackle” props needs!
What are your favourite websites for research?
There are so many and seemingly growing by the day but my favourites are: PlayerStats.football which gives the best visual snapshot for player props in my opinion and is free as well of course, WhoScored.com is where you can really dig in to the detail having identified a possible play and for hardened stattos you can easily lose a day in the incredible fbref.com.
Rotowire.com for player stat info and corner-stats.com for team stats are excellent subscription sites, and when it comes to using xG and the like to measure team performance I head to understat.com.
Twitter is a great resource once you find reliable sources – blue tick verified team pages of course being one, I like to try and find local journalists to try and get ahead of any team news – the Athletic provides some awesome content and for my own team @ncfcnumbers provides a regular stream of statistical gems.
What stats do you consider the most important?
Most stats offer something of use especially if it seems to be a reoccurring theme over a period of time and I think most smart bettors now are trying to use xG to give a more rounded picture of a team or player.
I also like to look at stats to show a weakness – for example a team that is poor at defending set pieces look to their opponents threats at corners and free kicks.
Are there any stats or trends you feel are irrelevant?
I don’t worry too much about head to head data, with so much player and managerial movement I don’t see how it can have much of an influence on a result.
Possession – other than betting on that particular market or one directly connected to it (passes) is another that I find is close to irrelevant. It has also been interesting to see the impact of playing behind closed doors on home advantage during the last few months.
What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt betting?
Be disciplined, patient and remove as much emotion as possible from your betting – have a betting bank, manage and protect it.
Keep to a sensible staking plan, don’t try and pay your mortgage off by the weekend, there’s always another day, another bet and sometimes accept no bet is the best bet.
Why is value important in betting?
If you keep on the right side of value then you will win in the long term. Put simply if you only bet on a coin toss, with a legal 50p piece and were given 6/4 on heads every time, if you backed it every time you would win in the long term. Just because a bet loses doesn’t mean it wasn’t value equally not every bet that wins is value.
If a bet is a value bet at 5/1 don’t take 3/1 – have as many betting accounts as possible to always get on at the best price.
Have you any advice for punters looking to try and find an edge?
Look to get on early, sometimes betting on the day of the game is too late, if you regularly beat the closing line then you are doing something right so keep at it! Also try and be the master of a market or league, if you know what you are looking for or what you want to see from the bookies opening line you can capitalise on any mistakes or errors in price.
What’s your biggest betting win and how do you spend it?
Well my biggest win was the one at the top of this piece which was £11,774.04 which was spent on home improvements! Other than that I won a four-figure sum on a first goalscorer Lucky 15 – if I told you the scorers in question were Efan Ekoku, Ian Wright, Alan Shearer and Rod Wallace it will give you an idea as to when that was..
More recently I landed a 950/1 Result and Both Teams To Score five fold – which went towards buying a car.
Do you review your bets and track your winners/losers?
Yes I log my bets using a site called bet-analytix.com which is very user friendly, although a simple Excel sheet or written log is good enough.
I also have a separate bank account for my betting so can easily track my profit.
How do you cope with losing bets?
I cry. Lots. Haha seriously, another step to being successful is to know you will have losing bets and days and rolling with it, however, the first thing I ask myself after a bet has lost is would I back that same bet again, if so then great if the answer is no, understand why not and try not to do it again.
The old adage learn from your mistakes is never more important than in betting.
What’s the best thing about betting?
Winning! Nothing better than doing your research, finding what you think is a total gem of a bet and watching it sail in. Proving yourself right, getting one over the enemy and making some money in the process – nothing better!
To generate a second income or in some cases main income from doing something you love is a fantastic feeling.
