DEBUTANT contributor Martin Skuggevik Foss (@Skuggz) shares his five golden dos and don'ts betting advice.
DO open an account with as many bookmakers as possible
The very first thing you should do when you start your betting career is to open accounts with as many bookmakers as possible.
This way you’ll always have the highest odds in the market available for you to bet on. This is important if you want to profit with betting in the long run.
DO focus on fewer leagues
In order to always have the best chance of betting successfully you need to know the players, the managers, the teams and the leagues you’re punting on.
If you bet on 15-20 different leagues during a season you’re going to have to be a super human to follow all the teams closely. Having the latest injury news from each team at your disposal, you’ll automatically have a greater chance of grabbing a piece of the cake before the odds drop.
DO bet what you can afford
Only bet with money you can afford to lose.
Set up a budget, and spend a certain amount of the money you’ve set aside – 4-5% of the budget per bet is recommended by some. This will allow you to have bad runs of losses without losing all your money.
DO find your own strategy
Find your own strategy for betting – whether It’s in-play betting, or pre-match It’s always important to have a strategy for how you want to play.
If you’re a master at picking matches that’ll feature Under 2.5 Goals then perhaps focus more on that, for example.
DO learn the market
Learn the odds markets and movements. If you want to become a profitable bettor you’ll need to learn how the market works.
How big favourites (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc v smaller teams) receive a large number of bets in the last few hours before kick-off, which in terms will make the odds drop. You’re usually better off betting on favourites at an earlier stage than right before the match starts.
DON’T be swayed by emotions
Don’t let your emotions take over. If you let your emotions take control over your betting you’ll find yourself betting on your favourite team when you probably shouldn’t.
You’ll start betting because you’re bored or angry. This never leads to anything good so try to avoid it.
DON’T chase losses
Don’t start chasing losses – EVERYONE has losing streaks, and EVERYONE hates them.
If you have a series of lost bets in a row you can quickly find yourself in a situation where you want to win it back. You start betting on matches/events you wouldn’t have usually, and your only aim is to win the money back. This often leads to a further loss of bets.
It’s hard, but important to avoid.
DON’T bet on dropping odds
Don’t bet on an event where the odds have significantly dropped.
If you’ve found a bet for the weekend at a given price, but you then find out the odds have has dropped you’ll do well to walk away from it, given there’s no value in the odds anymore, of course.
This is hard for many, but a necessity if you want to be successful.
DON’T bother with accumulators
Don’t do accumulators. Just don’t do them if you want to be successful bettor – It’s a lot harder winning money in the long run if you do.
If you’re just looking for a bit of fun with a tenner, then do go ahead. If you’re serious about it, though, I’d suggest you keep away from the four-folds and above.
DON’T ever stop learning
Never stop learning. Perhaps the most important lesson in betting is that you’ll always have something new to learn. Even the most skilful bettors learn new things.
If you don’t push yourself you never reach new heights and that goes for anything in life. Never be satisfied with what you know about betting.
Keep learning!
