Football Betting Online

PLF

PLF

Legend
Joined
2 August 2004
Hi guys,

Yesterday, DeniroBob pm'ed me to get my thoughts and predictions on a few things related to the upcoming Ligue 1 season and possibly bet on and we had a really nice chat which opened my eyes to this whole online football betting thing that I've been basically ignoring and not paying any attention to, before.

This got me thinking, should I bother with betting online? I've never tried it and I think it could be sorta fun and of course it'd be nice to make a buck or two if you can predict a few things correctly which I think I may be capable of.

So I was just wondering, out of the many folks who frequent this forum, how many of you have ever given it a try or still do? What do you think about it? The experience as a whole? Which websites do you use? (William Hill, skybet, etc.)

Do you recommend it for me? Do you have to be in England to place those bets or can I do it from elsewhere if I have a master card?
Do you bet on matches only or also on stuff like who gets relegated, finishes top 3, top-scorer, etc.?

Just some basic random questions I had which I thought I'd post here to see if we can get a general informative (for me) discussion going on about people's previous experiences with 'football betting online' and what they think about it as I'm eager to hear about them and it's something I've never tried out but am thinking about giving a go to.

Thanks for any helpful posts and advice in advance.
 
I occasionally bet online and could give you a few pointers.
Though give me a little while as I am away from my PC at the mo and I hate these bloody laptops!!:lol:;)
 
I use Bodog.com for all my sport betting (horse racing, especially). It's very easy to set up.

You can bet on pretty much anything from their site (I think you used to even be able to bet on the winner of Survivor on Bodog).

Anyway, the best advice is to never bet with scared money.
 
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steevio_uk said:
I occasionally bet online and could give you a few pointers.
Though give me a little while as I am away from my PC at the mo and I hate these bloody laptops!!:lol:;)
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Cool.

I'd appreciate that.

DB has already helped me and clarified some stuff I didn't understand about reading odds and that sorta business.
He's gonna be helping me more as well. But the more, the merrier. :)

Coopz said:
i did it and lost alot of money
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I'm sorry to hear that, Coopz. :p

Didn't mean to bring on a sad subject for you. :mrgreen:

codpiece said:
I use Bodog.com for all my sport betting (horse racing, especially). It's very easy to set up.

You can bet on pretty much anything from their site (I think you used to even be able to bet on the winner of Survivor on Bodog).

Anyway, the best advice is to never bet with scared money.
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Not sure what is implied by "Scared Money"? If you mean, betting money that you don't have or something like that, don't worry about that aspect guys.

I'm very much in control of myself even when things get tempting :mrgreen: like betting can sometimes. Not one to lose control easily. Plus due to my rather crappy financial situation right now, I'm not gonna bet big on anything anyway. Rather I'll be making small bets where if I lose, I've only lost something like $10 or less which isn't much but if I win, it could be at least 3 or 4 times that.

That's the sorta stuff I'll bet on, so no worries, I'm not one who's gonna lose it all over gambling or go crazy on it or anything. ;)

I'll check out 'Bodog' by the way. Thanks.
 
scared money = money you can't afford to lose

As long as you do it for fun, then no worries. But, one must always remember:

"A fool and his money are soon parted."
 
codpiece said:
scared money = money you can't afford to lose

As long as you do it for fun, then no worries. But, one must always remember:

"A fool and his money are soon parted."
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That's a nice saying lol.
I see it meant what I basically thought it does.

No, I can assure you, it's just gonna be for fun. :)

steevio_uk said:
What is it you really want to know about mate?
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Hmm... nothing really specific at this moment but basically like I said, I'm very new to this whole online betting idea, so the basics would do for now as well as some site recommendations which allows a guy in Canada (like me) to bet on matches as I noticed some of them don't and are only limited to UK or Europe let's say.

Then once I get started and have an account and can have a look around the chosen website to conduct future betting on, I'm sure I'll notice somethings which I could ask you guys about. :)

I also opened this thread though, just to hear about different perspectives of individuals' like yourself who've tried in the past and/or still are active at it and what they think about it and other general stuff some of which the opening post asks about. Like what site you use/recommend? How much money you've made? How much maybe lost? Is it fun for you still? What do you normally bet on? matches or other predictions?

Basically just curious to see different people's opinions on this and their betting habits. That sorta general thing. So all posts as long as serious are welcomed. :)
 
PLF said:
I'm sorry to hear that, Coopz. :p

Didn't mean to bring on a sad subject for you. :mrgreen:
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I have some invaluable tips for ya

1. Start with a betting bank for example £100 which you are willing lose and not feel bad if you do

2. Never Ever chase money, meaning if you lose a bet then having another bet just to get your money back or putting double on your next bet

well only 2 tips but goods uns :)

also the best way to make money is to bet big especially football

Celtic, Rangers, Man u, Chelsea all short odds, most weeks the Scotish ones are about 1/6 so a £10 bet will get you 1.70 profit.
Slap £100 on and you will get 17.00 profit

doing that is a lot less ricky then putting a £10 on teams like Boro v Fulham, Pompy v Reading ect ect
 
total_gambler_547_8.jpg


Hi Coopz, PLF etc..

Id certainly agree with your first two points, but I can't agree with the risk to reward scenario by just backing the big glamour teams to win week in week out - well at least certainly not in a multiple bet!

My own betting philosphy is too look for the value (e.g. where i feel the perceived chance of a team is signifigantly greater of winning/losing than the bookies have priced the odds) and to bet small stakes on potentially profitable outcomes.

I don't mean stupid bets like time of first scorer combined with the final score but to take your example of Boro v Fulham.

If Boro were 4/5 a draw 5/2 and Fulham were 5/1 when the two teams were say side by side in the table, then Fulham at 5/1 clearly offers some 'value' if there real genuine odds should be something like 3/1.

The UK bookies generally speaking as one would expect know more about the Premiership, Championship etc.. than the European leagues, and the more obscure the league the less they'll know. They also factor in the fact that many people will just back the well known teams especially at home and this is therefore often where the value lies (away wins especially).

So for point 3 to add to the list.. do your research - if you know more than the average bookie does you've got a decent chance. Finally point 4 shop around for the best price.

cheers all

db
 
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I would tend to go for the Champions League and UEFA Cup / Intertoto matches now. I'd go for accumulators over these matches as follows:-

Champions Lg round 2:-

Shakhtar Donetsk to beat (Derry City FC/FC Pyunik Yerevan)
Red Star Belgrade to beat (FK Pobeda/Levadia Tallinn)
Red Bull Salzburg to beat (The New Saints/FK Ventspils)
Rosenborg to beat Astana
Slavia Prague to beat (F91 Dudelange/MŠK Žilina)
Levski Sofia to beat (S.S. Murata/Tampere United)
Beşiktaş to beat Sheriff Tiraspol
Rangers to beat FK Zeta

risky predictions:-
Sarajevo to beat Genk
BATE Borisov to beat (FH Hafnarfjördur/HB Tórshavn)
Copenhagen to beat Beitar Jerusalem
Dinamo Zagreb to beat (NK Domžale/SK Tirana) - normally I would say easy win for Dinamo, but they have been in bad form last few games.

too difficult to call:-
Debrecan (Linfield FC/IF Elfsborg) - Hungarian teams are not so strong Beránek is a good coach, but if Elfsborg get through it will be very close
Zagłębie Lubin Steaua Bucharest - Steaua is a strong side, but I don't know much about Lubin, only Polish teams I know are Wisła, Cracovia and Lech Poznań


The Uefa cup doesnt really get interesting from a prediction point of view until Q-Round-2, so let's leave that for now.

There is some leverage to be had in the Intertoto Cup now, it's the final round and the 1st legs have been played already. Again an accumulator is the way to go here:-

Southern Region (1st leg score)
Hajduk Kula v União Leiria 1-0 - Leiria to win
Ch. Varna v UC Sampdoria 0-1 - Samp to win
G. Bistriţa v Atlético 2-1 - Atlétí to win
Oţelul Galaţi v Trabzonspor - Trabzon to win (risky)

Central-East region
FC Tobol v OFI Crete 1-0 - Crete to win
D. Chişinău v Hamburger SV 1-1 - HSV to win
Chrn. Odessa v RC Lens 0-0 - Lens to win
SK Rapid Wien v FC Rubin Kazan 3-1 - Rapid to win

Northern region
FK Vėtra v Blackburn Rovers 0-2 - Blackburn to win
Hammarby v FC Utrecht 0-0 - Utrecht to win
KAA Gent v Aalborg BK 1-1 - Gent to win (risky)

Those are my thoughts
 
I was talking about singles which involves alot less risk then accumulators

Accumulators are where the bookies make there money each weekend with people looking to win decent amounts with little stakes
 
hi coopz

agree completely mate.

I only bet online and havent been into a bookies for donkeys years - Do they still not allow singles in their shops do you know ?

cheers

db
 
yeah they do

bookies are full of people playing the Roulette machines nowadays though
 
Well, I occasionally place a few quid on a few bets.

Though it is once a month or so and I place £5 here and £5 there on accumulators and 9 folds.
Spend about £15 every now and then on betting.

An accumulator is a simple process that you place say £5 on 10 results of your choice and have to get all the results correct for you to win. (Results, NOT scorelines)
The downside, is you have very little chance of winning unless you predict all 10 results correctly, but the upside is that the odds are about 1500/1 :lol:
So a straight £5 on the 1 potential outcome of all 10 results gets you about £8000

This is where we get into the amount of 'lines' you place on a bet.
I rarely do an accumulator, instead I do whats called fold, where it is usually for me, a 7 folds, 8 folds or 9 folds.
Now it gets a little complicated.
For a 9 folds, you place your £5 and it seperates equally over the amount of lines.
In this case, it is a 9 folds, which means you need any 9 results of the 10 to go your way, which means there is 10 possible combination of 9 results
So you will end up placing 50p on each line (10 lines) which means your total stake is £5.
Now each line will carry a set odds based on the cumultive odds of all 9 results in each line.
(Remember there are 10 possible outcomes in which 9 of your results will come in)
Now the winnings on 10 lines of 50p is roughly a potential £4000 as a total.
Roughly works out as 900/1 average on each line, with 50p staked on each line.
So with 9 results coming in, you win on 9 of your lines for definite.
Which means you win approximately 50p x 900 = £450 x 9 lines = approx £4000.

As far as I know, that is correct :lol:

It gets further complicated with 8 folds, 7 folds and 6 folds etc...

Let's use 7 folds as an example.
You need 7 of the 10 results to come in, but there are 120 combinations of 7 results possible, which means 120 lines.
for £6 you will have to put on about 5p per line which will total £6 total stake.
It is pretty complicated but say for example 8 results go your way, that means (at a guess for the sake of the example) 85 of the possible 120 results combinations have come in correctly, which could mean that you win on 85 of your 120 lines.
On each line, the odds could be roughly say 45/1 for example.
Which means you win: 45x6p = £2.7 per line on average, x 85 lines = total winnings of £230 approximately.

I hope it all makes sense and please can somebody correct me if they think I am wrong.
All my figures are estimations of roughly what you would expect and I hope it all makes some sense.

I rarely bet on single results unless I get a major tip on the horses.
But with football I usually place about £6 on a 7 folds, £3 on an 8 folds and £1 on an accumulator.
Small bets, high odds... unlikely to win, but no risk of losing too much money.
I may not ever win, but am only putting on relatively small amounts... but if I was ever to get lucky, then it could be to the tune of a few thousand pounds.
 
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The thing is though, if you do accumulators on who will get through a cup tie you have (ignoring form, squad strength etc) a series of nominally 50-50 bets.

Either team A or team B goes through in each match. If you can pick out ties where there is one team with an overtly stronger squad, or in overtly better form than the other team, then you can use this to predict a series of results.

For instance if you had a series of FA Quarter Finals as follows:-

Chelsea v Man Utd
Arsenal v Stoke
Mansfield v Liverpool
Yeovil v Blackburn

Then you could predict that Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn would advance (you would leave out the Chelsea - Man Utd match as being too close to call). With the Champions League qualifers you have lots of games where there is leverage (in terms of one team being stronger than the other), which means it's good for accumulators.
 
btw... I use www.skybet.com

If you go on there, have a look around the football bets and just play around.
Select any 10 games and it's results, then go to 'Bet Slip' at top right and you can fuck about with the stakes and such and hopefully fathom what I was waffling about earlier :lol:;)
 
F'n Excellent guys! :applause: :applause: :applause:

Thank you very much.

Lots of helpful hints and tips here.

I appreciate everyone who's posted.

I wanna give a special thanks to Stevo because he didn't think too much of me or over-estimate my betting knowledge or even English language and actually explained what 'folds' or 'accumulators' are. :D

Because in a couple posts prior to that, I read about them but was wondering what they are and then without me having to ask, he explained them in his next post. :thumbup:

@Edmundo, I agree with what you said about 'accumulators' and competitions like early rounds of CL, UEFA Cup or Inter-toto.

Usually it's something we should probably stay away from but for some of those games, often the two teams are so mis-matched in terms of strength, preseason-preparation (since some leagues start earlier than others) that you could maybe bet on many matches and still get all correct.

So I like your tip about that and I think, much like you, I will only ever use accumulators rarely and if I do, it'll be in early Uefa cup/CL rounds or Inter-toto where there is some very small teams from very small nations going against far stronger sides from Europe's top leagues.

steevio_uk said:
I rarely bet on single results unless I get a major tip on the horses.
But with football I usually place about £6 on a 7 folds, £3 on an 8 folds and £1 on an accumulator.
Small bets, high odds... unlikely to win, but no risk of losing too much money.
I may not ever win, but am only putting on relatively small amounts... but if I was ever to get lucky, then it could be to the tune of a few thousand pounds.
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That is also my betting philosophy and I think it's gonna be what I do with 'online' betting as well.

I've bet a few times by going to the actual store but never online and this is what I did back then too.

Because the truth is, I don't mind betting small since even if I lose it, it's no big deal and it's the sorta money I would've spent on some snack to eat or whatever anyway. But if I DO win, the reward will be very much worth it. :8):

Have you ever won anything big by betting small like this over the years, by the way Stevo? I consider anything above $150 big let's say especially considering you only bet $5 or $10. (I would use the pound sign but my key board doesn't have it. :p )

----------------------------

As for what Coopz said about making money on safer bets, that makes a lot of sense and is what I'd do if I had enough cash. But the thing is, you gotta have the money to make the money in that method since you have to bet large amounts and not only a few pounds or dollars.

If you have money to spend, you can make quite a lot by betting on safe choices and seeing your money multiply. You simply have to bet a large amount on those safe bets and you'll get a good reward.

But the thing is, I don't have the large money. I'm just looking to spend a few bucks (no more than $10 probably, something I wouldn't even notice if it were gone let's say) here and there. So it would make sense for me to look for 'value' like DB was explaining and usually bet on under-dogs when doing single matches where I think they have a good chance or do folds like Stevo was mentioning.
 
denirobob; yes, I only have a Skybet account online.
(sometimes use high street bookmakers for a random bet)

cfdh_edmundo said:
For instance if you had a series of FA Quarter Finals as follows:-

Chelsea v Man Utd
Arsenal v Stoke
Mansfield v Liverpool
Yeovil v Blackburn

Then you could predict that Arsenal, Liverpool and Blackburn would advance (you would leave out the Chelsea - Man Utd match as being too close to call). With the Champions League qualifers you have lots of games where there is leverage (in terms of one team being stronger than the other), which means it's good for accumulators.
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Yes, that's right.
But of course for games where there is a clear favourite, the odds on the result will be slashed dramatically. (as well as the good chance of a draw in the Chelsea v Man Utd example... so it's more 35/65 instead of 50/50 for such a fixture.)
Th key is to pick out a selection of games where you can really get a good price based on the knowledge you have on the fixture.
I mean, West Ham always do very well at Wigan and we have won there in the previous 2 years.
I got good odds on a West Ham win at the JJB and we indeed spanked them 3-0 and I won about £25.
If you can get a series of such matches into the same accumulator of which you could confidently predict, then that is key.
This then enters the realms of statisticians and 'professional' gamblers. Something which is way out of my league.

PLF said:
As for what Coopz said about making money on safer bets, that makes a lot of sense and is what I'd do if I had enough cash. But the thing is, you gotta have the money to make the money in that method since you have to bet large amounts and not only a few pounds or dollars.
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At the end of the day, betting is a mugs game if you are not sensible.
It's all good having a load of money, but then you rely on luck unless you know what you are betting on.
If you are sensible and rely on a bit of knowledge, then you can make bets go far.

PLF said:
Have you ever won anything big by betting small like this over the years, by the way Stevo?
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No :lol::lol:



But I will be paying more attention and doing more studying of fixtures and making a few more careful bets rather than it being on a whim.
 
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Sounds good. :thumbup:

We'll stay hopeful for you! :mrgreen:
 
also the best site by far to check football odds is

www.betbrain.com

choose your match and it will tell you who gives the best odds

but the best site to bet with is the betting exchanges, mainly betfair
 
So I assume these websites you (Coopz and the rest of the guys) are recommending, allow someone from Canada like me to open an account and bet just fine?

Plus, I never realized before, just how many different websites there are for this. Must be a head-ache having to choose one when there is so many options. :eek:
 
Just compare odds on the same competition between a few sites of your choice.
Check more odds of the same things to see who consistently offer the best odds.

Generally I find skybet to have worse odds than many other sites, but for the ease of it and the reputation of the company, I don't mind the difference.

As for you living in Canada (which is intriguing by the way), I don't know what the policy is for joining such sites.
I am sure many are international anyway as long as you have an internationally recognised card/bank.
 
denirobob said:
total_gambler_547_8.jpg


Hi Coopz, PLF etc..

Id certainly agree with your first two points, but I can't agree with the risk to reward scenario by just backing the big glamour teams to win week in week out - well at least certainly not in a multiple bet!

My own betting philosphy is too look for the value (e.g. where i feel the perceived chance of a team is signifigantly greater of winning/losing than the bookies have priced the odds) and to bet small stakes on potentially profitable outcomes.

I don't mean stupid bets like time of first scorer combined with the final score but to take your example of Boro v Fulham.

If Boro were 4/5 a draw 5/2 and Fulham were 5/1 when the two teams were say side by side in the table, then Fulham at 5/1 clearly offers some 'value' if there real genuine odds should be something like 3/1.

The UK bookies generally speaking as one would expect know more about the Premiership, Championship etc.. than the European leagues, and the more obscure the league the less they'll know. They also factor in the fact that many people will just back the well known teams especially at home and this is therefore often where the value lies (away wins especially).

So for point 3 to add to the list.. do your research - if you know more than the average bookie does you've got a decent chance. Finally point 4 shop around for the best price.

cheers all

db
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Hey denirbob have you been successful with this (since you do know a lot about football)?
 
The one coopz mentioned recently (betfair) does have Canadian currency and also lets you select it as a country, I just checked. So I guess that's one fine choice.

Plus, I noticed, there is a lot of things to bet including 'relegation' and top 3 finish for leagues like France which is something some of the betting sites don't have. (They only had the option to select who the champ was gonna be for some of the other leagues except EPL), so that impressed me about 'betfair' as well.

DB also sent me a pm today telling me 'skybet' seems to be fine for "Canada" as well so that's 2 good choices so far. :)

----------------------

@SB, I'd like to see the pic in your avatar in a larger size so I can examine the girls in it more closely. :mrgreen:

Who's the dude in it by the way? That's not your lucky @$$, is it? ;)
 
I've been checking out "BetFair" for the past half an hour or so guys and I'm even more impressed now.

They have video tutorials (with sound as well) for newbies like me to explain what 'lay' or 'back' or 'matched/unmatched' bids are.

It was helpful.

They also have a website called "Betfair Play for Fun" where apparently it's risk-free and for newbies like me to practice making bids to get the hang of how everything works before making REAL bids which could see me win or lose $$$.

Seems like a big organization and my first impression is good thus far. :thumbup:
 
PLF said:

@SB, I'd like to see the pic in your avatar in a larger size so I can examine the girls in it more closely. :mrgreen:

Who's the dude in it by the way? That's not your lucky @$$, is it? ;)
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I wish it was :) but it's a rapper called Saigon.

saigonchicksia5.jpg
 
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