I recently heard about this housewife gambler who is making good steady long term gains from football betting. Specifically betting on the over 2.5 goals market.
So I made contact with Louise and she agreed to write an article for us on why she bets in the over 2.5 goals market and why you should to.
Why You Should Consider Betting On Goals
Betting on the number of goals in a game allows you to win money without having to predict who will actually win the match. Typically that means betting over or under 2.5 goals at the outset of most games.
From a strategy point of view it is a style of betting that has both pros and cons, and a bet that will split the crowd amongst professional punters.
Some pros moan that it is hard enough predicting where the goals are likely to come from without worrying about how many goals you’ll see.
For people like me, looking at the number of goals produced per match is a much more reliable – and profitable – strategy than predicting who will score them.
I am a woman, clearly. I am a working mother of two and a maths graduate.
I can’t profess to be a football expert but what I do have though, is something that many so-called experts don’t have – a genuinely mathematical mind, and a degree to prove it.
My profitable betting, which I now share with my subscribers, takes advantage of the maths-based match analysis methods I have developed for use in the football goals betting markets – specifically Over 2.5 match goals.
What I like about this market is that, not only are goals ‘good’ from a predictive point of view but also that the bookmaker’s overround is less crippling than it is in other markets such as say 1X2, HT-FT or an antepost market like say the winner of The Grand National or The Champions League.
The overround is a very important concept in betting. It ensures bookies make a profit regardless of the outcome of an event and is the foundation of a bookie’s business. The concept bookmakers use to do this is simple, they offer all bettors lower odds than those they believe an outcome is truly worth. The overround is expressed as a percentage, with a 100% book representing a market where the bookmaker has no margin whatsoever. The higher the overround percentage is then the bigger profit is for the bookmakers. If the percentage goes below 100% then the bookmaker stands to lose money.
For example, if the over-round is 120% the bookmaker will expect to pay out £100 for every £120 pounds they take in, yielding them an expected profit of 20/120 = 16.7%.
With fixed odds for three possible outcomes in a football match bet – the home win, draw, and away win – a typical overround is between 107% to 112%. Indeed some Internet firms can go as high as 118% for games in obscure football leagues where they fear that individual punters can carry a far greater edge than their hard-pressed compilers.
As a rule of thumb, the greater the number of possible result permutations within a sporting event (or within one of its constituent parts, such as a scoreline), then the greater the bookmaker's overround will be.
A correct score bet in football can have as many as 24 possible options on which to bet. A typical overround for this type of bet may be anything from 130%-160%, depending on the bookmaker. You’d probably find something similar in a competitive big field horse race such as The Grand National.
In contrast to correct score betting, total goals betting in football, where there are only two possible outcomes (over 2.5 goals or under 2.5 goals), attracts overrounds that are commonly less than 110% and sometimes as low as 102% for a Premiership game, say, where the bookies are actively looking to attract a high volume of business.
The name of the game in betting is to minimise the bookmakers’ advantage at all times while playing up the impact of the things that are in your favour whether that’s stats, a value model like mine, or local knowledge about teams and players that can impact on a result.
With that in mind betting opportunities with just two potential outcomes are always worth looking at as both the strike rate and potential returns can be excellent for those with a demonstrable edge.
If you can get your head around betting on goals then the over 2.5 goals market is absolutely one of the best betting opportunities that currently exists.
Louise' Soccer Tips service has a number of selections for this weekends footy action and I have included one for you here…
League – England Premier
Kick Off Time – Saturday 1st November 12:45
Teams & Selection – Newcastle v Liverpool OVER 2.5
Prices Available – 1.78 Betvictor Pinnacle – 1.76 Marathonbet 188Bet – 1.73 Bet365 Sbobet Boylesports
Stake – 1.5pts
Oddsportal Link
After the number crunching on this game I reckon the true odds price to be around 1.60
To join Soccer Tips or to find out more about Louise and her service go to www.soccer-tip.co.uk
Today's Selection
2.40 Stratford Summer Storm – win bet – 13/8 Boylesports
Understanding Greyhound Racing Form
I've been promising for a while now that I will teach some winning greyhound strategies so today I'm going to explain how the form is recorded for the dogs. I'll then go on to share a strategy that I have used for years whenever I bet the dogs.
This is going to run over a number of days and I might spread it out a bit so as to not bore those readers not interested in the dogs, but we'll see how it goes.
So below you will see a screenshot of some greyhound racing form and below that a list of what the various items mean.
Greyhound racing form – Click to Enlarge
[1] Starting with the easy, this is the trap that the dog will run from
[2] The dogs name & (W) indicates that this dog is a wide runner and consequently it will be allocated one of the outside traps each time it runs. You may also see (M) which indicates a middle runner and this dog will be allocated a middle trap.
[3] The best recent (Calculated) time that the greyhound has achieved along with details of the grade and the date. In this case the best time came in a trial, a trial is a qualifying race which helps the racing manager to know how to grade the dog IE what is it's ability what race should he put it in. Trials will usually have less than 6 runners, 3 in this case, and there is no betting on trials.
[4] The name of the trainer.
[5] This is the Racing Post rating for the dog. It is time based and personally I don’t pay much attention to it.
[6] A description of the animal in this case a F b which is a fawn bitch (female) a male will be indicated with a d for dog. This is followed by the name of the dogs sire (father), dam (mother) and the date whelped (Date of Birth).
[7] Date last in season. Bitches only!
[8] This is the Racing Post's tipsters comment, often vague and and can sway your judgement.
Now we get to the past form for the dog in question. Each line represents one race with the top line being the most recent.
[9] The date of the race.
[10] The track where the race was run.
[11] The distance of the race in metres.
[12] The trap number that the dog ran from on that occasion.
[13] The sectional or split time. This is the time from the traps to the winning line the first time the dog passes the line. This is useful to hep you understand the pace of the dog and whether it is likely to lead early.
[14] Position in race at the start (IE out of the traps), quarter (In a 4 bend race this will be between the 1st & 2nd bends), half and three quarter stages.
[15] Finishing position.
[16] The distance beaten by or if the winner the distance won by.
[17] The name of the winner or the second if this dog was the winner.
[18] The Racing Manager's in running comments for that run
[19] The time that the winner took to complete the race.
[20] The allowance made for the going. N = normal otherwise plus or minus in hundredths of a second EG – 40 means that the time was adjusted down by 40 hundredths of a second.
[21] The starting price of the dog.
[22] The grade of the race.
[23] The calculated time for this dog. This will be calculated from the distance the dog finished behind the winner and adjusted for the going allowance.
Now that we understand the information (form) that we have available next time we can look at how we can use that information.
Now we know how to read the card check out these posts that deal with finding a winner.
Who is the fastest to the first bend
Greyhound racing videos
Baulking
Is it fast enough
Image courtesy of Saris0000 under Creative Commons 2.0
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