Betting Tips - Hints to Help Improve Your Punting (1-20)

Betting Tips Introduction

Sometimes it's the obvious, other times it's the not so obvious, but we all could do with little bits of help from time to time in improving our betting habits and our chances at winning.

These are simple snippets of advice with short explanations and where appropriate links that give fuller explanations.

Including this opening advice of how to find winners - 101 tips to choose a winning horse racing bet.

The list will be updated regularly and grow as time goes by to hopefully be a guide to better punting for all.

#1 Don't Bet More Than You Can Afford To Lose

It's the simplest of advice and the most pertinent to any punter. 

Betting can be approached as another form of entertainment that you spend your money on. 

You'd never book a £200 per night hotel room when you could only afford a £100 one, and so you should approach betting with this one governing factor always to the fore. 

Bet within your means.

#2 Don't Increase Your Stake After Winning

Unless you are adopting a specific betting method or staking plan, never arbitrarily increase your stake just because you've won. 

Betting shop mugs do this all the time and with very few exceptions their money will only go one way - back to the bookie.

#3 Treat Your Betting As a Business - Your Bookie Does

 Businesses can increase profit by minimising losses and outlay. Your bookie does this, and so should you. 

The one thing you are guaranteed to do when betting is back a loser.

Finding ways to cut down on the losers will greatly affect your potential to make a profit.

#4 Alcohol and Betting Don't Mix

Unless of course, you want to lose. 

Alcohol affects judgement, and if you are serious about your betting you need all your marbles lined up properly, so avoid a bevy session while trying to bet. 

Focus. Focus. Focus!

#5 Don't Follow The Money

Unless you are in on a gamble right at the start, by the time you get to know where the money's going all the best prices will be gone. 

If you dive in at that stage you could very likely be betting at no value or even negative value (the price is shorter than the selection's actual chances).

#6 Use A Betting Bank

If you're just betting from what available cash you have in your pocket at any given time you are unlikely to have much control over your betting. 

Lack of control is one of the quickest ways to get skint.

A betting bank lets you know how much you have to bet with, and helps you control stakes.

Most importantly, it can let you see whether you are winning or not (in conjunction with #7 and #8 also)

#7 Record All Your Bets

What's the first thing a punter will forget? Losers. 

We all remember the good winners we have but we all too easily forget the losers. 

That can lead you to think you're better at punting than you are. 

Keep a record of ALL the bets you make, with weekly or monthly totals and a running total. 

Nothing wakes you up to more discipline in your betting than when you see where your money is going. 

Better, more disciplined betting can lead to a weeding out of unnecessary bets and likely a lot of bad losers.

#8 Use A Staking Plan

Using a Staking Plan is a great way to control your betting. 

Used in conjunction with #6 and #7 (Betting Bank and Recording Bets) this will help you become a smarter punter, one who is control of his/her betting.

It won't guarantee to make you a profit but it should help you in one respect - to cut down on those silly unnecessary bets. 

Level Stakes is the most popular Staking Plan and a very sensible one too, but there are others. Bank Percentage Plan, Sequence Plan, and others.

#9 Don't Blame The Jockey, Trainer, Tipster Or Going, It Was You Who Placed The Bet

It's easy when you pick a loser to blame anyone and anything for the loss. 

The jockey rode a poor race, the ref was crap, the tipster never wins when you follow him... the list can go on, but essentially there's only one person to blame for a losing bet - yourself. 

The ultimate choice to place that bet lies with you, the punter. So if it goes down it's your fault. 

Why is that important and a hint to better betting? 

Well, in this game you have to have a clear head at all times. You can't be swayed by emotive issues. 

If a bet loses, let it slide, unless there's a valuable lesson to be learned for future reference.

#10 Never Bet Blind

In order to be disciplined and organised in your betting, which contributes to the increased potential for profit, you should ALWAYS have a solid reason for placing a bet.

Listening to a friend, or noticing one of your favourite horses is running, or even being at the racecourse or a football match and feeling the 'need' to have a bet while there should be avoided. 

Betting 'blind' - ie without information or sound reasoning to back up your selection - is one of punting's biggest no-no's. 

#11 Specialise In Just A Few Sports

 Bookies will have you betting on everything from the US Election to the X-Factor.

One of the reasons they offer so much is because it's profitable to them. 

One of the punter's best tactics is to specialise. 

Most of us know a varied amount about one or two sports, so when it comes to betting a major plus is to do the research and become more expert in just a few sports. 

That can give you an edge the bookies don't have, simply because their oddsmakers have to cover everything.

 By specializing you gain an advantage, and can better spot potentially good bets. 

For those of you who enjoy horse racing, there's an excellent blog on OLBG by member Jmstocka on fine-tuning your horse racing betting called The Keys To Success.

#12 Don't Panic In A Losing Streak

 As stated previously you are guaranteed to back losers, but what happens when you start to back loser after loser?

 It's at this point that the novice or undisciplined punter can start to panic, to question their methods, to start changing methods, and start chasing losses. 

All of these you must avoid. If you're organised, have confidence in your methods, and you have a properly sized betting bank to allow for a losing streak, stick with the plan. 

Stay calm and don't waiver from your methods. 

The dreaded losing run is all too familiar to all of us. 

It's a part of betting. [**caveat - methods, of course, can be changed under the correct circumstances, just not under the panic of a losing streak because you're not best placed to make the right judgements]

#13 Don't Chase Losses

This can be read in conjunction with #12 Don't Panic In A Losing Streak. 

Chasing losses is one of the main contributions to losing made by punters. 

When the main bet or bets of the day go down, some punters can't accept a losing day and so go off in search of winners, despite the fact that their earlier studies dismissed the remainder for having the potential for winners

Or a punter bets money he/she couldn't really afford to lose, then go off in a futile attempt to recoup the loss, and thereby losing more. 

Know when to walk away and call it a day.

#14 Don't Look For A Bet, Wait For One

You don't have to have a bet. 

Sure, we all like the thrill of a bet and watching its progress, but the punters who tend to lose more are the ones who can't resist having that thrill and therefore go repeatedly looking for a bet they wouldn't normally have done. 

You'll see them in betting shops all the time, moving from one race to the next, taking only a few precious seconds between races to try to find a selection. 

The disciplined punter will have his methods, and if those methods don't pinpoint a bet on a particular day they won't go looking for one - they'll do the right thing and wait till the next day.

#15 Don't Ignore The Exchanges

The Betting Exchanges -Betfair- Betdaq- Smarkets are very popular with serious punters, but there are still many backers who either don't like them, don't fully understand them, or feel they don't have the time to sit in front of a screen monitoring the odds. 

But, Betting Exchanges can be one of your best allies in the battle for profit. 

The odds can often be better (although allow for commission) and even if you don't have time to monitor bets you should still add at least one exchange to your portfolio of 'bookies' and check the current odds there when you are placing a bet.

If the odds are better on an exchange, why not take them?

#16 Bet Smart But Don't Try To Be Clever

 When you get/have more experience as a bettor there's often a temptation to overthink things, to overanalyze. 

Keeping things less complicated is always best. You can easily be too clever for your own good.

Example: I was betting on Pricewise one Saturday morning. 

One horse was 22/1 with Totesport (who re-open the betting at 9 am), and 20/1 with some others who were about to open at 8.30 am. 

I decided to be clever and hold on till 9 am for the 22/1. 

By the time 9 am came round there was a non-runner, which allowed Totesport to revise their prices... and of course markedly reduce the price of the Pricewise horse at the same time.

The resulting available odds were way shorter than 22/1 with a Rule4 applied, and of course, all the other 20/1 was now well gone.

I missed out because I got clever instead of taking the 20/1 that was available. 

What I should have done, in hindsight, was take the 20/1 and if I could get the 22/1 later top-up for a small amount.

#17 Bookies Are The Enemy, Betting Shop Staff Aren't

It doesn't always go to plan when betting.

In shops especially punters can be restricted in stakes or odds.

When this happens remember that the shop staff are only doing what they have to do, but when it comes to a dispute it can be beneficial to have shop staff on your side to a degree. 

Shop staff may be able to vouch for a punter's credibility, so stay on their good side. 

I've had that happen many times when working in the shops, and to be perfectly honest, it's those punters who gave me the least hassle and realised I was just doing a job who would get my support if I ever had to vouch for them.

#18 Singles Offer The Best Profit Potential

This is one of the obvious ones to the more experienced punter, but to the novice or to those lured in by the 'bonuses' and 'enhancements' of the 'big-money' bets that the bookies keep pushing to your attention (there's a reason why they keep advertising these bets), it may not be so obvious.

You won't win big-money with singles, that's true. 

But let's face it how many of you out there have won big-money with multiple bets? 

With singles you don't face the furstrating situation where you can lose it. 

With singles, you don't get a winner only to have wait on having another winner to have it pay off for you.

Bookies don't like you betting singles, that's why you'll rarely see them advertising them. 

Singles allows you to shop around for the best price and give yourself the best chance of profit. 

Multiple bets are for the dreamers.

#19 It's Not Just About Picking Winners

This may confuse some punters. yes, you need to be able to pick winners if you are going to make a profit, but simply using a strategy to pick the likeliest winner of a race or event is probably going to fall short. 

If you blindly follow odds-on shots you will pick a lot of winners, but you may find that you don't make a profit. 

The winners you pick need to be able to give you a long-term profit and that's where value comes in. 

Not everyone is a total value hunter, but the honest truth is, you need to get the odds in your favour to ensure profit.

 I have another blog post called 'Getting a Handle on Value in Betting' which will help explain in more detail. 

#20 Join OLBG.com

There are a number of great resources out there for punters, from the excellent RacingPost.com to a number of sites dedicated to giving stats and results for specific sports.

However, there's little doubt in my mind that this site - OLBG.com - is one of the best resources and interactive sites for punters. 

The wealth of information, the depth of knowledge amongst bloggers, tipsters, and forumites in the view of many people exceeds that which punters often pay for. 

The discussions and competitions on the forums and tipping areas go a long way to teaching new punters and helping seasoned ones make their betting better, and the prizes for a free to join site are exceptional. 

Every punter should join OLBG.com

NOW POSTED Betting Tips #21-40