An Essential Guide to Picking the Right Bets

The betting school lessons on individual sports give an insight into understanding how betting on each sport works and some of the best methods for spotting good bets. For all sports there is a general process in selecting the right bets and placing your bets and beginners should start here before examining how to make money in their particular sport preference. If you aren’t going through a process very similar to this then it is highly unlikely you’ll ever make a profit.

Research

To find your bets you are going to have to do some research. This might sound boring but it’s the only way you are going to find some bets without being given a red hot tip or a great piece of information and it can also be one of the most fun parts of your betting life.

• Use the internet - you have a wealth of information at your finger tips.
• Need the best sites? On the OLBG Forum at the top each sport page you’ll find suggested sites from OLBG members.
• Evaluate the information you’ve found. It will usually be a list of fixtures or a race card.
• Think about what areas of the sport you know best and how you’ll gain an edge over the bookies. If you have some information the bookies don’t have you’ll have an advantage.

Your research is going to involve stats of some sort, don’t forget that every previous result you look at for any sport is a statistic. Using stats, select the outcomes in each event you think are most likely to win. If you aren’t sure about a particular match or race then simply move on, it is hard enough to win on the bets you are most sure of so betting on events you are unsure of is a sure way to lose money fast.

Other Markets

Don’t forget to look for bets in several different markets. As you become more experienced with betting you will know which markets you are most skilled at picking winners in but try out a few markets in the early days and your betting and see how you get on. You might find some great betting opportunities. This means football fans shouldn’t be restricted to betting on which team will win a match, think about what games might be low scoring, which might be high scoring, when in the match the goals are likely to go in and who might be most likely to score them.

Value and Odds

Once you have a shortlist of bets you need to decide exactly which ones to back and to do this you’ll need to look at the odds of each selection and decide if those odds reflect the chances of the selection being a winning bet. Backing the most likely winners isn’t as sound a betting strategy as it sounds. You’ll need an incredible strike rate to make a long term profit. Value betting involves backing selections where the odds are bigger than the chance of the selection winning and if you are a decent judge this strategy will make a profit in the long term. The better value you find, the more profit you will make.

So cross out any bets that you had picked out where the odds were too short for the chance of the bet winning and you are left with your value bets for the week. For more on value betting read the full lesson here.

Odds Comparison

An important part of the placing a bet process involves odds comparison. Odds comparison sites such as ValueChecker show odds from all the major bookies on each event and market so that you, the punter, can easily pick the bookie offering the best odds for your selections. If you aren’t getting the best odds possible you are going to find making a profit much tougher so make sure you use odds comparison before putting your bet on.

For more information on how to use odds comparison click here.

Learn

Making a long term profit from betting isn’t always easy and you always need to learn from not only your mistakes but also your successes. When you find certain events or markets are the ones you win on you should look to concentrate on those events and markets in order to exploit them. The more you learn as you repeat the processes above the more money you should make in the long run. 

Bookie Free Bets

We hope you have fully read the advice above; the article has been written by people who daily place bets on a range of sports, they have learnt from their mistakes and now bet way more sensibly than they use to.

All the sections should enable your betting choices to be considered and stop you having any “cheeky bets” where you are more than likely going to lose money. Bookmarking this OLBG betting school page will stand you in good stead.

Whether you are a new bettor or a regular punter we also have some extra strings to our bow, the ability to access scores of bookie free bets tops the list.

Once you have picked the right bets, you can take advantage of sign up bonuses, or free bets, or even free bets with no deposit. 90% of bookies have some kind of offer, and on OLBG we strive to offer the best freebies from the widest range of bookmakers.