Common Pitfalls and Traps When Betting on Soccer

Winning at online soccer betting isn't easy! However, adopting the right approach to this exciting sport can give you the best possible chance of success on the best sports betting sites.

We’ve created this article to ensure that you eliminate the house edge as much as possible when it comes to taking on the best soccer sites. There are lots of common mistakes made by recreational gamblers, although if we’re serious about trying to beat the sportsbooks on a regular basis then we need to ensure that the below pitfalls are avoided at all costs.

Keep Your Discipline at All Times

Ask any professional sports gambler or poker player how they manage to earn a living from betting and they’ll firstly tell you about staying disciplined at all times. Ideally, you should have a nominated bankroll for a given week of soccer betting and some kind of staking plan according to how strong a view you have regarding a soccer team winning.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and you have to accept there will be losing days with your soccer betting (even on teams like Roma in Serie A). It’s imperative not to chase your losses if you’ve seen a few bets go the wrong way. You don’t want to turn a bad day’s betting into a terrible day when there’s the chance to bounce back the following week.

Providing that you trust your own judgement and have enjoyed some initial success with your betting, then you should continue with that policy even if some short-term losses are encountered.

Do Your Own Soccer Research…

As the old adage goes, “fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. Now you can go ahead and blindly bet on each soccer match without taking a proper look at the odds and wide range of markets available. However, you can’t expect to beat a bookmaker who pays a crack team of traders to create the various betting odds on display.

You should only bet on a soccer match where you feel as though you’ve built up some knowledge over time, whether its betting on MLS or La Liga. You should have a good understanding of the league table, along with how each team have been faring in recent games. Ideally, you will have even seen the sides in recent action as nothing really replaces the “eye test” in terms of understanding performance.

When looking at a particular betting price, it’s imperative that you feel that the odds are too big in your favor. It doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win the bet in question, but it might be that the odds don’t accurately reflect the likelihood of that eventuality happening.

…Before You Listen to the Experts!

There’s nothing wrong with listening to the opinions of different bettors, especially people whose views you respect. However, it makes sense to formulate your own thoughts on certain soccer matches and then judge them against what else is being said regarding a game.

It can give a bettor great pleasure to have a strong conviction about a soccer match and find that a “betting expert” has the same viewpoint, although bear in mind that there are ex-players and pundits out there that take a lazy slant on each game and would be well down if they’d backed each selection over time.

Don’t Blindly Back Favorites…

Many of us have noticed a match is about to start and we’ve had a bet on the favorite for a bit of interest. However, bookmakers know that any favorite in a soccer match will receive the weight of the money in the 1X2 market, so you rarely get any value for your bet whether this selection wins or not.

Naturally, backing a favorite means a diminished return in the first place. Another trap bettors fall into is putting a bunch of favorites together in a parlay without going through each match in turn and asking themselves whether they truly believe that each team will win.

…Or Speculatively Bet on Big Odds

We all want to make some money from our soccer betting. However, blindly slapping $10 on an 8/1 shot in the hope of a big payout is nearly always the wrong way forward! bettors should never be drawn towards big odds unless they genuinely feel as though that price misrepresents a team’s chances of winning.

Sometimes a bookmaker will quote as big as 20/1 about a team winning a Premier League match, especially if said club are facing Manchester City or Liverpool. However, there is always a reason behind a particular price and it therefore pays to consider an alternative unless you have a genuine conviction for the team in question.

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Look at Every Available Match Market

Many of us like to bet on the 1X2 market or place a parlay on a number of soccer teams, although the value can often be found from mining a more obscure betting market. Sometimes it pays to actually consider a match and how you see it panning out before even looking at the odds.

You might assume Team A and Team B will play out a high-scoring game with Team A coming out on top. In this instance, it might be that Team A to win + BTTS is a great bet, especially if the price is attractive. Alternatively, you might not have a strong view on which team wins but really fancy the idea of a low-scoring match which could lead to a bet on Under 2.5 Goals or even Under 1.5 Goals.

Limiting Your Losses on Soccer Betting

We would recommend that you keep a note of the bets you place on a daily or weekly basis. Jot down information such as stake, type of betting market, the odds and the outcome of each wager. After you have placed a number of bets, review the information to see if you’re proving to be more successful with a particular type of bet.

Sometimes a betting strategy might require a bit of fine tuning in the beginning. The aim of the game is to profit as greatly as possible with your winning selections and make sure losing bets have an element of damage limitation. However, the more work you put in will largely mean the greater the chance of enjoying a return.