Football Betting Systems

Published: 25th July 2018
Author: Joe Kizlauskas
Last Updated: 3rd September 2023

Football is one of the most popular sports for betting sites. Football betting takes up a big part of the gambling industry and this could be because of the popularity of the sport globally, but also could be because of the strategic systems involved in football betting that can be used in order for you as a bettor, to cash in a big win! There are a few different methods or systems that will be touched upon that will possibly encourage you to bet on football with a bit more confidence as it could potentially be tips that you need to win that cash prize you’ve been dreaming of. Below are strategies to consider when betting on football.

Accumulators

Accumulators are one of the most profitable betting strategies to use. An accumulator means you can add a number of results into a bet slip and bet on all the results as one. For example, if you had 8 teams in an accumulator and put money on that accumulator, you need all of the 8 results that you predicted to be correct in order for your accumulator to win. However, some sportsbooks will offer you acca insurance. If you don’t know what acca insurance is, essentially, it is where you have to have 5 or more teams in an accumulator, 1 result that you have predicted is allowed to be incorrect. Then if this is the case, your stake will be returned to your account and therefore you won’t have lost any money. Betting sites that offer acca insurance include Ladbrokes, Betfred, Betfair, BetVictor, 888Sport.

Football League Betting

The English Premier League is the most popular football league to bet on. However, it is not the only league that you are eligible to bet on and therefore maybe looking down other avenues may be a better strategy in order to win some big money.

The lower leagues consist of more teams than the premier league and they play more frequently, meaning there are more chances of winning.

Lower league football matches offer far higher odds than that found in the Premier League. For example, backing a Premier League favourite like Liverpool to beat a lower league side who find themselves in the bottom half of the table may see you offered odds of 1/4(if you’re lucky). Whereas, backing a League Two side who find themselves high in the table against a lower table opposition will grant much better odds, often of evens or greater.

Adding lower teams into an accumulator can make your decision of what results to predict easier. The more teams you add to an accumulator, the bigger the odds, so it will increase your winnings if you predict correctly. Therefore, if you haven’t looked into lower league betting and just focus on one league, maybe you should broaden your horizons.

football betting systems

Football Offers

Look out for new football offers for new and existing customers advertised by sportsbooks as these can kickstart your betting account with a hefty sum of cash. Typically, with sign up offers, odds for new customers for a particular match will be heavily increased. For example, England to beat Saudi Arabia might typically be 1/20 odds, however for a new customer signing up, if you sign up and deposit £10 in your betting account, you can get odds of 40/2 for England to beat Saudi Arabia. Usually, there will be a limit of £1 stake or around that amount. If the bet comes in and you win £40 for example, that amount will typically be in football free bets, you then have to start betting the £40 on further bets to then be able to deposit funds (assuming the bets come in).

Betting on Favourites

Now there are 2 ways to go about this, it depends whether you want to be a risk-taker or not. Firstly, betting on favourites could be a safer option when betting, however, the odds will not be high, so you can either bet on loads of favourites in one whole accumulator or bet a considerably high stake to make some suffice amount of money. Favourites will normally be lower than evens, so you will have to have a high stake to win big. The other way to look at this is betting on the unlikely favourite where the stake is high, hoping that a stroke of luck will give you a big win. This is where you might have to know a bit about the team you are backing, and whether the result you are asking for is actually likely to happen or even a chance of it happening.

Betting Strategically on Football

Doing research into the bets you’re placing might give you a more justified decision on the likely outcome. For example, researching the latest form, league standings, form against each other will help you make a more reasonable outcome of what the result will be.

If you choose to bet on outright and factors like “Over 2.5 goals scored”, then you might want to research previous results in this fixture and how many goals this season both teams have scored.

All in all, whatever the market you choose to bet you should tailor your research for that specific market and this alone will improve your chances of winning more bets. A lot of the time punters rush their bet selections without putting any thought into what they are actually backing, and this where you can easily lose money.

Our tip is to simply take your time and make sure you are researching statistics and facts that relate to the market you want to back!

Matched Betting

Matched betting is a betting system that most experienced bettors will have tried or at least heard about, as it offers a promising strategy that can lead to profit more often than not.

Matched betting is considered to be risk-free unless you take into account the possibility of human error. Due to the low risk that comes with matched betting, it does not promise the biggest profits, but this determines on how you are actually betting.

The basic understanding of this system is to simply back various bets and lay them off. For those of you who do not know what lay betting is, continue reading below.

Lay betting or lay bets are simply bets that allow you to bet against results. For example, usually, you would back a certain team to win, draw or lose but with lay bets you are backing a team not to win, draw or lose. Using lay betting techniques alongside your standard betting to win bets, you can cover all possibilities.

To increase the profit you make by matched betting, it is best to make the most of bookmakers promotions where they are offering free bets.

Betting on the Exchange

A less popular way of betting is known as betting on the exchange. Exchange betting is basically the process of removing the bookmaker as a third party and betting against others punters bets.

The Betfair Exchange is probably the most used and most popular exchange platform available at this point in time. By using the Betfair Exchange or any other exchange you have a better chance of receiving better odds than those offered by bookmakers.

The Betfair Exchange also offers customers the ability to trade odds in real-time with fellow bettors, making it similar to trading stocks.

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About Joe Kizlauskas

Joe is a seasoned iGaming copywriter and speaker who has been in the business since 2015. He's written more words on all elements of iGaming than he likes to remember, and he's contributed material to a number of well-known brands. Joe may be seen playing 5 a side, at the gym or playing games on his Playstation when he is not writing.