With live matches on TV around four times a week through the season, it is understandable why football, in percentage terms, is the fastest growing sport in gambling.
Once upon a time you could only bet on the home team, away team, draw, first goal scorer and correct score. Now, thanks to spread betting, the discerning punter can literally bet on hundreds of markets on a football match.
This was born from the advent of sports spread betting in the early 1990s, when Extrabet introduced a vast array of spread bets on a live football match. The fact that people could watch the prices changing during the game and open and close bets “in running” was an attractive proposition and changed the face of betting on football for ever.
One bet that stands out amongst a host of winning and losing wagers on football, is the client who decided that Extrabet forecast on the ‘Shirt Numbers’ of the goal scorers in a European game involving Newcastle, was too low. After 20 minutes there was no score, and the ‘Shirt Numbers’ total had plummeted down to between 26 to 29. He came on and placed a wager by buying (going high) at £3000 a point at 29.
Five minutes later Alan Shearer wearing shirt number 9 scored twice and then to put the icing on the cake, Hugo Viana wearing shirt no 45 scored his first goal for the club. With further goals from Shearer and one for the opposition the total added up to 82 and the punter won £247,000.
Was the punter lucky or did he see value? Here are some things to consider when thinking about spread betting on football:
Football is a funny old game
There will always be a percentage of surprise results during a season, but it does no harm to check statistics between both teams. It is surprising how many teams have the ‘evil eye’ on some of their opponents and sometimes this is a sequence that keeps going.
Research and then more research
After perusing through the spread bets on offer, always check the probable line ups from both teams, what record the referee has with brandishing cards and what the weather will be like come kick-off time. For example, heavy pitches and windy weather can equalise the skill levels between teams.
Control your risk
Take care to control your risk and always calculate how much your worst scenario could be if your judgement turns out to be completely wrong. There is nothing worse than going high (buying) the time of the 1st match goal in a game at around 40 minutes and then seeing someone score after 90 seconds. It does happen!
Try and stay in touch with the match you are betting on, and monitor the changing spreads on the game as it goes along.
Novelty Football bets
With most football spread betting markets, there is a mathematical figure that can be produced for all bets such as the number of goals in a match, corners, times of the first goals and even player goal minutes. With most novelty wagers it is a different matter. How can a market maker or trader know how many times a celebrity is going to be caught on camera, who is going to sing their National Anthem or how many times a goalkeeper will punch a ball. This gives people the chance to have widely different views to the prices set.
"Let me Entertain You"
90% of people who sit down to watch a football match want to be entertained. They want plenty of goals, referees continually reaching into their back pockets, plenty of shots on target and loads of corners. Don't always bet with your heart as games are not always the exciting “goal fest” we hope for.
