The Betting Thread

[Psychic]

Thought I throw this together as I know there's a few on here who like to throw their money away win big, so give me some winning tips please!

Useful Links:
http://stats.football365.com/
http://www.oddschecker.com/

[Rax]

Back the guy whos gonna win. Its that simple really.

[Corazon de Leon]

Lollylops.

What are you looking to bet on? I like hitting the casino up, and I also like sticking cash on the football sometimes.

[abcd]

I only put a pound down at a time, and it's only probably once a month.

I like going for accumulators mostly.

I've won biggish before. £1 made me £90 once.

I'll kick start it again when the new season starts.

[Benj]

My friend once won just over £1000 from a £1 bet on a football accumulator. I was the one that told him to bet a £1 and not 50p too, and what did I get? Nothing. x

[Rax]

Ill bet on Golf and I play poker, thats all I usually gamble on, havent played poker in ages though. Might have a flutter on Heineken Cup or the Super Bowl or something but I only gamble for fun, not to make money. It makes things more interesting when theres money on it. I never lose sight of the fact that the house always wins though so I wont gamble what I cant afford to lose, golden rule right there.

As for successes, I won $636 playing poker in Vegas, roughly $500 profit and I once had a €300 win on a golf tournament, Villegas came second in a tournament when he was huge odds. Forgot to back him the next week though and he won.

I have a few bob invested in the golf this week too, Harrington and Allenby are doing well so I might make some money.

[Count Nood]

I'm going to win big with my football accumulators this season.

[abcd]

I hope you do.

[The People's ElboReformat]

I'm going to win big with my football accumulators this season.

Me first.

Oh and I threw away a pound today by saying Kuyt would be the top goal scorer this season. C'mon, Kuyty you ugly bastard.

[Psychic]

My biggest win was backing Meeelan Baros to be the top scorer at Euro 2004, with a fiver at 50/1.

After some careful consideration this is what I've selected for this weekends bet.

The only one I'm not sure about is the Spurs/Liverpool one, but I needed one to pad it out and get the odds up slightly.

[thousand yard stare]

Pragmatic, Sykesy, but also perhaps the least exciting accumulator I've ever seen. Bet it still strawberry floats up too, something always goes wrong. I did win £500 quid on an accumulator a couple of years back in the champions league, been out of luck since though.

I'm currently trying to make a living by lay betting. Doomed to failure I'm sure, but you have to try these things.

[Psychic]

Yeah, it's probably one of the least exciting bets of all time. I'm hoping I can build it up over a few weeks before I start going for something slightly riskier.

The rest of you post your bets now. I need to know who to root for on Soccer Saturday.

[Spindash]

I had a few bets last year, and won the grand total of £0. One accumulator of note was heading for a win until Celtic drew with Inverness.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Is it really worth spreading £12 over six bets that, even if they all win, will return a profit of £7.82? If two of them mess up you'll be on a loss!

This is what I've gone for:

Villa to beat Wigan
Man City to beat Blackburn
Fulham to beat Portsmouth
Cardiff to beat Blackpool
Preston to beat Doncaster
Sheffield United to beat Watford
Leeds to beat Wycombe
Notts County to beat Macclesfield

50p on with a possible return of £173.29

[Psychic]

Is it really worth spreading £12 over six bets that, even if they all win, will return a profit of £7.82? If two of them mess up you'll be on a loss!

Thing is, the way the Betfair accumlators can be set up as above, it makes it that much more likely to win, hence the reduced price. For example, I'm not backing Liverpool to beat Spurs, just Spurs not to beat Liverpool. When (If?) I manage to build up the balance a bit I'll push the boat out a bit more.

Oh and here's a site that may be useful to some of you. The form table for home and away always helps me out with the tricky to predict ties lower down the pyramid.

[Oblomov Boblomov]

Ohh, I see. I had heard of this crazy Betfair but never really looked into it.

[Psychic]

A betting exchange allows punters (gamblers) to bet at odds set and requested by other punters rather than by a bookmaker. Members can make both 'Back' bets (normal bets on a selection to win) and 'Lay' bets (bets on the opposite side of the Back, against the selection), thereby eliminating the traditional bookmaker.

Betfair claims that on average the odds available are 15% better than those offered by a fixed-odds bookmaker.

However if you Lay a 50/1 shot and someone backs it, you will be out of pocket for the full amount owed, which is why I don't touch them with a 20 foot barge pole. Luckily, when you do the multiples and Lay something you only play against Betfair as a company, so even if one of my choices fails I only lose the original bet. Better odds FTW!

[abcd]

Didn't the shadow blow £100 on Liverpool winning the league?

Now that's crazy betting in my opinion.

[Spindash]

Whatever happened to that bet Mini E had with Shadow (?) that Portsmouth would finish above Everton?

[thousand yard stare]

Thing is, when it comes to favourites, betfair sometimes offers worse odds than the traditional bookies. They're good if you want to lay favourites (which is what I'm doing with the horse racing), or get better value on a less fancied outcome, but they don't offer as much choice when it comes to traditional footie bets. Or so it seems to me.