Sports fans have taken over betting platforms in the past few years as this market has surged. Nowadays, it's hard to find somebody who doesn't place a bet once in a while or, at least, doesn't know somebody who does. And let's be honest, we all prefer a winning wager to a losing one. So, let's find out how to enhance our profits by mastering the free betting tools available.
It wasn't too long ago, when sports betting was as straightforward as they come, that even a primary school pupil could grasp it. The increasing competition pushed bookmakers to expand their offers to the point where having too many options created a tangled environment.
Betting Apps don't usually provide a clear path to success, as their interest is to profit on punters' backs. However, smart betting is still possible, as different free tools are available to help us improve our winning percentage. Let's have a look at some.
Odds Comparison
In betting, everything revolves around odds, which are a numerical expression of an event's predicted outcome. Betting can differ from bookie to bookie depending on their strategies or the bets already made on a specific game. So the question arises: how do you identify the highest ones?
Nowadays, numerous betting sites provide an odds comparison service, which can help punters instantly see which bookie has the best offer for a specific event. This way, you can identify the sharp line or the average odd for a particular event and find the value bets available.
For example, let's take Manchester City's chances to win the 2024/25 Premier League. According to BetBrain, it varies from Even to 3/2, which makes a 50% difference. This situation happens frequently, so it's best to use this kind of service if you can open up accounts with several bookies.
Odds Calculators
Mainly depending on the geographical area, odds come in different formats. There are numerous ways bookies prefer to present their odds, but the most popular are the following:
- Fractional Odds - used mainly in the UK and Ireland, they are generally written with a slash or a hyphen and express the profit a punter could make on a desired bet (Example: 2/1 or 2-1);
- Decimal Odds - more popular in Europe, Australia and Africa, they are probably the easiest to understand, and they take into consideration the total payout rather than the profit (Example: 2.20);
- American Odds - used in the US territories- revolve around the $100 mark. For the favourite, you'll have the hyphen placed before the odds, which will tell you how much money you should bet to win $100, whilst the underdog will have the plus sign before the odds to let you know how much you'll profit off a stake of $100 (Example: +120 or -150)
Bookmakers usually allow users to pick their favourite odd expression from the settings area. If not, just type โodds convertersโ or โbetting calculatorsโ on any search engine, and you'll find plenty of options to help you.
Betting Systems
Besides the sure betting strategy, which implies opening accounts with multiple bookmakers and identifying the odds that can provide small profits, there aren't guarantees in the sports wagering world.
However, some betting strategies can help you profit if you have the discipline, patience, and financial resources to apply them. Among them, there are some popular ones, to name a few:
Martingale System
One of the oldest betting strategies, the Martingale System, originated in the 18th century in London when John Martindale developed it for casino games. The altered name that the strategy has received throughout the years must be due to the poor pronunciation of his name.
The Martingale betting strategy revolves around doubling your stake on losing bets with even odds until you finally get a winning one. After winning, you need to reset the stake and start over.
Also, the odds you bet on should be equal to or higher than Evens (2.00 in Decimals and +100 in American Odds) to make it effective.
Considering you might have a losing run, you should be careful about your initial stake and bankroll, as it might take a financial toll.
Fibonacci System
Another betting strategy that survived for hundreds of years, the Fibonacci System, has its roots in the 13th century and is the work of Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci Pisano Bigollo (1170-1250).
In essence, this system works as follows: you start with a given stake, and each time you lose, the stake increases with the sum of the previous two numbers from the sequence. You will stake the amount from the last two rows in the sequence each time you win.
Naturally, the first two bets will have the same stake, as you can only calculate a higher stake as the sum of the previous two from the sequence.
Kelly Criterion
It was developed by John Kelly (1923-1965), an American scientist who devised this system to analyse information in his scientific research. In essence, the Kelly betting strategy is a mathematical formula that determines how much money you need to invest in your bet, depending on the probability of that respective bet.
To fully understand the calculus that we are going to use, we need to see how the formula looks before applying it to a bet:
f=p-(1-p)/b
In this formula, these are the meanings for each character used:
- f - the fraction determining how much of your budget you will need to use.
- p - the probability of winning.
- b - the proportion you could get with a win. In essence, the odds.
Let's now imagine that we will bet on a match where our prediction will have odds of 2/1. The formula would look like this:
f=0.33-(1-0.33)/3=0.08
Reverse Martingale/Paroli System
The origins of the Paroli betting strategy are highly debated in the betting world. Most bettors gave this achievement to Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician who was also famous for discovering the roulette wheel.
The Paroli betting strategy gives you a positive progression in case of a win. Nevertheless, this progression is restarted for the third consecutive win. In comparison with other betting strategies, the Paroli one focuses on winnings and doesn't have many solutions for when you're losing.
Your base stake can reset twice when using the Paroli betting strategy. Once when you're at the third win and second when you're losing a bet. Furthermore, this system helps you determine the stake in concordance with the odds of the respective prediction. Thus, the higher the odds, the less stake you will need to invest and vice-versa.
Statistics & Livescores
Flair and instinct play a crucial role in this activity, but betting technology has developed significantly recently and provided us with different tools. Among them are the statistical breakdown of competitions and the live score and live stats service plenty of sites offer.
Betting Sheets
Keeping track of your betting record is more important than it seems. It helps you not only to keep an eye on your financial balance but also to see the betting trends or your tendencies. A proficient betting sheet should contain the following parameters:
- Budget
- Event
- Prediction Won/Loss
- Odds for every prediction
- Winning percentage
Keeping a betting sheet is always great for your bet tracking. As with other tools mentioned in this article, search engines can help you find some lovely templates.
