A-Z of Festive Football Betting – Part One

A to Z of Festive Football Tips

With the busy football schedule over the Christmas and New Year period, and I’m sure that you’ve heard Arsene Wenger pitching up about it all, it is time to look at an A-Z guide of what you could do with your betting options.From Premier League betting, to World Cup Betting to Types of Bets available to help you get the best returns from your wagers, it is all here for your perusal, right at your fingertips.

A = Accumulators and Asian Handicaps. The accumulator is much favoured in the world of horse racing, but it has translated well into the world of soccer. With an Accumulator, you make selections on your betting slip, and you need them all to come in to have a great pay day. This is like a multiple bet such as a Trixie, but without the full coverage. Either all your selections win, or you won’t. Asian Handicaps with Bet365 predominantly, is a popular way of betting on soccer matches. It offers the punter only a win/lose scenario, by allowing teams to start with handicap (a strong team will have a -2 goal handicap to start the game for example). This allows for better odds than normal fixed odds betting.

B = Boxing Day. With nothing much to do on Boxing Day while the children play with packaging and aptly, the cardboard boxes that their gifts came in, it is generally time to hit the pub and cheer on your team in the big Boxing Day fixture list that comes every year. This is prime time for sports broadcasters to get their viewing figures up, and the Bookies usually cash in on such a busy day of sport. This season the stand out fixture is seventh placed Birmingham (7/1) vs Chelsea (4/9) at Victor Chandler. The Blues from London will be looking to come through the festive period unscathed, as Mancehstser United are hot on their heels. Head on over to BetFred for a great service and selection on Boxing Day matches.

C = Chelsea. What can they win this year? They are favourites for the Premier League 8/11 at BetFred and are firm contenders for the elusive Champions League title 4/1 at Coral that the Stamford Bridge crowd would so desperately love to get their hands on. The festive period will be a big test of their potential and character, as they need to get over a mini slump if they are to withstand the challenge of Manchester United. Christmas and New Year fixtures, can usually make or break teams, and you will no doubt hear terms such as Boxing Day hangover, should any of the big four lose.

D =  Draw No Bet. You need this betting option in your arsenal. Not THAT Arsenal, but the one you have at your disposal through your online bookmakers. If you have never noticed this little gem sitting around in the “more” section of a betting market, then take some time to check it out. What does it mean, no bet? It sounds negative but it’s not. Say for example you backed Burnley to Draw No Bet against Arsenal with Stan James, it equates to the fact that you want Burnley to win, and if they do great! But if they only manage a memorable draw, then you will at least get your stake back. The odds may be shorter than backing a Burnley outright win, but at least you’re not totally out of pocket when the game ends in a 1-1 draw, such as it did.

E = Europa League: Following Liverpool’s dismal Champions League campaign, this is the tournament in which they will be playing in come the New Year, along with Premier League buddies Everton and Fulham. All of the third placed teams in the groups from the Champions League join up with the confusing format of the Europa League in the Spring. It seems a little unfair for all the legwork done by the teams in there from the start to suddenly have teams like Liverpool and Juventus turn up in the draw, but there it is. The big clubs attract more revenue and interest, and that’s the way UEFA like it. Liverpool are 7/1 to win it outright (although they haven’t even been seeded for the draw), Valencia and Juventus are both 12/1 all at 888Sport.

F =  First Goalscorer. Remember there are twenty outfield players on the pitch at any given time, and substitutes can have a major impact if a game is still at 0-0. First Goalscorer is tough to nail, sure there are favourites, but remember that goals come from everywhere. So, instead, let’s look at Fabio Capello. Can he win England the World Cup in 2010? SkyBet will give you any lost outright bets on the World Cup, if England do win it, as well as offering the price of 11/2.

G =  Goliath. Like a Canadian’s big brother. David’s nemesis, the Goliath, as the name would suggest, is a monumental bet to try and pull off. Involved in it, is the process of making eight selections, with full coverage on all available doubles, trebles plus everything from a fourfold to a sevenfold bet, and all topped off with a 8-bet accumulator. As with any multiple bets, all you need to get some kind of return is two correct punts, as that will at least ensure that you nail a double. Notoriously difficult to land, imagine trying to correctly call eight Premier League games on Boxing Day. You’ll need more than a slingshot to try and bring down this monster bet. You can only back the favourites so far, and even then, those aren’t always bankers, but at least some results will bring some rewards. Check out Gamebookers for some good festive Goliaths.

H = Half Time/Full Time. An interesting little bet to be taken generally when you have boned up on your team stats. A team, more likely than not, will have a higher percentage of goals within a certain time frame of the match than others. If your team is a slow starter, then you could, for example, take a punt with Sporting Bet on a Half Time/Full Time bet, where you say Draw/Sunderland, intimating that you think the game will be a draw at half time, and Sunderland will win in full time. If your team likes getting ahead in the first half, back them for Half Time and Full Time results. It adds an interesting twist on the static fixed odds bet. Naturally, if you go for a Chelsea/Portsmouth type of bet the odds will be big for a reason. A lower team is unlikely to overturn a deficit against a top side.

I = Italy. The defending World Cup Champions. Why are they being ignored so to retain their title? 13/1 at Expekt is a little bit down the pecking order. Primarily is that domestic teams from England and Spain are considered to be at a higher level than what Serie A is at the moment, but that is debatable. There is hardly any more team as efficient as the Italians when it comes to producing top flight international football. They are organised, generally defensively sound, if lacking a little creative passion for attack. They drew an easy group in the 2010 Wolrd Cup Draw, drawing New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay, and it is hard to not expect a tournament-ready Italy to progress at the top of that. They still have the backbone of some veterans such as Cannavaro, and they always have the wonderfully named Gianluigi Buffon to stop anything that slips past the narrows cracks in the Italian back line. Boss Marcello Lippi is something of tactical genius and can turn a game on its head with crafty substitutions. Definitely worth an each way bet, and as we’re on the letter I, try Interwetten.

J = January 2nd/3rd sees the wonderful excitement of the FA Cup Third Round. There are four non-league teams left in it this year, Barrow, Forest Green Rovers, York and Luton Town. Of course, none of those are going to win it, but Forest Green is 13/8 at SkyBet to progress the furthest out of them (they have an away tie at Notts County on Sunday 3rd). No guesses as to who the favourites are. Yes, all the big four are leading the way in terms of favourites, with Chelsea 4/1 at Totesport,  Manchester United 9/2 at Boylesports, Liverpool 13/2 at 888Sport and Arsenal 7/1 at BlueSquare. It will be unlikely that anyone outside of the big four will win the tournament, and looking at the recent history will attest to that. A decent outside bet to look for, will probably come from the field of Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester City.

K = Kilmarnock. We head north to the Scottish Premier League to fill the letter K. The best bet that can be taken on Kilmarnock, for they are clearly not going to win the Premier League, is to take a pessimistic (but tempting) 10/1 at Stan James on them to finish bottom. Where are they at the moment? Second from bottom, a meagre four points ahead of bottom side Falkirk. Not a bad punt at all, but clearly a long way to go in the season, but they are undergoing a keeper crisis at Killie at the moment. Anyway, it was a good segway to get the odds for the Scottish Premier League in the list, and so looking towards the top of the league, who is there? Surprise, Surprise it is Rangers and Celtic. So who are the Bookies favouring this year? BetFred have the Hoops at 8/11 and Rangers at Evens.

L = Lucky 15. Expecting the letter L to be dominated by Liverpool? It would be somewhat fitting, but let’s move on with the Red’s demise and look at a Lucky 15. If you’ve ever sat in the pub listening next to the table of guys studying the pull-out section of the newspaper specific to the horse racing, then you undoubtedly will have heard people speculating over a Lucky 15. What does it mean? Well, not surpisingly it is putting a wager on a bet which is covered by 15 outcomes. A Lucky 15 is drawn from four individual selections, and is a little different from a Yankee, as the Lucky 15 involves single bets, whereas the Yankee (which is also four selections) does not. So, the Lucky 15 is a total of four singles, four doubles, 6 trebles and an accumulator. As you need only one selection to come up on this, most bookies will offer bonuses on a Lucky 15. Labdrokes, one of the UK’s most popular Bookies for horse racing, will see you right with a Lucky 15.

Carry on reading directly below for the second part of our festive football betting guide: