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IN PLAY BETTING ON FOOTBALL - STRATEGY & TIPS

In play betting on football

What does live in play betting bring to the table? Let’s look at it like this, you have placed a bet on Juventus to win a match on the morning before the game. You then sit around waiting for the result to happen to see if your bet has won. That is the sum of your betting experience. Now imagine waiting until kick off and betting on options in the game as it is happening live. Suddenly the whole experience of betting on the game has changed, with new markets suddenly open to you live in play.

Advantages of live in-play betting

If you can pair up live in-play betting with actually watching a game live, then you are on to something great. That way you can judge the flow of a game, and see which player is really on form that day, for example. You can judge things like the likelihood of a comeback if a team has fallen behind against the run of play, or whether a team is just looking extra hungry and who are probably going to run up a few goals in the game.

Unlike in just backing a selection in the match outrights, you have a little more control of what is unfolding in front of your from a betting perspective. Let’s say that Manchester United have fallen behind a goal in the 50th minute of a game against a relegation-threatened Sunderland. United are at home, have dominated possession and have conceded an unlucky goal. As soon as United fall behind, the odds on them winning will drift and that would be the time to consider a live bet to back them to claw their way back and earn three points.

The value at that point would be more than you would ever have gotten before the match on them to win. So there is the huge advantage of in-play betting. It works in the scenario when a team has say, ran out to a 2-0 lead at half time and look comfortable. That is when you can look at live markets such as next team to score, or next goalscorer for football betting on the match still, even when the result appears to be in no doubt.

Types of live in-play bets

Live in-play betting has become such as huge thing that there are so many markets on offer after kick off that you are almost spoiled for choice. Bet365 for example, who offer one of the best live betting portals around, will produce over 70 live markets on a top game after kick off such as Next Goal, Match Goals, Match Corners, Half-Time Result, Full-Time Result and much more.

Live betting strategies

There are couple of things to consider. First of all if you have placed a pre-match bet on a team to win, then you could use live in-play betting to either consolidate losses if that team is losing, or you could take advantage of that team being in a commanding position. Either way, before you start, have the outline of a strategy going into the game. The thing about live betting is there is a need to be flexible and to be able to think on the fly. That doesn’t mean panic at all. Don’t get panicked into throwing money at a live bet just because another bet on the game happens to be losing.

Live betting is about staying cool and weighing up your options. Never just throw money at a long odds live bet to try and compensate for a losing outright bet for example. That’s not the way to consolidate. In consolidating, have a backup plan prior to live betting, have a set amount that you would want to play live in case of being in a losing scenario, a betting fund that you are not going to go over. That way you can control yourself and find the best way to redress the balance, even if it is a simple, straightforward outright winner bet placed live in-play, which is on the opposite of the selection that you had made pre-match.

Be patient. The odds at the beginning of a game aren’t going to be the best which you can take on that match. Just because a team is pre-match favourite, doesn’t always mean that they are going to deliver on that favouritism. If you can be patient for the opening twenty or thirty minutes of a game, you should get a decent idea of whether or not the favourite is actually going to win. By this point, the odds on them winning, with a third of the game gone, will be better than they were pre-match. So for a little patience (and of course this isn’t going to work every time) you can end up backing a favourite at a better price.

Time Delays and odds

Live betting and live odds. Something very important to understand about live betting is that it is not completely live. If you are watching a game on TV you are not going to have the exact same experience as if your are sat in the stadium watching. There is a delay on live TV broadcasts which can run up to a 7-8 seconds in HD. There is also delays on streams that bookmakers provide as well.

So you are never betting actually live per-say, you are betting time delayed. Why is this even important? It is because you are never ever going to be able to react faster than a bookmaker. If you are seeing a goal scored on TV, don’t jump on your mobile app thinking that you can get a bet down on that goal before the bookmaker has a chance to react. The bookmaker already knows about that goal and has locked the market in lieu of updating the live odds!

Pros and Cons of live betting

In summary, live betting affords punters other betting opportunities at prices which are often very different than pre-match bets. However, it is easy to panic in live betting and that is where the danger of throwing money after money because you are caught up in the moment, can happen. Always have a plan, a set amount that you want to spend in play on an event and always, always have an exit strategy, the point at which you know you need to pull out even if it is from a losing position.