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When you look for sports betting information online, you find a bunch of articles about the basics, like how to read lines and where to bet. You also find a few pages about advance betting techniques and systems. But few pages are available that help you advance from the beginning to the point where you can use advanced techniques.

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This page is designed to fill this gap. You’re going to learn 11 simple sports betting strategies that anyone can use. Each of these is an important step in building your overall system that can eventually produce profitable results.

1 – Start with Small Bets

Most sports bettors get started by betting on their favorite teams and betting on big games, like the super bowl or NCAA basketball tournament. I cover betting on your favorite teams in another section, but the mistake beginning sports bettors make when they bet on big games is they usually bet on something they don’t know a great deal about. I t may seem difficult and impossible to start betting in India, but this statement is far from the truth. In order to immerse themselves in the fascinating world of sports betting, Indians only. Retail sports betting launched on March 11, and daily fantasy sports operators recently became licensed in the state. Online sports betting, online casinos, and online poker all launched in the. As states legalize sports betting, they’re likely to start with in-person bets first and then move on to mobile and online betting. If you’re not in a state that has legalized sports betting yet, you could lobby your state legislators to get a bill passed. You can also visit a state that has legalized gambling to make it work. Michigan is now home to an array of sports betting websites. Online sportsbooks allow players from across the state to take part in betting on sports events. Online sports betting launched on Jan. Apps approved for launch included DraftKings, FanDuel, Golden Nugget, William Hill, Barstool, TwinSpires, BetMGM, BetRivers, and Wynn.

It takes a long time to learn how to beat the sportsbooks. Of course, some gamblers pick up winning strategies faster than others, but there’s a learning curve for even the best sports bettors. You only have a limited amount of money you can use to bet on sports, so don’t make the mistake of betting too much per contest when you’re learning how to win.

I started my sports betting career making bets of $22 and less. Many bets were only $5 to $11. I still make some bets as low as $11 today. It took me around 20 years of mixed results while betting part time to get to the point where I’m pretty good at it.

I used many different strategies over the years to make it easier to break even, but even with them I didn’t make any money. I just reduced how much it cost me to make bets. The main thing I did was place most of my wagers with individuals instead of bookies and sportsbooks.

This eliminated the cost of the vig, and this is a good strategy to use as long as you’re making small bets. When you don’t have to pay vig you only have to win half the time to break even. As you start making bigger bets this strategy becomes harder, because you can’t find individuals that are willing to take larger action.

When you start betting on sports, decide how much you have for a bankroll. Set this aside and don’t use it for anything other than sports betting. Divide this amount by 100, and make bets no bigger than this amount as you learn how to improve your results.

You’re going to make mistakes, and by only using a small percentage of your bankroll they won’t cost you too much. This strategy also makes sure that you can make plenty of bets before you run out of money. The longer you can stay in the game, the better your odds are of coming up with a winning system.

2 – Focus on a Small Area

Most sports bettors get started by betting on their favorite teams and betting on big games, like the super bowl or NCAA basketball tournament. I cover betting on your favorite teams in another section, but the mistake beginning sports bettors make when they bet on big games is they usually bet on something they don’t know a great deal about.

Instead of betting on everything and anything, you have a better chance of picking winners when you focus on one thing. Instead of betting on the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NCAA games, focus on just one sport to start.

Is to focus on one smaller part of one sport when you start betting on sports. Instead of betting on NCAA football, focus on one conference. Instead of betting on the NFL, just bet on games in the AFC East.

By focusing on one small area you have the opportunity to build a base of knowledge that helps you pick winners. In order to be a winning sports bettor you need to build as much knowledge about the teams and players that you bet on. When you can gather and analyze more data than the people setting the lines you’ve reached a point where you can make a consistent profit.

The way to get started is to specialize. I understand that part of the reason you want to bet on sports is because it makes the games more interesting, but you need to decide if you’re willing to pay I the form of losing wagers to make a game more interesting or if you want to improve your chances to win.

3 – Make Moneyline Wagers

Most sporting events have at least two different lines. One of the lines is an against the spread bet. An against the spread bet has a point spread, where one team gets points and the other team gives points.

The other common type of betting line is a moneyline. With a moneyline wager, you just have to pick the team that wins the game to win the bet. On moneyline wagers, the amount you have to bet to win is usually different than in against the spread wagers.

Against the spread bets usually, cost 11 to 10 or 110 to 100 when you bet on either side of the game. A moneyline wager is a little different. The extra money you have to bet above what you can win on an against the spread bet is called vig, and that’s how the sportsbooks make a profit.

Moneyline wagers also have a vig, but it’s harder to see because the lines are presented in a different way. Here’s an example of a moneyline wager, and how it works.

In this game, Nebraska is playing at Penn State. The team with a plus sign, in this case Nebraska, is the underdog. The +150 means that if you bet $100 on Nebraska and they win the game you get back your $100 and win $150.

The favorite, in this case, Penn State has a minus number. This number means you have to bet that much to win $100. So you have to bet $170 for the chance to win $100 on Penn State.

When you start betting on sports it can be difficult to pick winner against the spread. The sportsbooks are good at setting lines that end up close to the final score, so it’s challenging to figure out which team is going to win with the spread.

But it’s much easier to pick the team that’s going to win the game outright. As you can see in the example, it costs more to pick the favorite, but it’s still easier to pick the winner.

You can also look for underdogs that have a decent chance to win. When you can win more than you risk you don’t have to pick as many winners to make a profit.

4 – Understand Home Team Bias

In sports of all kinds, the home team wins more than the visiting team. The exact percentages vary from sport to sport and from season to season, but you can see it across all sports. Most people know this from watching games, but few understand how this biases the sports betting public. You need to understand what home team bias is and how it can hurt your sports betting results.

Because home teams win more often than road teams, many sports bettors give the home team too much credit when they try to determine the best bet. This is called home team bias. While you must account for the added chance to win for the home team when you’re trying to determine the best team to bet on, you can’t count the fact that they’re at home for too much.

The general betting public defiantly has a home team bias, and the sportsbooks have learned about this over the years. When they set their lines they account for general home team bias, and this is why betting on home underdogs isn’t as profitable as it used to be.

When the sportsbooks realized that home underdogs were covering the spread too often they started adjusting the lines against them.

Of course, you need to be careful that you don’t go too far the other way. Some sports bettors give road teams too much credit when they try to eliminate home team bias in their betting. It’s just as costly to bet on too many road teams as it is to bet on too many home teams.

5 – Line Shopping Is Profitable

When you only have one choice when you want to bet on a sporting event you have decide which side of the bet is most likely to win. But when you have multiple choices of where to bet you can compare the lines offered at different places.

Today you can place bets with local bookies, with sportsbooks in many cities, and with hundreds of sportsbooks online. You can use this to help you make more money over time.

You evaluate games the same way, but when you figure out which team should win you can look at several different sportsbooks to get the best line. This is true for both against the spread bets and moneyline wagers.

You don’t have to have any skill to shop for lines. It doesn’t have anything to do with your ability to handicap games, so it’s one of the things that every sports bettor should do, whether you’re a beginner or a veteran.

6 – Don’t Bet on Your Favorite Team

The odds are good that the first bet you placed on a sporting event involved your favorite team. Many sports bettors continue betting on their favorite team because they root for the team and want to enjoy winning some money when their team wins.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this, but it’s not the way to be a winning sports bettor. If you want to make money betting on sports you have to be able to look at games and teams in an unbiased way.

Instead of trying to view my favorite teams without bias, I simply stopped betting on their games. I still watch them and root for them, but I don’t even try to handicap their games.

You can bet on your favorite teams if you want to, but I recommend using a separate bankroll to do it. It’s difficult for a fan to look at their favorite team and players without bias, and this bias costs you money in the long run.

7 – Understand the Sports Betting Profit Model

In order to make the best decisions when you bet on sports you need to understand how the sportsbooks make money. Once you understand how they make a profit, you can use this information to help you in your quest for profit.

I mentioned the vig in an earlier section, and it forms the basis of all profit for the sportsbooks. When you have to bet $110 for the chance to win $100 it creates a gap of profit. When you win you get back your wager, so the book doesn’t make any profit on your win.

But when you lose, the sportsbook gets the amount they risked paying out as well as the extra amount you had to risk. If they take a bet on each side of a game they lock in a profit.

The sportsbook takes a bet of $110 to win $100 on team A and also takes a bet of $110 to win $100 on the opponent, team B. When team A wins the sportsbook wins $110 from one bettor and only has to pay out $100. This locks in a profit of $10 on the game.

The perfect situation for a sportsbook is to have the exact same amount wagered on each side of every game. This is hard to accomplish in the real world, but if they set good lines it averages out over time.

This also means that the sportsbooks set lines based on trying to create the same amount of betting action on each side of each game. They don’t set the lines based on the predicted final score. While these two things often end up close together, it still gives a smart sports bettor the chance to find profitable lines.

When you can predict the final score spread of games accurately, you can compare your predictions to the available lines. Often these two things are close, but sometimes you can find a game where the line the sportsbook sets is different than your prediction because the book is more interested in creating equal action than predicting final scores.

8 – Learn the Key Positions by Sport

In some sports certain positions are more important than others. Once you learn which positions are the most important you can spend more time evaluating players at those positions to improve your chances to win.

In baseball, the starting pitchers for each team are the most important positions. This has been true since baseball was invented, but in recent years starting pitchers have been throwing fewer innings and the bullpen has been gaining in importance.

I’ve started valuing the bullpen almost as much as the starting pitcher in games. Unless a game goes extra innings, there are only nine innings. Many managers are quickly replacing their starting pitchers after they get five innings pitched.

Five innings pitched is roughly two times through the batting order, and the more times the pitcher faces the batting order the worse his results are on average. Pitchers who go beyond six innings are becoming rarer every season.

If you work with the idea that the starting pitcher will work around six innings, then the bullpen works around three innings. This might make you think that the starting pitcher is twice as important as the bullpen, but this is a dangerous way to handicap baseball games.

In football the most important position is the quarterback. No other position comes close to the importance of the quarterback.

Basketball is one of the few sports where position isn’t overly important to sports bettors. The NBA, and for the most part the NCAA, is a star driven sport. The best players are the most important ones for handicapping purposes, no matter where they play.

Hockey and soccer is somewhat like the NBA because the best players tend to control the games, regardless of position. I always take a close look at the goalies in both hockey and soccer, but I don’t weigh their input a great deal more than other positions.

You still need to look at every position and player on each team to do a good job handicapping sporting events, but you should always start with the key positions.

9 – Bigger Games Have Tighter Lines

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In the section about the sports betting profit model you learned how sports books make money. If they can get roughly even action on both sides of a game they take as much action as they can get. But they rarely get equal action on both sides of a game.

When they can’t get even action they’re at risk of losing money on a game. The most popular games create the most betting action, so if the sportsbooks make a mistake on the line they offer it can cost them money.

Remember, the sportsbook doesn’t want to predict the final score; they want to create a line that gets action on each side. In the biggest games, like the super bowl, the books take so much volume that they have to spend more energy and time setting the best lines possible. This usually results in tighter lines on big games than on less popular games.

The sportsbook has to set lines for 10 games for the day. One of the games is a big rivalry that traditionally creates half of the total action the book takes in for the day. One of the games is between two smaller market teams that traditionally have only created a couple of percent of the daily action. The other eight games fall somewhere in the middle.

Which game is the sportsbook going to concentrate on setting the best possible line for? Of course, the answer is the one that creates half their daily action.

Which games will they spend the least amount of time setting a line for? The game that only accounts for a couple of percent of their daily action is the answer.

I’m not trying to say that the least popular game is always the best betting option, but it’s easier to find lines that offer betting value on one side or the other of these games than the bigger games.

10 – Avoid Dangerous Sports

Most sports bettors never think about the possibility of a game being fixed, but it happens sometimes. Some sports are harder to fix than others, but if you aren’t aware of the possibilities it can cost you money.

Individual sports like tennis and golf are the easiest to fix. You only need one person to alter the outcomes in a way that can be profitable to the fixer. Team sports are more difficult to fix, but basketball has a history of games being fixed. An NBA fixing scandal was recently in the news. You can read more about it here.

11 – Treat Sports Betting like a Business

If you want to succeed as a sports bettor, you need to start treating it like a business instead of a hobby. Businesses have a budget, track their results, learn from their mistakes, and try to make profitable decisions in every area of the business.

These are all traits that the best sports bettors have as well. Start tracking all of your results and work with a set bankroll. You can add money to your bankroll if you need, but keeping your bankroll separate from your regular finances helps you track it better.

Conclusion

It’s hard for beginning sports bettors to make a profit, but with these 11 tips you can get a jump start. Dividing your bankroll up so you can bet on plenty of games helps keep you in action longer, and helps you track your results. Specialize in one area, shop for lines, learn about bias, and stop betting on your favorite teams.

When you learn and start using everything on this page your results will instantly improve. Once you’ve mastered what you learned here, continue learning and testing new things to keep improving. With constant improvement you can start turning a profit before you know it.

We genuinely want our readers to become successful football bettors. That’s the whole purpose of this football betting strategy guide. It’s why we’ve put so much time and effort into writing and compiling it. We quite simply want to help you make money.

But we want you to be realistic too. The last thing we want to do is give you the impression that we can teach you some amazing betting system that will set you on the road to riches beyond your wildest dreams. That’s just not going to happen, because no such system exists.

The fact is that there’s no definitively correct way to go about deciding which football wagers you should place and when. There’s no one system that works effectively all of the time and in every situation. Football is too unpredictable for that to be the case. So football betting strategy is somewhat more complicated than simply following a set of rules and watching the money roll in.

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There’s actually a wide range of different strategies that you can apply to your football betting decisions. Many of these have significant merit, but the most effective ones are quite advanced. This means they probably aren’t suitable for beginners. It’s not practical to try to understand complex strategies while you’re still figuring out the basics. You need more experience before you’re ready for those.

Of course, in the meantime you still want to maximize your opportunities for making money. You won’t become a successful bettor overnight, but you certainly want to set out with the right intentions. This means learning how to actually implement betting strategies as soon as you can. And this is something we can help with.

On this page we’ve detailed a few strategies that we recommend for beginners. They’re pretty straightforward, so they’re not too difficult to understand. They all have the potential to be effective, but don’t expect them to lead to easy profits. Like so many betting strategies, they are basically just general guidelines to what you should be betting on and when. You still need to evaluate and analyze individual opportunities for yourself. They’re a great place to start though, so please read on to find out more.

Basic Value Betting

The concept of value is something you HAVE to be aware of if you want the best chance of making money from betting on football. Trying to make accurate predictions isn’t enough by itself; you also have to look into different bookmakers. It’s possible that their odds could leave ample opportunity for extra value.

Here’s a somewhat extreme example to illustrate this point.

Two football teams are playing a game towards the end of the season. The home team has been absolutely flying, and has lost only one game so far. The road team has been struggling, and has only won two games. To make matters worse, they’ve just lost two important players to injury.

After comparing the overall quality of the two teams, you’re understandably convinced that the home team is going to win the game comfortably, so you’re planning a big bet on the moneyline. Now let’s say that the odds offered on this team to win are -10,000.

We expect your answer to this is probably no. What’s the point? No matter how likely you think the home team is going to win, a wager at these odds makes no sense. There’s always a chance that something unexpected is going to happen.

Now let’s say that the odds on the road team at +10,000.

We hope that you would. It might be very unlikely that the road team is going to win, but not unlikely enough to warrant +10,000 odds. There’s enough of a chance of them winning that this actually becomes a good bet to make.

Now, no bookmaker would ever actually offer these odds on a single game of football. We used extreme numbers just to make the point clear. A bet that’s very likely to win isn’t necessarily a good bet if the odds are too low. And a bet that’s unlikely to win can still be a good bet even if the odds are too high. That’s the fundamental concept of value. It exists whenever the chances of something happening are greater than the odds suggest.

Value is a concept that you should apply, at least to some degree, in any betting strategy that you use. “Value betting” is also considered a strategy in its own right, and it’s simple enough to mention here. All you’re basically trying to do is look for spots for where you believe an outcome is more likely than the implied probability of the odds on that outcome.

If you’re not familiar with implied probability, or would simply like to learn more about value betting in football, please take a look at the following article.

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Situational Handicapping

We’ve already touched very briefly on the subject of comparing the overall quality of football teams before making predictions. There’s obviously some merit in carrying out these comparisons, as it’s a good way to start forming some opinions about how a game of football might play out. In theory, the better team is always going to be more likely to win. So that’s something you can factor in when looking for betting opportunities.

It’s important to note that it’s not only the quality of teams that affects the outcome of games though. The circumstances surrounding a game of football have an effect too. And they are always unique to each individual game in some way. No two situations are exactly the same.

This is one reason why predicting the outcomes of games can be so difficult. It’s hard to take everything into account and accurately assess just how much influence the various different factors may have. Situational handicapping is a broad strategy where the aim is to do exactly that though.

The fundamental idea here is to first consider which variables are going to affect the outcome of a game. Then you try to figure out what impact those variables will have. This can help you make informed judgements about what’s likely to happen.

Here’s a list of some of the situational factors you should be looking at.

Playing Conditions

The performance of some teams can improve or drop based on the playing conditions. Consider factors such as the surface, the weather and the stadium.

Streaks

Teams on winning streaks will want to keep winning, while their opponents may be fired up to stop them. Teams on losing streaks will be low on confidence, while their opponents may underestimate them.

Travel

How far has the road team had to travel? Have they gone across time zones? These things regularly affect performances.

Previous Matchups

Is one team going to be out for revenge? That can be a big motivating factor.

The Standings

Do both teams have playoff hopes still? Just one team? A game between two teams with something to play for can be very different from a game where there’s nothing at stake for one team.

Injuries

Injuries can have a big effect on teams, particularly if it’s big name players that are missing.

The Schedule

Have the players had much rest recently? Have they been playing a number of tough games in the last few weeks, or have they had a relatively easy run of games?

We explain these situational factors thoroughly in our article discussing what affects the outcome of football games.

The contrarian strategy is also known as fading the public, or betting against the public. The idea is simply that you bet on the opposite to what the majority of people are betting on. It’s based on the simple theory that the majority of people are going to be wrong, as most people who bet on football are overall losers.

You can’t really fault the logic here. It’s 100% accurate that most football bettors do lose money. So it’s not unreasonable to therefore assume that going against what most people are betting on is going to be profitable. And there actually was a time when this simple strategy could be very profitable. Unfortunately this was many years ago now, back when the bookmakers weren’t quite as efficient at setting their odds and lines as they are now.

This strategy is TOO simplistic these days. The fundamental principle is still sound, as the public does still frequently overvalue one side of a line. This is especially true of big games that attract a lot of interest, as these are the type of games that most recreational bettors bet on. However, the strategy needs some refinement to be truly effective.

We wouldn’t talk you out of using this strategy even in its most basic format though. If you’re selective enough and choose the right spots, you can probably still make some money from betting against the public. And it’s a nice and simple strategy to use as a beginner.

Eventually, though, you should learn about how to use public opinion to your advantage with some slightly more sophisticated strategies. Please see the following article for more on this subject.

Following Steam Moves

Following steam moves is about trying to emulate what the really smart bettors are doing. It’s based on the theory that big moves in the betting markets are usually caused by betting syndicates and/or successful high stakes bettors getting their money down. They’re betting so much money that the bookmakers and betting sites are forced to make significant adjustments to their odds and lines. These adjustments are known as steam moves, or simply steam.

The aim with this strategy is to figure out what these smart guys are betting on based on the changes made to the odds and lines. Then you simply follow them and bet the same way. This seems like an entirely logical approach, and this strategy does in fact have the potential to be profitable. There are a couple of problems with it too though.

First is the simple fact that these steam moves can happen at any time. You’re going to miss them unless you’re constantly paying close attention to the odds and lines. This isn’t very practical for most people, to say the least. Second is the fact that you’ll only actually notice steam moves once the odds and lines have already been adjusted to account for the weight of money. So by the time you know what to bet on, the markets may have moved to a point where it’s no longer the right bet to make.

Following steam moves can definitely be profitable in the right circumstances. So this is a strategy that we do recommend implementing when you can. Just be prepared for suitable opportunities to be in short supply.

As a general rule, the public prefer betting on favorites. The bookmakers know this, and set their odds and lines accordingly. We’ve already touched on this concept when talking about the contrarian strategy.

This strategy is a little more precise though. It’s about specifically looking for value in games where underdogs are playing at home against popular teams. Many recreational bettors will put their money on popular road favorites without much thought at all, and that can often make home underdogs an attractive betting proposition.

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Please note, however, that the idea isn’t to simply bet on the home team anytime that they’re an underdog. That’s unlikely to be a successful approach in the long run.

What you need to do is to examine such situations and determine whether there actually is any value in backing against the favorite. You’ll find plenty of spots where a home underdog has a really good chance of covering the spread, and some where they may even be a good bet to win outright.

The concept of this strategy is very straightforward. It’s based on the fact that bookmakers and betting sites will sometimes offer odds and lines that are noticeably different from the rest of the market. This might simply be because they have a different outlook than everyone else. Or it might be because of the wagers they’ve already taken or are expecting to take.

For example, let’s say a bookmaker has taken a lot of money for the favorite on the spread. They may then adjust their spread to discourage any more money from coming in for that side. This can create value on the other side of the spread, as they’ll end up giving the underdog more points than anyone else. In this situation, a bet on the underdog to cover might be the sensible thing to do.

To find off-market prices, you need to compare the odds and lines at a variety of different bookmakers and/or betting sites. You’re looking for anything that stands out as being noticeably different. You might see the following at four different betting sites for example.

• Betting Site A
  Philadelphia -7-110
• Philadelphia -7-115
• Philadelphia -6.5-110
• Philadelphia -5-110

Betting Site A has a very straightforward line. The spread is seven points, and both teams are available at the “standard” odds of -110. Betting Site B is offering a similar line, with slightly different odds on the same spread. Betting Site C is offering a slightly different spread, but only by half a point.

Betting Site D, however, is a full two points different on the spread. If you spot a situation like this, it’s almost certainly right to back Philadelphia at -5. This is for the sole reason that you’re getting an extra two points over what the rest of the market is suggesting. You’re not guaranteed to win, of course, but it’s a good bet to make unless you can find a very good reason why this spread is so different from the rest of the market.

Please note that these situations, and others like them, used to be reasonably commonplace in the football betting markets. The markets are much more efficient these days though, so opportunities for skewed lines are rare. They do still exist though. So it’s not a bad idea to keep an eye out for them.

Betting middles is a strategy that provides the potential for profit without taking much risk. The idea here is to take advantage of opportunities where it’s possible to bet on both sides of a game and have a chance of winning both wagers. Such opportunities don’t happen often, but they DO happen.

Bookmakers and betting sites regularly adjust their lines based on the wagers they take and new information that they may receive. When these adjustments are big enough, it can be a good spot to bet both sides of a game.

Here’s an example.

The Patriots are playing the Chiefs. It’s a few days until the game, and the early lines have the Patriots as the favorites on a 7-point spread. You like the look of the Patriots, so you get your money down early. Over the next couple of days, a lot of other bettors do the same. There’s so much money coming in for the Patriots that by the day before the game they’re now ten point favorites.

Not only did you get your money down at the right time in this situation, you now have the opportunity to bet a middle by placing another wager on the Chiefs at +10. This means the following outcomes are possible.

• You’ll win BOTH wagers if the Patriots win the game by eight or nine points.
• You’ll win one wager and push the other if the Patriots win by exactly seven or exactly ten.
• You’ll win one wager and lose the other if the Patriots win by more than ten points or less then seven.
• You’ll win one wager and lose the other if the Patriots lose.

In a worst case scenario, you’re going to win one wager and lose the other. So your only risk is the vig. But there’s a possibility of winning BOTH your wagers, or winning one and pushing the other. That’s a good spot to be in, especially when the favorable outcomes are based on the more likely score lines. It’s fair to say that betting middles is an attractive strategy whenever suitable opportunities arise.

The Rebound Game Strategy

The rebound game strategy is beautifully simple. It doesn’t require much work at all. All you need to do is study the results of games and look for teams that have suffered a blowout, lost a game they were expected to win, or experienced some other kind of setback. Then you apply the bounce back theory.

The bounce back theory states that teams will put in an improved performance if they’ve just been beaten badly: or lost unexpectedly, or lost really late in the game. It’s based on the idea that setbacks like this can really motivate a team to do better the next time they play.

The flaw in this particular strategy is that you can never be certain that a team is going to react positively to a setback. It’s also possible that they’ll suffer from a loss of confidence and spiral into a bad run of form. So we don’t recommend that you automatically back a team just because they were on the wrong end of a bad loss in the previous game.

You should definitely look out for scenarios where the bounce back theory might apply though. They can definitely be profitable if you know enough about the teams involved. If you’re confident that a team has a really strong mentality, for example, then it probably is right to back them based on the strong likelihood that they will bounce back.

The Bye Week Strategy

The bye week strategy is based on a loose trend of teams performing better than average following a bye week. It’s an incredibly simple strategy to implement, but it’s also very limited. The idea is simply that you bet on a team in their first game after a bye week. There’s literally nothing more to it than that.

We can’t recommend this strategy in its most basic format, even though there IS statistical analysis that shows teams have a higher than average win rate in games following their bye week. This is just not a good enough reason to blindly back teams in isolation of all other factors. The betting markets already account for the advantage of the extra rest and preparation time, so you’re not going to find any value with this approach.

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The basic strategy does have some merit, but it needs to be adjusted for it to be truly effective. This requires digging deeper into some statistical analysis, and trying to find out in what circumstances the bye week has the greatest effect. This isn’t particularly simple though, so it’s not really appropriate when discussing simple strategies for beginners.

Why have we mentioned it all then? Because it’s still a good way to highlight potential betting opportunities. It’s actually a very good idea to look closely at games involving teams coming off their bye week, as you can find some good spots to get your money down. It’s just important that you don’t automatically bet on the team that’s had the extra rest. You need to consider some other factors too.

Teasers are a specific type of parlay that allows you to modify the point spread in your favor. In exchange you take reduced odds. They’re relatively advanced wagers, but not so complicated that beginners should avoid them. You just need to spend a little extra time learning how they work.

A basic strategy for this type of wager is commonly referred to as Wong teasers. It’s named in honor of the man who introduced the strategy to the general public: Stanford Wong. He wrote a book entitled “Sharp Sports Betting” in which he explains this strategy in detail. It’s a simple strategy for beginners to use once they understand the basics, which is why we’ve mentioned it here. We won’t get into exactly how it works though, because we’ve covered it fully on the following page.

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Some Final Points

We started this article by stating that there is no single correct way to decide which football wagers to place. We’ll reiterate that point here. Why? Because it’s VERY important.

It’s unlikely, and probably impossible, that you’re ever going to find some straightforward system that will consistently help you to find winners. Betting on football is just not that easy. There’s too much unpredictability, and too many factors affecting games. No single strategy is able to compensate for that.

This actually goes for pretty much every football betting strategy you can use, not just the ones we’ve discussed here. It’s simply not realistic to think that any strategy will work all the time, and in all situations. They’re all limited in one way or another, even the more advanced ones.

Please note that this doesn’t mean that no football betting strategy is worth using. Quite the opposite, in fact. They can be very valuable. It’s just that they have to be used in the right way and at the right time. And, ultimately, it’s up to you to learn how to use them effectively. It’s important to determine which ones work for you, and which ones don’t. To do that, you have to put them into practice and learn from your experiences.

The strategies that we’ve listed on this page are the ones we recommend to beginners. This is primarily because they’re both simple and easy to understand. They’re not perfect, and they do have some flaws as we’ve discussed. Regardless, they do have some merit too, and they can help you achieve respectable betting results while you’re learning and gaining experience.

As you become more experienced, you’ll be able to adjust these strategies and combine them with others. This will help to make them even more effective. The end goal should really be to develop your own personal theories and strategies that can turn you into a winner.

Remember, if you truly want to be successful then you should never stop trying to learn and expand your knowledge. There’s a lot more information and advice throughout our football betting strategy guide that will help you to do this. The following pages specially are useful for learning additional strategies that are a little more advanced than the ones we’ve outlined here.