There’s a lot of debate as to whether or not football betting involves skill and knowledge or does the punter rely purely upon good old-fashioned lady luck. Naturally, the top football betting tips websites are slightly biased in this argument as we firmly believe it’s the latter. Here, we’ll explain why.
Let’s take an average weekend in the Premier League (Gameweek 17), which produced the following results:
- Leicester 1 – 1 Norwich
- Manchester United 1 – 1 Everton
- Chelsea 0 – 1 Bournemouth
For those games, the bookmakers had the home sides as heavy favourites. If we had left our weekend accumulator to lady luck and merely backed the favourites, it would have been in tatters. Fortunately, we don’t bet blind like that. Knowledge gained from betting guides really is the ultimate power if you want to be a successful punter. That’s not to totally disregard lady luck, we all need a sprinkling of it from time to time. However, for long-term profits, it’s best not to use your allocation (of luck) up too quickly.
For instance, Man Utd were fresh off the back of beating Mourinho’s Spurs and then Man City at the Etihad. On paper, it looked like a banker, but Everton, under the guidance of Duncan Ferguson following the sacking of Silva, came into the match full of renewed belief after hammering Chelsea the previous week. This was never going to an easy game for Man Utd and so it proved. Speaking of Chelsea, flying high under Frank Lampard, many expected them to bounce back against Bournemouth. However, the last time these sides met, the Cherries turned them over 4 – 0. This game also had ‘banana skin’ written all over it.
We are not saying we placed a treble on Norwich and Everton to each bag a draw and Bournemouth to win to nil – although we wish we had. The point is, sometimes the best football betting tip is no tip at all. As a punter, you must weigh up all of the variables, use form guides and historical statistics to assist you. Take advantage of tools such as betting calculators and bookmaker bonus bets to work out margins to see if the bet is offering good value. However, you must also add your own judgment, after all, this is a game played by humans, so the outcome is not always as the data would have you believe.
