Value Betting

Everybody wants to be a winning punter – to tell their mates the tales of the day they bashed the bookie. Winning is not that simple because the bookmakers are shrewd – but they can be beaten. If you’re serious about winning then you need to know about value betting and Genie wants to tell you a few simple tips that you punters can follow to try to enhance your expected return from betting.

1) Record Your Bets

Bettors should keep a record of every bet they have. This enables the bettor to constantly monitor how much they are winning/losing over a certain amount of time. It may also help to pinpoint certain types of bets or a certain sport which is particularly profitable or costly and maybe decide to adjust the stakes accordingly. Once you know the sports and markets that you make a profit on then can should focus on those primarily.

2) Do Your Homework

Bettors should try to arm themselves with as much information as they can before placing a bet. Where possible they should try to get the updated team news at the time of the bet to see if the team news impacts on what price the selection should be. Bookmakers will be sure to be doing their research on these factors so in order to give yourself a chance to compete on a level playing field you must get as much information as possible.

3) Price the market before looking at the prices

Ideally the bettor should try to compute the prices on a market before he looks at the bookmaker’s odds on the market. He should try to compute the odds to the 100% line. The bettor should then compare his odds against the prices being offered by the bookmakers to see if he believes there to be any value available in the market. If the bookmaker is offering a price which is bigger than the bettor’s 100% line after the research has been done then this can be perceived to be a value bet with a positive expected return. Punters should refrain from betting at a price that does not represent a value bet based on the customer 100% line prices.

4) Always get the Best Available Price

Bettors should endeavour to get the best price available on their selection before backing it. There are various betting odds comparison sites where it’s easy to identify which company are offering the best price. This may involve opening accounts with a number of bookmakers to place your bets rather than just one specific bookmaker. It is free to open these accounts and in fact many offer incentives to join up so it is worthwhile opening a number of accounts if needed.

An important point to remember on placing bets with betting exchanges is that they will deduct a certain amount off your winnings if successful. So although the betting exchange is appearing as the best available price the bettor should calculate the return after the deduction to check if the price is still more generous than the fixed odds firms.

5) Keep an eye out for Special Offers

In searching for the best price on a selection you should make yourself familiar with any of the companies that may be offering cashback specials that may refund your stake if it loses.

Check out Genie’s cashback specials section for a quick look at all available cashback specials. We rate the cashback so that you know which offers the best value.

6) Compare the Each-Way terms

If planning to place an each way bet have a look at the terms being offered by the various companies as the more attractive the place terms gives you a better chance of success and will represent the value bet. For example some companies may pay out on the first 4 places in the Grand National while others will pay out on the first 5 finishers giving you an extra chance of success.

7) Watch out for Bookmaker Oversights

Bookmakers can at certain times offer different prices for the same selection. An example of this would be offering 5/6 on a team to win a football match while offering a better price of 10/11 on the same team -0.5 on the Asian Handicap which is exactly the same thing. So when thinking of placing a match bet or handicap bet on soccer it is worthwhile comparing the Asian handicap prices also to see if there is an extra incentive to be had which would represent value betting.

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