FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Below you can find some questions I am often asked over and over again. More will be added as they come up.

Why don't you blog or send tips before the matches?

I used to. I ran two tipping websites a few years ago and I'm just not interested anymore. I don't enjoy the pressure that comes with tipping as it made me doubt my selections and I would overthink it. Giving out my bets also destroys the money available in the market and then the price. I'm no better than most people reading this in terms of selecting bets. I'm no expert and anyone can be just as successful so my idea is to blog my work so others can see my thought process and recreate that for themselves. 

I will make money doing this because of the mistakes I've made over the years and the experience gained. I will make more mistakes but as long as discipline is kept and the money management is followed religiously it won't cost me. Anyone can do the same.

How do you select your bets?

First of all I look at the list for the day, I usually work in two hour blocks so if it's a Saturday I will look at the morning matches and try to find a bet then the 12:00 or 13:00 kick offs followed by the 15:00 etc I never have more than 1 bet running at the same time. I'd rather have one bet a day than try to squeeze twenty bets in worrying i'm missing out on some good games. There are so many games most days that it's unrealistic to expect to bet in all of them! I look at my time frame, say there are 6 games kicking off in the next hour i'd go through them looking at odds, stats and other info. I use flashscore, soccerstats and soccerway to see recent form etc I look at the league table to see the motivation of each team before checking the official websites/forums for team news. I often get a good idea of a teams motivation from the pre-match press conferences. By this time I've usually narrowed it down to a couple of games and have an idea from the odds of what I want. I then cross check my thoughts with other respected thoughts using the punters lounge forum and thefootytipster.com. This either destroys my confidence in my bet or supports it. If it's the latter I decide at what point I want to enter and what odds I need (this depends on which step of the progression it is). That's it. Obviously for in-play bets I often monitor what's happening in the game and how the market is moving.

Can you recommend a system or tipping site?

No. Most of them are garbage. These system review sites and the spam you get in your email are all done on commission. Everyone is trying to get you to buy products and they will describe it as the best thing since sliced bread because the commission on these things can be as high as 70%. As I said, I ran to sites in the past but they weren't as successful as I'd have liked because I couldn't get them out there. I wasn't interested in affiliation so I closed them. The system pages usually have a huge page of 'copy' written by professionals to convince you to buy it.  Just accept it's all crap and go alone. If you use a safe strategy like mine you will enjoy it and be safe in the knowledge that everything is under your control. It's better that way. I can only recommend taking a membership to The Footy Tipster as Ian writes excellent daily previews and background plus injury news etc which really help support your selections. I don't have commission from this! He is a real football person who knows a lot about teams and leagues worldwide aided by his network of local helpers. He's not an internet marketer or businessman, it's his hobby. I've followed his site for years and it's a great help!

What bookmaker should I use?

This is a bit of a sticky situation. I only use Pinnacle Sports but they recently pulled out of the UK market so most people reading this won't be able to use them. The big names such as William Hill, Ladbrokes, Bet365, Coral etc are garbage. Their odds are poor and they have huge profit margins. If you are a successful bettor your account will be limited or closed down. I have a maximum bet of £1.47 on Paddy Power and my account with 888 has been closed. If you do use these companies for more than a few months you know you aren't making money because they still want your account. I would look at some Asian companies. These companies, like pinnacle, have small margins and a completely different business model which means they welcome winners. If you don't want to go there then you can use an exchange. There are quite a few available these days such as Betfair, Betdaq, smarkets and matchbook. When betting on smaller leagues only Betfair will have enough liquidity but it's a shoddy company and quite often breaks down on Saturdays. You also need to take into consideration that these companies take commission on winning bets with Betfair having the highest rate.

Are the bookmaker/casino bonuses worth it?

Yes, definitely. Bookmakers are competing massively these days for the mug punter (think these adverts before every footy match on sky) and they entice them with free bets/offers. These have little value when used alone but we can benefit from them. Free bets can be layed off on an exchange for risk free profit, money back offers can be layed off with small loses for the chance of a free bet and casino offers, whilst many are useless, can be quite profitable with little or no risk. These are sweet for at least the time your accounts stay open! I milked 888casino for about £300 risk free before they closed my account. I will show you how to do the same in a future blog post. If you follow my daily blogs you will see how I approach these different offers and can then start doing them yourself. I do miss some opportunities as I work full time but the summer months are especially profitable in this area when the football stops.

More to come later! Feel free to get in touch!