There is no bigger global sport than football, and no sport can rival it for betting activity, with hundreds of sports bookmakers all over the world taking bets on a bewildering array of football-related markets, from which team will win the World Cup to how many bookings will occur in a single game.
For football betting customers, checking the odds for football today or the weekend is a regular part of their pastime, but too many football bettors focus on just one bookmaker or one betting site.
Comparing the odds when you are betting on football is essential, whatever market you are betting in, and taking the time to do this can deliver a significant betting advantage.
What is Odds Comparison?
When you buy an item in a supermarket or online, you are likely to consider not just the item you are looking for, but the price. If the same item is available elsewhere for a lower price, it makes sense to switch to that other retail outlet. You may not check all the retail options, but you may check a few of them, particularly if you are making a major purchase such as a holiday or a car.
Betting on football is no different. When you have decided on a bet, you should take the time to find the very best odds on that bet.
Why Does it Matter?
Yet does this really matter? If you just make winning predictions, you will make a profit, won’t you? Well, if you are 100% successful with your football bets, you don’t need to worry about odds. But this is impossible to achieve and even in this scenario, getting the best odds will still increase your profits.
Since you won’t be able to get 100% of your bets right, that means that you hope the returns from your winning bets will exceed the losses from your losing bets.
The best way to do this is to always bet at ‘value’ odds. This means you should always bet on selections that are a bigger price than the ‘true’ odds. Of course, there are so many factors that influence the outcome of a football game that it is impossible to ever know the ‘true’ odds, although if you are making a long-term profit, that is a very strong indicator that you are finding value.
Value Betting and Best Odds
So, if you’re already considering the odds before you bet, why do you need to bother checking other bookmakers to see if higher odds are available elsewhere?
Remember what we said about hoping the returns from your winners outweigh the losses from the losers? Getting the very best odds available for your bet ensures that you will make the maximum profit if you are correct. And in the long term, this can be the difference between profit and loss.
Since almost all football bettors will lose in the long term, this may not be an issue on the surface, but even if you are, like most football bettors, betting as a hobby, you still want to minimise your losses. Small percentages add up over time and getting the best odds is just common sense.
Odds Comparison Sites
You can choose to find the best odds by physically checking all bookmaker sites, but this is an inefficient way to proceed. Most odds checking is done through odds comparison sites that show all of the available odds from bookmakers on a particular market, and some also allow you to click through to the bookmaker’s site to make the bet.
Conclusion
Along with ‘never betting with money you can’t afford to lose’ and ‘setting limits on your betting’ an essential rule when betting on football is to always compare odds to get the best price. That way you will minimise your long term losses and enhance your enjoyment of football betting.
