Sporting Life's guide on how to bet on football, including vital insight on how to increase your profits by betting with different bookmakers.
One of the simplest, yet most common reasons a lot of punters find themselves out of pocket is purely down to not taking the best price.
Gamblers are a tribal sort, and many refuse to switch bookmakers, even if they are aware of a better price elsewhere; this is a mistake.
If you went into a shop to buy a pair of trousers and found them priced at £30, but in the shop next door the same pair were on offer for £20, logic suggests you would opt for the cheaper option.
This is very much the same in betting and it is important to shop around to get the best possible price.
Football is the most popular sport to bet on globally, meaning bookmakers are generally very adept at pricing it up, such is the volume of money bet on it each week.
That means the margins are small, and if you are a long-term bettor, the difference between 5/4 and 6/4 could be extremely crucial.
Similarly, if you are a punter who frequently bets on accumulators, the difference in profit between a £10 acca on four 5/4-shots, and a £10 acca on four 6/4-shots, would be over £130.
How to increase winnings
If you do happen to place a winning bet, there is nothing worse than realising you would have won even more money had you simply placed the bet with a different bookmaker.
Do not worry about loyalty. Bookmakers do not know that you are betting with other bookmakers.
It often becomes difficult to keep track if you have lots of different accounts, with a separate bankroll in each, but if you are serious about winning at betting, this is vital.
Having only one account is simply cutting your nose off to spite your face, and with the margins in the sport so small, the difference between betting with one firm and betting with multiple different firms could be the difference between turning a profit and turning a loss.
If you do turn a profit, then betting with a variety of bookmakers to ensure you achieve the best possible price is a surefire way to increase your profits.
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling.
Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
