The 5 Best Football Betting Strategies in 2023

When you’re betting against the bookmakers, it always helps to have some kind of football betting strategy in place.

This doesn’t have to be set in stone, although bettors should at least start out with a plan which can be amended based on the successes and failures that they experience as the football season wears on.

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Our five best football betting strategies have been updated for 2023 and will hopefully help you to avoid punting pitfalls. They can be used to good effect to work out an ideal overall football betting strategy that you can apply in the long-term.

Before we get started, a few things to keep in mind. Always look to take advantage of offers like free bets. They can give you a helping hand, especially if you're signing up for a betting account for the first time.

Read More: Grab the latest World Cup free bets for the tournament in Qatar

Also remember to only bet what you can afford to lose and keep your football betting fun by gambling responsibly.

Tip 1 – Manage a Football Betting Bankroll

It’s absolutely essential that having a set bankroll forms part of your football betting strategy throughout each season.

Whatever football betting systems you decide to use, there should be a maximum amount that you are prepared to gamble on this sport within a defined time period. It might be that you bet less than this amount but never more.

Start off by betting a certain amount of money on football matches over a weekly period, irrespective of whether the bets you make are winners or losers.

The advantage to having a bankroll is that it helps you to track your profit/loss and to bet within your means. Alternatively, you can assign a certain balance to be used over the course of a month.

Online bookmakers can help you with this football betting strategy - as the best football betting sites give you the option to set a daily, weekly or monthly deposit limit when you sign up for a betting account, while also allowing you to track your net deposits and withdrawals.

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Tip 2 – Have a Staking Plan

This football betting strategy ties in nicely with our first tip.

In addition to having a specific bankroll that might apply for a certain day, week or month’s punting, you should also consider how much you want to stake on each football bet and what percentage of your overall bankroll that constitutes.

Many successful punters create football betting systems where they wager according to the strength of their opinion on a particular selection.

A hot fancy might be regarded 'maximum bet' territory, where they bet the largest amount that they’re prepared to lose on a football bet, on the basis that they are supremely confident.

Some football betting strategies involve staking larger amounts on selections at shorter odds and smaller amounts on bigger-priced picks.

Others might adopt a staking plan which involves spreading the risk so that a specific bankroll covers a large number of bets.

The reasoning for this is that at least some of the football bets will end up winning and you can therefore secure some kind of return, rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket by staking your entire balance on a fancied selection.

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Tip 3 – Review Football Bets on a Regular Basis

If the majority of bettors are being honest, then they probably don’t spend much time reflecting on their various football bets once they have been settled.

A win is celebrated, a loss is lamented and it’s time to consider the next football match that’s about to take place.

However, we highly recommend reviewing your bets as part of your overall football betting strategy. Log in to your account and scroll through the betting activity for a certain time period.

Bookies are obliged to display your profit and loss so that you get a completely transparent view of how your online betting has been performing.

While nobody likes to reflect too much when they’ve backed losing selections, this is part of the football betting process and you can sometimes learn plenty from the mistakes that you’ve made along the way. You might also be able to detect a pattern with your winning and losing bets.

For example, you might enjoy a football accumulator bet on the 1x2 betting market - but then realise that your profits are coming from betting on the both teams to score market at shorter odds.

A regular review of these details can help to inform future bets.

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Tip 4 - Back Value Selections

You might hear betting tipsters or pundits talk about landing the value as part of their football betting strategy. But what exactly is value and how can it be found?

Quite simply, it’s when the betting odds are too big based on the probability of a selection winning.

For example, if a football team is trading at evens, this implies a 50% probability that this side will win the game.

If you can form a strong argument that the team's chance of beating their opponent is greater than 50%, this could be considered a value proposition based on the available odds.

While it’s important to note that value is a subjective concept, successful punters devise football betting systems where they create their own probabilities and prices before matching them up with the betting odds for specific games.

Perhaps you follow a lesser-known league or competition that the bookies aren't fully on top of, or maybe you've gained an edge by betting in-play with betting apps while attending a game.

The best football betting strategy for you will depend on where you think you can exploit an edge.

Value can also be found through statistical analysis and sometimes it’s worth looking past the full-time result market and exploring two-way alternatives such as both teams to score or over/under 2.5 goals.

These are both markets where you can use statistics to determine whether a betting option holds value, while draw no bet means you can have a bit of insurance if you want to take a more cautious approach.

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Tip 5 – Watch For Team News Affecting The Odds

Money talks in all walks of life and that includes online football betting.

In the lead-up to a match, it’s pretty common to find lots of odds movement as bets are placed - particularly with the 1x2 betting market.

It’s definitely worth paying attention to price movements and trying to work out why a certain team’s odds are shortening or on the drift.

The answer can sometimes be found when pieces of team news emerge before the Starting 11s for that match have been announced.

A key football betting strategy is to get a handle on the rumoured and confirmed line-ups for each match and understand how this affects the overall probability of either team winning.

There could be a significant player missing through injury or perhaps a manager has decided to rest squad members for a specific fixture, causing the odds to lengthen.

Try to get ahead of the price movements by following trusted sources of team news on social media and elsewhere online.

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Key Takeaway - Create a Football Betting System

You will have noticed that our best football betting strategy tips all tie together to help you create a football betting system based on our advice.

There is always an element of luck involved with winning and losing bets, although you can sometimes cancel out the bookmaker's edge when it comes to some markets and odds.

Make sure to evaluate your football betting strategy regularly to consider whether any tweaks need to be made. This can direct you towards amending your stake sizes, selections or markets you bet on, in order to be more successful.

Just remember to stick to your principles and learn from your mistakes to help make football betting a fun experience.