BETTING STRATEGIES

Finding betting strategy is crucial for every bettor – whether rookie or experienced bettor with decades of investment under his belt. It sounds like an easy one-time job, but discovering perfect strategy demands plenty of time and patience. In this article several betting systems will be covered and each will require steel nerves and starting capital. The most important thing to remember is that perfect betting system doesn’t exist, there is no system that guarantees profit, because at the end of the day everything will come down to whether a bettor is able to find value in odds. If you want to place your bet on high betting odds then have to try to bet on football events.

Martingale system

Martingale system is one of the most popular systems due to its simplicity and as the majority of systems it came up as casino strategy. This betting strategy is mostly used when the odds offered are near 50-50 chances (in roulette odd/even, color). Basically after a loss, stake for the next bet is doubled:

Let’s say the initial stake is 10€ and the odds are exactly 2.00 (1/1) each time.

1st bet 10€ @ 2.00 – lost
Stakes are doubled for the next bet

2nd bet 20€ @ 2.00 – lost
Doubling the stakes again, currently -30€

3rd bet 40€ @ 2.00 – lost
For the fourth bet, stakes are doubled again

4th bet 80€ @ 2.00 – win
Total stake after four bets is 150€ while total winnings are 160€ - leaving only 10€ profit.
It is obvious that this system has serious flaws, especially because after several bets stakes could skyrocket to thousands, and even then there is near 50-50 chance the bet will lose.

Fibonacci system

Fibonacci system is somehow similar to Martingale in terms of increasing stake after unsuccessful bet. For those unfamiliar with it, Fibonacci sequence is number sequence where each following member is the sum of previous two: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… simple. Enough with maths, back to betting. Back in 2007, ten years ago the system was published by Fragiskos Archontakis and Evan Osborne with two simple rules to follow:

1) Bet only on draws, if bet loses – bet again; bet strictly if the probability is above 2.6182 (38.19%).
2) If bet is unsuccessful, multiply stake for the next bet with the number from Fibonacci sequence until you land a hit.

Let’s say 1 unit is 10€ and that would be our initial bet.

1st bet – 1 unit is in play, there are two outcomes: if our bet wins, we will stake exact same amount for the next bet (1 unit); if our bet loses, we increase our stake to 2 units.

2nd bet – 2 units in play, two outcomes again: if our bet wins, we go back to starting position (stake=1 unit); if the bet is lost again, we increase our stake to 3 units.

3rd bet – 3 units are staked with two outcomes: if our bet wins, we go back to initial stake of 1 unit; otherwise, if our bet is lost again, we increase it to 5 units, and so on until bet is successful.

Since Fibonacci system found success around the globe, punters developed few variances of this strategy, for instance the ones that prefer risky approach drop down only one step after winning bet.

The negative side of this strategy is that several teams have gone weeks without drawing a game, sometimes even throughout whole season, so again the required stake amount could get out of hand easily.

Oscar’s Grind

Oscar’s Grind is a strategy named by its author who used it while gambling in Las Vegas and allegedly he never lost using his system. This system is not quite popular, mostly due to psychology of average bettor who wants to get rich quickly while Oscar’s Grind is the complete opposite with the emphasis on not losing. The goal of each bet sequence is to profit exactly one unit, so it’s important to set the unit value before commencing. After each winning bet next stake will be strictly unit higher than previous; however after each loss the stake remains the same as in previous bet. Again, the goal is to win only one bet, so the bet must never result in profit higher than one unit.

This system prepares a punter in a way for a losing streak because after losing bet you don’t increase your stakes, unlike in previous two strategies described. On the other hand winning streaks will make up for losing streaks in no time since the stakes are increased after successful bet.

Let’s take a look at the system that provides sure profit unlike the previously described three, however it can’t be classified as betting due to absence of risk.

Sure betting

Sure betting is popular among bettors who prefer lower amount of risk. In a way sure betting is not a form of betting at all – it’s simply placing bets in a way that guarantees constant profit regardless of the outcome. Since there are hundreds of online bookmakers and each of them is trying to offer the best possible odds in order to attract more customers, the result is high variety of odds across the market. Often the difference in odds between the two bookmakers result in more than 100% payout, creating the opportunity for sure bet – placing a bet on all possible outcomes, resulting in profit regardless of the result.

Downside of sure betting is that it requires a lot of time and decent starting capital – the more time and money you invest in this strategy, the higher the return. Sure betting does not provide adrenaline and excitement that ‘real betting’ offer, and certainly not the enormous winning every bettor dreams of.