Live betting is one of the most exciting experiences in the world of sports betting. You bet after a match starts, meaning you only have 60 minutes for an NFL game, 90 minutes in soccer, and 48 minutes in a basketball match.
How you utilize this time determines how much fun and money you make. Truth be told, betting on games in real-time isn’t easy. Odds change at fractions of a second. Betting mistakes can cost you a lot while you have pretty small windows for making great bets.
So, how do you beat the odds to make money on live betting? Here are some actionable tips.
Choose the right betting site
The first rule of live betting is to choose a great betting site. This is where you’ll select betting markets, get your odds, bet, and withdraw your money. If it’s unreliable in any sense of the word, then you’ll have an awful betting experience.
Start with safety. The safest betting sites according to this guide are licensed, secure, and trustworthy. A genuine license helps you confirm the bookie is authorized to operate in your jurisdiction. By contrast, certain features like SSL encryption help secure your data.
Safety aside, you want to bet on a trustworthy bookmaker. It’s the only way you can be confident you’ll get paid if you win. And if something happens, say a technical hiccup, you can be assured the issue will get sorted. That said, look for top-rated bookies so that you get a wide array of betting markets with competitive odds.
Choose a match from your favorite sport
The keyword is your favorite sport. You don’t want to bet on your favorite team because you could get emotional and throw your winning chances out of the window. However, picking matches from your favorite sport increases your odds.
Let’s say you love basketball. You also know Steph Curry is an excellent free throw player. If the point guard gets fouled moments before halftime, you can quickly bet on the Warriors to lead by halftime. This is a bet you would win based on your knowledge of the sport, but someone else who knows little about basketball could lose it.
Another reason to focus on sports you like is that specialization makes you an expert. When you dedicate most of your time to football, you’ll have excellent knowledge about the sport. But if you split your time among MMA, boxing, baseball, and hockey, then it can be challenging to become an expert on one of them.
Analyze games before they start
Another live betting tip is to analyze a match before it starts. This gives you an overview of what to expect. But more importantly, you get to know the odds and capitalize on them once the game begins. To expound more, bookies change the odds within the first 20 minutes of a match.
Let’s say you want to predict a soccer game between the USA and Canada. Team US have odds -110 to beat Canada (+150). Then you do research and get confident the US men’s team will win the match. You can wait until 15 minutes into the game to bet on the US.
By that time, the odds might have changed to +115 for the US and +130 for Canada. All the same, you’ll now stand to make more money by backing the US. Analyzing games before they start also gives you an easier time making decisions during live-betting.
Analyzing games lets you know the projected score totals, scorers, and results in all quarters or halves. Then you can better time when to adjust your bets and increase your potential profits.
Focus on one team and watch it
As we mentioned, specialization makes you an expert. And when predicting games as they happen, you want to narrow down your focus as much as possible. Watching a game while betting on it in real-time is also recommended.
Not only does it make the betting process more exciting, but it’s also the best way to make correct betting decisions. Sure, there are some great apps out there that alert you immediately a touchdown is scored, a free throw is made, or a team gets a penalty.
But unless you plan to keep your eyes glued on an app, the best way to know what’s happening in a game is to watch it. You’ll know precisely when something crucial happens during a game and place your bets before the odds change.
You can also predict before something happens based on a game’s momentum. Maybe a team is having their defense exposed constantly. Perhaps a player is pushing for a goal or playing roughly and could get a technical foul. Watching a match helps you stay ahead of the odds, which, in turn, increases your potential profits.
Follow a betting plan
Because in-play betting creates so many betting opportunities, it’s easy to over-bet. You can wager on a basketball team to win the first quarter. Then place a different bet on the team to win by halftime. Then you could wager on the number of points scored or the number of points a specific player scores.
This amounts to betting without a plan and only lead to losses. You might win a couple of your wagers. But making losses reduces your profits significantly. The better option is to follow a plan that dictates your bankroll, matches, and the types of bets to place.
A plan guides you on the areas to focus on and areas to ignore. In turn, you don’t have to worry about every occurrence in a game. It also dictates your targets so that if you hit them, you don’t have to wait until the match is over.
Likewise, you can use your targets to determine your exit points. Sometimes things go wrong, and the best thing you can do is stay out of the match. Chasing your losses only leads to more losses. So, follow your plan to maximize profits and not losses.
Read more: Top Canadian Betting Platforms
