Ever since betting exchanges were introduced in the early noughties, football fans have been able to profit from the game they love.
In contrast to bookmakers, who in the past only offered a limited range of betting options for football matches, betting exchanges allow punters to bet on a whole host of markets to suit everyone’s taste. In 2011, Betfair launched its’ own sportsbook, to compete with other bookmakers who offer fixed odds betting.
There is more than one Betfair sportsbook review online pointing out that the main USP of the platform is its’ ‘Best Odds Guarantee’ for UK and Irish racing, its’ football cash back offers and its’ cash out feature.
Indeed, the cash out feature is a strong selling point for the Betfair sportsbook, because it allows punters to profit, irrespective of the final result of a football match. One popular strategy is to identify a strong favorite team that looks likely to score in the first half. You would back this team before the start of the match, then wait for the goal to come. Once the favorite team scores, its’ odds will shorten and you will be able to cash out of that market for a guaranteed profit, even if the underdog team comes back to level the score.
Also, the cash out feature allows punters to use what are known as ‘insurance bets’ – to hedge against the possibility of a match not panning out in the way they expect. In the above example, as well as backing the favorite to win, you could back the 0-0 scoreline before the match, so that the profit figure comes to about 140 percent of your stake on the favorite.
In this situation, if the favorite scores first, you will lose your stake on the 0-0, however you will make an overall profit once you have cashed out of the match odds market. In the event that neither team scores before half time though, you will be able to cash out of both markets for a break even or a small profit.
Of course, if you hadn’t placed the 0-0 bet, you would be in a losing position at half time — so it is always worth making the most of the cash out feature to cover your bases in this way.
Another popular strategy is to identify matches with evenly matched teams, which look likely to be low scoring. Before the start of the match, you would back the Under 2.5 Goals, then – after the game has been in play for ten minutes – you can cash out of that market for a profit if the score is still 0-0.
Once again, you can place insurance bets by backing the 2-1, 1-2 and 2-2 scorelines. This way, if a goal is scored during the first ten minutes, you can cash out of both markets for a reduced loss. Football fans with in depth knowledge of the game should have no trouble finding the right matches to get involved with.
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