How do you read stats and form?
This text is based on our personal experiences and represents our opinions.
When it comes to sports betting, there really is a lot of strategy to plan. Sure, some people like to pull a name from a hat, some may look for a horse with a name that has a meaning to them and go all in. That’s fine, but it is also leaving a lot to chance. With sports betting, you want to try and eliminate as much of the risk as possible. One way to do that is to take some time to study form and statistics pertaining to the sporting event in question. You may see seasoned bettors pouring over the horse racing section in the newspaper. What are they doing? Looking at form, studying streaks, calculating who has the best chance in a race. This really is all important knowledge, and is something which cannot be stressed enough, especially for the beginner. Taking some time to study stats and form can increase your chances of winning, and that has to be a good thing. But how do you read stats and form? Where do you go to get started?
For this, we will take a look at a football match. What kind of things would be relevant to you, when you are betting on Manchester United’s next match? There are several basic things to look at, all of which can be done quickly and easily. Take a glance at the league table and see what the points difference is between Manchester United and their opposition. Teams get to the top of the league for a reason, and teams struggle near the bottom for a reason. This is a quick glance at studying form and stats. Also look at goal differences, as this can tell a big tale. If a team is struggling for goals, how are they going to outscore a prolific team like United? The next thing to do would be look at the current form. This is usually shown over the last six matches, and anything beyond that really isn’t relative. If Manchester United haven’t lost in their last six matches, then it shows good confidence, good form. If the opposition have a couple of blemishes on their recent form, it strengthens the case for a United victory.
This is where things can start to get a little deeper. Are Manchester United at home? If so, then check out their form for recent home matches only. There may a streak going on, such as scoring at least two goals in each of their last three matches. How many have they conceded at home in the past few games? Is their defence looking tight in the stats? What is their head to head record against their next opponents. What is their head to head record at home against their next opponents. This is all relevant information which can sway your betting strategy. These are some good basic pointers to look at when learning how to read stats and form for your football betting. Fortunately all this information is readily to hand on the internet, so it doesn’t have to be too time intensive. The more you study form and stats, the quicker you will be able to scan through them and spot the relevant information. Statistics for football run very deep and while it may be easy to say that Manchester United are going to beat a team near the bottom of the league, with statistics on your side, you can look beyond fixed odds outright bets which aren’t going to offer great value on a United home win. By studying more intricate stats, such as goal scoring streaks, time of goals scored, average goals scored at home etc, you really can increase your chances of landing better value bets in markets such as Winning Margin, Asian Handicaps, Anytime Goalscorer and more.
The same can be said of any sport. Horse racing is a sport that may take a little more time to learn how to study properly, but again, find yourself a good website with a good guide on how to read them. Horse racing gets a little more complicated, because it almost has its own language, but all those numbers and letters next to a horses name really means something. Horses have their favourite courses. Jockeys have their favourites rides, races and courses as well. What weight difference is the horse carrying? Has it ran against any of the other horses in the race recently. How many lengths was it beaten by? This is pretty much just scratching the surface, but one thing is for sure, after taking the time to study statistics and from, to pick out a winner which is an outside bet, is probably one of the best feelings when sports betting. It is putting specialist knowledge to use, and all knowledge is valuable. It could be to your pocket.