Monogamy and getting good value betting
A comment this morning from sammydead on the Everton look best value for a top 5 finish article I wrote last night set me thinking. What is good value betting? Interestingly its not the first suggestion that's been made questioning honesty. Which is odd really, as the tips are free and only someone who doesn't run a website can possibly believe that a small independent website can actually afford to pay anyone - never mind make money! In this article I will tell you exactly how much money Squarefootball makes from betting adverts ... won't that be interesting!
The sammydead comment was:
"Everton are actually a best priced 28/1 with one firm which makes me wonder what the point of giving advice for readers to invest at 18/1 achieves. If you are going to stick to one bookmaker then you can't honestly state that it's a value price when it's on offer at much higher odds elsewhere.
"That apart, at 28/1, the loss of Arteta and Jagielkga is catered for and given their preseason odds were around the 9/2 mark they could be worth a small interest. The defeciencies already exposed in the other candidates squads offers further encouragement for investment as would an exit from the Europa Cup."
Is there 'any point ... giving advice' at all, when the only response is so negative?
I wrote and re-wrote my reply to him, not because I have the time, but because it is important to understand things from different points of view. Sammydead's comment was intelligent and lucid - I just felt it was a touch harsh. So I tried to work out who he (I'm assuming 'he' as a startpoint) might be? From his language he is an intelligent gambler, I would guess he makes a lot of bets and may well work for a bookmaker or as a professional tipster.
And perhaps for that profile of gambler having a couple of dozen betting accounts and playing whichever offers the best deal is a natural way of working. So I tried to offer a different perspective. Most people don't want several betting accounts; they want one reliable bookmaker to offer decent odds and decent incentives. I guess the rise of Betfair is an indicator of people wanting to have a monogamous relationship with their bookie - as long as that bookie offers everything that they need.
For myself I have over a dozen accounts with different bookies and all of them have a few quid in and I can't even remember them all. That kind of fractured approach, seeking out 'good value' odds has not benefited me in the end. And from my experience I would suggest to anyone looking to consolidate their online gambling to close all but one trusted account and use it exclusively. You may not always get the best odds but you will have a tighter control over your budget and a better grasp of how much money you can commit. Like having ten credit cards, ten bookmaker accounts can only lead to trouble.
Below this article is a banner for Bet365 and it's been there since January. Just checked the stats in the last few minutes for October and November and they are:
Days: 42
Clicks: 757
New accounts opened: 16
Commission due to Squarefootball: £8.02
Get in!!
Perhaps the tips we give are just too good, because Bet365 only pay Squarefootball a proportion of the betting losses - perhaps if I was a little cleverer I would give out more plausible but more flawed advice. Sammydead is right that different bookmakers sometimes offer better odds than Bet365 but sometimes the best value comes from monogamy.
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