Doing as much research as possible before placing a stake is ideal, but not always practical. We are often pushed for time and don’t have endless hours to spend on researching a game as we have other duties in our lives.
That’s why optimising your research process as much as possible is important. What might have looked like a great bet might not look so great after research, you’ll want to push as much research as you can in a small amount of time so that you can get essential vital information without searching hours for it.
The key to gaining an edge over the bookmakers is making sure you only back bets where you’ve done as much research as possible. This will lower your chance of losses and keep your hard-earned money in your pocket so that you can stake another day if you don’t find any potential, instead of throwing it on random punts, you’ll be looking at sports betting more tactically and from a birds-eye view, seeing the full picture.
How do we do that?
Sports Statistic Websites
Much of the research you’ll be doing will mostly be calculated by programmers or bots and accessed as sport statistic websites. That could be Timeform, Racing Post, Bet365 and the numerous other websites out there, which have extensive stat sections, comparisons and probabilities that you can see per match.
You should use these websites to make selections that you think have some potential. Then you’ll need to research through other sources so that you can back your bets with well-done research.
Sports News
A lot of news is just drama, gossip and speculation, but there are always sources that go further and deeper than that, they may not be as popular as the dramatic ones, but you can find sources where people have done research and put their points across. Of course most journalists have a bias or opinion, but try to find sources that stay neutral, informative and accurate. Following a couple of sources on an RSS Feeder like Flipboard, you’ll be able to swipe through important information in minutes.
You might find that the managers are not confident about their team’s performance, or that a horse is more likely to have a setback or has been performing fantastically. These sorts of information can be used to reinforce your betting decision.
Twitter is a fantastic news source and is normally the best for up to date and recent events. If you don’t have a Twitter account you probably should do. Whilst most of the platform is in fact opinionated, following a few free tipsters, informative news sources and immersing yourself in betting information is going to help you reinforce your betting decisions. Follow clubs, informative profiles, specialists and automatic tweeting profile or bots that post recent information about injuries, club performance and so on. There is plenty of information on Twitter, you’ll just need to scout for sources that can be trusted!
Using this Information
There is a lot of information out there and most of it is not going to be useful. So that’s why we’ve said you need to optimise your research process so you can have instant access to valid and accurate information. With that information, you’ll be fed facts to back up your bets, ideally in just a few minutes. With all this information at hand, you’ll need to decide whether it is worth making the bet, if there is any doubt, it’s better to save your pot for another potential opportunity.
That’s not to say you should rush…
It still pays time to research your bets extensively, but trying to avoid bad information is essential to utilising your time. You’ll want to get the best price possible on your odds and that can only be done by making quick decisions. But if you feel it’s too soon to make a decision don’t feel bad taking a few hours to think about your bets, sometimes with a bit of time things look a bit different.
Your betting research process is always a work in progress and you’ll need to find what works for you, but trying to cut away poor information is essential to improving your research process!
