It can often be difficult to be objective when it comes to betting on your own team. Is there ever a justification for betting against your team? How can you use your team knowledge to land an edge against the bookmakers? We investigate these questions in this latest article.

How to Bet on Your Own Team

No matter which team you support, the best bookmakers are likely to have stacks of available pre-match betting markets available and you’re likely to have In-Play punting opportunities as well.

You can simply bet on your team to win the match. They might be enjoying a good run of form, have barely any injuries and be up against a team where you expect them to land the three points. There’s also the chance to add them to an accumulator.

Bear in mind that doing this gives you a double bonus or a double downer. If your team wins, you’re ecstatic because you support them and they have made you cash. If they lose, you’re gutted because they’ve been beaten and you’ve also lost money by backing them.

How to Bet Against Your Team

Now this isn’t for everyone, we’ve done it before and creates conflicting emotions, although it can also be rewarding.

Say you’re a Manchester United fan and they are playing Manchester City in the derby. The thought of losing to your rivals might be a tough one to stomach and you decide to back City to win.

So you’re watching the game and City take the lead. Never good from a United perspective although you’re currently looking at a potential profit of £50 from your bet, which could treat the family to a takeaway that night.

The problem is that your enjoyment of winning a bet could override the fact that you support United. Maybe you might find it difficult to watch as your team press for an equaliser that would normally have you leaping around your lounge but would see you lose money on this occasion.

We’ve got friends who regularly bet against their team for small stakes.

When the team loses, then they make some cash for supporting an unsuccessful team. When they win, it’s the bonus of getting three points against losing £5 or £10. Just remember to always bet what you can afford to lose.

Beat the Bookmaker With Team Knowledge

Team news is a massive deal when it comes to betting on football.

While the bookmakers hire football traders to price up markets, chances are these traders aren’t watching Rotherham United, Scunthorpe United and Tranmere Rovers every week so it’s a real bonus if you support a lower-league team and watch them regularly.

You can sometimes make gains by betting on the 1X2 market while it’s sometimes advantageous to bet on Over/Under 2.5 Goals if you’ve noticed a trend in the number of goals being scored in a team’s match.

Another football betting market when you can gain an edge is First Goalscorer or Anytime Goalscorer where you choose a player to either score the first goal of the game or alternatively find the net during any part of the match.

There might be a defender for your team who takes a lot of free-kicks outside the area or even might be on penalty duties. If a bookie hasn’t noticed this happening, the time could be ripe to get on those odds and hopefully make a profit at big odds.

Consider the Opposition

In marketing, there is something called SWOT analysis. This stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It basically outlines that it’s important to take a balanced view in business rather than deciding to launch your own fashion range and the same applies with betting.

It’s very easy to be short-sighted and consider your team only. You might have just seen Arsenal thrash Bournemouth 5-0 and decide to lump on them to beat Chelsea in the following match.

However, you might not be considering the relative strengths of Bournemouth and Chelsea by placing this bet. Arsenal might have beaten a Cherries team who decided to go for broke when losing the game 2-0.

It’s very easy to become myopic with football betting and fancy your own team too much, especially if it’s a case of heart ruling head. Take a step back and try to form an objective opinion which will help you place more informed bets.