What are the worst sports to gamble on?

Cartel Mike

Wheather its value , unpredictability or whatever i think its worth a thread for insight's sake.
In no particular order..

Premier league snooker - best of 4 frames , a 3-way bet including the draw ... err no thanks

Premier league darts- more sets but basically the same principle

Test Cricket - waiting 5 days on a return and after 2 & 1/2 days im usually non the wiser ( 1day cricket is good though )

Formula 1- why?

Football match betting- hate to say it but its a bookies dream. Not only can your team just die or give a way a peno, but, the refs and linesmen are there to royally **** you over and its not as if their awfull decisions can be reversed is it...good old Sep Blatter.

Horses- sorry but the simple fact that there are often too many in a race , the jockey can't be trusted, and, the fact that its ultimatley an animal's behaviour that your trying to predict means that there are too many variables.. for me anyway

GAA- I'm usless at it. Too many upsets , too many draws (who bets on draws in GAA?) and too many games won by a single point.Absoloute nightmare.


Sports i prefer betting on.

Tennis,
One day Cricket
Rugby handicaps
NBA handicaps
Snooker
over/unders (in anything)
Don't care if anyone agrees or not but its worth a thread and an opinion or two .

User Friendly

I love,and have done very well for myself,gambling on Gaa.i have great confidence in my ability to predict winners in this sport.

I have also done very well gambling on PDC darts,the BDO darts is much harder to predict imo.

stingerro

Based on my searching of tipsters worth tailing I think baseball (MLB) is quite difficult, or maybe it's just tipsters having a rough start to the season.

UrbanSea

Have to agree about football. Fans are too biased.

jive

Football is a bookies dream alright for your average punter. Everyone has 5 or so teams in an accumulator and often the odds can be less than 10/1. The favourites are always very very short priced. You can make money off it if you use your head though and keep up to date with team news as well as in form players.

At the end of the day I think there isn't much difference between the sports. You can argue that tennis can't have draws and the likes but the odds reflect that.

If you know what your doing and don't lose your cool you can make profit on everything imo. You just have to be disciplined and pick bets you think are actually good value e.g. there's no point backing Barcelona at home to Rubin Kazan at 1/16 or something ridiculous. They might win that match but eventually you will get stung, the actual odds are obviously not 1/16 but the bookie knows people will be adding Barcelona to their accumulators.

Bookies are no fools and you -must- find value in a sport that you are knowledgeable about. NBA handicaps can be alright if the bookies are slow getting team news but for the most part the regular season is full of games nobody gives a ****e about especially when they play as many games as they do. In running basketball bets can prove profitable but again you need to have a good understanding of the game.

tldr; if you are knowledgeable in your sport of choice you can make money off it if you bet using your brain. Finding value in bets is the key, it doesn't matter how good you are if you can't find value you might win in the short run but in the long run you will realistically lose regardless of the sport.

Fursttimer

Taking trading out of the equation..

Golf is the toughest sport to bet on.

In my opinion Baseball, Ice Hockey, Rugby League & GAA are the easier ones.

Note: not easy, just easier

Trampas

i don't like backing soccer at all anymore.

nothing stopping a team to play 11 men behind the ball and not try.

i prefer sports where there scores for certain

Denners.ie

Whatever sport you don't have an edge on as such, you need more than the form book to consistently turn a profit, in-depth knowledge is essential.

Cartel Mike

Trampas wrote: »

i don't like backing soccer at all anymore.

nothing stopping a team to play 11 men behind the ball and not try.

i prefer sports where there scores for certain

yea , i struggle to find anything worth betting on in football anymore myself.
Recent results in the Airtricity league sums it up i think.
My main gripe is that linesmen and refs can make any decision they want and get away with it and its the punters who will pay for it .

Admire good horse tipsters but its a hard one to nail down. You can't stick a microphone in front of a horse and ask him how he's feeling about a race so its hard to gauge what he's actually gonna do.

Mezcita

Denners.ie wrote: »

Whatever sport you don't have an edge on as such, you need more than the form book to consistently turn a profit, in-depth knowledge is essential.

This. Spot on in my book.

It doesn't matter whether you are betting on football, nags or tennis. The key thing is knowing that bit more than the bookie in order to decide whether the price offered is value or not.

UrbanSea

There is no 'worse' sport for me because I'm the perfect gambler and know every thing about every sport and always win

zimmermania

Cartel Mike wrote: »

yea , i struggle to find anything worth betting on in football anymore myself.
Recent results in the Airtricity league sums it up i think.
My main gripe is that linesmen and refs can make any decision they want and get away with it and its the punters who will pay for it .

Admire good horse tipsters but its a hard one to nail down. You can't stick a microphone in front of a horse and ask him how he's feeling about a race so its hard to gauge what he's actually gonna do.

Some interesting points raised on this thread.It is vital to know as much as possible about whatever sport one specialises in.After a lifetime gambling i have come to the conclusion that i can only make money by laying horses and golfers.Golf allows one a longer period of time to trade out of a possible poor position,one can do the same with horses but it is much more difficult.I tend to try to bet on horseraces where 4 or more have decent chances and i wind up laying 2 or 3 of the others at sometimes big enough prices.Its like making a book and it means risking a hundred to win a tenner.But as there can only be one winner backing 3 or 4 to lose can be rewarding,particularly at the big meetings when Willie Mullins and one or two other top trainers are farming the maiden and novice hurdles.One wont get rich quick but i have yet to meet a betting shop punter who makes it pay and as Nick Mordin says "one must always do the opposite to what the crowd are doing.

Cartel Mike

zimmermania wrote: »

Some interesting points raised on this thread.It is vital to know as much as possible about whatever sport one specialises in.After a lifetime gambling i have come to the conclusion that i can only make money by laying horses and golfers.Golf allows one a longer period of time to trade out of a possible poor position,one can do the same with horses but it is much more difficult.I tend to try to bet on horseraces where 4 or more have decent chances and i wind up laying 2 or 3 of the others at sometimes big enough prices.Its like making a book and it means risking a hundred to win a tenner.But as there can only be one winner backing 3 or 4 to lose can be rewarding,particularly at the big meetings when Willie Mullins and one or two other top trainers are farming the maiden and novice hurdles.One wont get rich quick but i have yet to meet a betting shop punter who makes it pay and as Nick Mordin says "one must always do the opposite to what the crowd are doing.

Can't argue with the maths . It seems foolprooth.
The patience needed has always put me off personally though much in the same way as financial spread betting.
90% of the time i would cave on the exchanges and settle for a fair bit off the odds i needed.Trying frantically to trade off as well wasn't my cup of tea.
'Risk free' arbing is a fulltime job but i have to agree that golf and horses lend itself well.
Short priced outrights in tennis (like Wozniaki) i imagine is another.

AstonMartin

You pick one market within one sport and learn it inside out. Its the only way.

Drumpot

Trampas wrote: »

i don't like backing soccer at all anymore.

nothing stopping a team to play 11 men behind the ball and not try.

i prefer sports where there scores for certain

I like draw no bets in soccer. Im not as greedy as some and enjoy winning a bet as opposed to it having to be a big amount before I get some sort of satisfaction.

In most seasons if you bet €100 on United and chelsea at home (in majority of games bar the big ones), you will nearly be guaranteed to end up in some form.

Mind you, I dont usually bet more then €5 - €10!

Celtic3x

Drumpot wrote: »

I like draw no bets in soccer. Im not as greedy as some and enjoy winning a bet as opposed to it having to be a big amount before I get some sort of satisfaction.

In most seasons if you bet €100 on United and chelsea at home (in majority of games bar the big ones), you will nearly be guaranteed to end up in some form.

Mind you, I dont usually bet more then €5 - €10!

so you bet between 5-10 euro on 1/6 our even less then,when ya back dnb on united & chelsea. and not only that but you only bet on this,whoch makes you end the session in profit.

i found both statments hard to beleave.

Drumpot

Celtic3x wrote: »

so you bet between 5-10 euro on 1/6 our even less then,when ya back dnb on united & chelsea. and not only that but you only bet on this,whoch makes you end the session in profit.

i found both statments hard to beleave.

I said I like Draw no bets, but I dont put them on United or chelsea at home in every game!.

Although I can see how you interpreted it that way, I meant for games that are less clear (where I know that one team will defo get a draw).

In terms of Chelsea and United, I would bet on them to win in 90% of their home games. You would usually get between 1/6 and 2/3.

The_Kew_Tour

I have done really well from Golf in the past. Had Zach Johnson at 175/1 to win masters in 2007 and Bubba Watson e/w in US Open at 275/1 (he was placed)

Have had few every year in the Golf and I would only back I say 15-20max events all year, mostly PGA as I find Europen tour way too hard. Have had winners up to 200/1 but I dont back big mostly its 2.50ew be my max and normally do 4 players for majors.

Football was kind to me back in 05/06 season I had some amount of trebles and so on espcially on Italian and Spanish football but I just got lucky.

I think you should never do any more then Double on football and being honest singles are your best bet.

Horse Racing can be mixed I really only do Cheltenham and grand ntional now was having a torrid time this year until I backed the winner of very last race on the Friday at 64/1 on BF which won me few quid thankfully.

Have not won on Grand National since 2002 and not even a placed horse since in which I always back 3 so thats been a shocker.

GAA I do well when I fancy a 2-4/1 shout but if games are tight one generally seem to have my team beat.

I really just stick to Golf and Football now.

Derek!

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

I have done really well from Golf in the past. Had Zach Johnson at 175/1 to win masters in 2007 and Bubba Watson e/w in US Open at 275/1 (he was placed)

Have had few every year in the Golf and I would only back I say 15-20max events all year, mostly PGA as I find Europen tour way too hard. Have had winners up to 200/1 but I dont back big mostly its 2.50ew be my max and normally do 4 players for majors.

Football was kind to me back in 05/06 season I had some amount of trebles and so on espcially on Italian and Spanish football but I just got lucky.

I think you should never do any more then Double on football and being honest singles are your best bet.

Horse Racing can be mixed I really only do Cheltenham and grand ntional now was having a torrid time this year until I backed the winner of very last race on the Friday at 64/1 on BF which won me few quid thankfully.

Have not won on Grand National since 2002 and not even a placed horse since in which I always back 3 so thats been a shocker.

GAA I do well when I fancy a 2-4/1 shout but if games are tight one generally seem to have my team beat.

I really just stick to Golf and Football now.

Id be interested in hearin your golf picks for the upcomin tournaments if your bettin this week

The_Kew_Tour

Derek! wrote: »

Id be interested in hearin your golf picks for the upcomin tournaments if your bettin this week

Donald 17/1
Schwartzel 54/1
Stricker 49/1
Snedeker 94/1
Ogilvy 79/1 (think this is great price imo)

These are all Bet Fair prices


I always try to look for value in Golf most weeks you are going to get nothing their big prices for reason, but its trying find that few that bookies might have underestimated is the key.

Derek!

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Donald 17/1
Schwartzel 54/1
Stricker 49/1
Snedeker 94/1
Ogilvy 79/1 (think this is great price imo)

These are all Bet Fair prices


I always try to look for value in Golf most weeks you are going to get nothing their big prices for reason, but its trying find that few that bookies might have underestimated is the key.

I agree with you there, I use Betfair to as I find the prices are usually much better.

Melion

Does anyone bet on the NFL?
I had a lot of success last season on it.

The_Kew_Tour

Melion wrote: »

Does anyone bet on the NFL?
I had a lot of success last season on it.

Few times I do seem to do OK in it alright

Fursttimer

Melion wrote: »

Does anyone bet on the NFL?
I had a lot of success last season on it.

I bet on NFL. Last season was my best to date.

NFL is generally looked upon as a difficult sport to bet on. After the opening 6 weeks of the regular season last term, things seemed to go great for everyone betting on the NFL. Don't get your hopes up though for the coming season

The_Kew_Tour

Derek! wrote: »

I agree with you there, I use Betfair to as I find the prices are usually much better.

hope you did not back my Golfers last week unless ya got Donald ew:o

Derek!

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

hope you did not back my Golfers last week unless ya got Donald ew:o

No I didnt back them mate, but I backed my own dreadful picks