Editor-In-Chief with 20 years experience covering the betting angles to breaking news stories. Daily slots player, Portsmouth fan and League Snooker Player
Best Value Betting
In a series of blogs this month, I look at where the best potential value football bets can be found, in which leagues around the world.
When deciding on our bets we have to consider where the value is, both pre-match and on any in-running bets, we place.
Now the odds naturally change the most when betting in running, and those of you who have never bet in running before should take a read of the brilliant olbg.com article in running betting basics.
That article answers all your in running questions and gives helpful advice on the pros and cons of in-running betting.
The Over 1.5 goals bet I feature in this blog is now becoming more and more popular as a football investment strategy, and certainly one I have played and still like to play most frequently.
As with every bet we make, we have to look for value, for without it, long term profit is not possible, so here is a look at where and what odds we should be reasonably expecting to find for an Over 1.5 bet based on historical results by league.
I generally look for bets in the region from 1.30 to 1.40, but did you know based on results this season, odds on the event should be 1.08 in Holland to 1.82 in Greece?
For Example: in the Dutch Eerste Divisie, there have been 97 games in which 89 of those matches have had 2 or more goals, that's a 92% strike rate, and odds of 1.08.
If I could get 1.30 for each of the games in that league I would be rolling in it.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have the top flight in Greece where goals are hard to come by.
If you are thinking of backing Over 1.50 goals here on the basis that only 35 games from 64 played have contained 2 or more goals, you would need to be playing odds of at least 1.82 for the bet, to take 1.30 or 1.40 would be folly.
Below are top and bottom five leagues, the current stats for Over 1.5 goals and the odds
League | Games | Qualify | Percentage | Odds |
---|---|---|---|---|
Holland Eerste | 97 | 89 | 91.75% | 1.08 |
Scottish Div 1 | 50 | 44 | 88% | 1.13 |
Norwegian Div 1 | 224 | 193 | 86.16% | 1.16 |
Scottish Division 2 | 50 | 43 | 86% | 1.16 |
Belgium | 104 | 89 | 85.57% | 1.16 |
Serbia | 80 | 53 | 66.25% | 1.5 |
Slovenia | 72 | 47 | 65.27% | 1.53 |
Apertura | 120 | 78 | 65% | 1.53 |
Italy C1B | 64 | 40 | 62.5% | 1.6 |
Greece | 64 | 35 | 54.68% | 1.82 |
I like the bet personally, as I like football and like goals, and all we have to do is cheer on both sides and enjoy every attack
Have fun with Over 1.5 and only bet what you can afford to lose.
Make sure you always use the best online bookmaker for over 1.5 goals betting, the odds on offer can vary wildly.
I'll collate the information and odds for Over 2.5 goals in the next blog