The Most Important Thing You Will Ever Learn in Gambling
By: James Tillson

Many people think that those that are successful at gambling and make their living from the bets they make are gifted at picking winners in sports events / racing. This is far from the truth. The professional gambler does not focus on winners but value. Value is the real key to making a profit in the long term in this field. This does not just apply to gambling but in both life and business.

Take car insurance for example. There are few people that will take the first quotation they receive when buying this insurance and with the growth of the internet some individuals will get as many as 10 different quotes before they make a purchase. Why do we do this? Because by shopping around for greater value in the long run we will have more money. Company A might offer to insure your vehicle for £500. Company B might offer exactly the same cover with exactly the same benefits for £350. By researching value in this situation the individual has their car insured and are £150 better off.

In business a product retailer will acquire product quotations from numerous companies before making a purchase. This is because they seek best value. By reducing product cost and getting a higher value for money they will in turn increase profit.

An increase in value = An increase in profits

This applies to gambling too.

A value bet is when a team's chances of winning are significantly higher than the price on offer suggests. Put simply it is where a price appears a lot higher than what you would expect it to be. Noticeably higher prices can be down to a number of reasons.

Traditional bookmakers have dedicated teams that compile the odds for the week's football fixture list. With the amount of football that is played across the whole of Europe there is a huge amount of work and often has to be completed in a set time frame. Because of this mistakes are made and on occasions prices are pitched higher than they should be. Also important pieces of information that would affect a team's price may not be available to the odds compilers but finds its way into the hands of the shrewd punters.

With betting exchanges the odds tend to be created by mug punters (unsuccessful gamblers). It is true that 85% of people that gamble lose money and it is these people that create the odds on the betting exchanges. Mug punters tend to lump massive amounts of money on the favourites which in turn causes the odds for the opposite team to rise considerably. Week by week they back the same teams because they always hear about the favourites getting results. Take Middlesbrough v Manchester United for example. You may get the scenario where United are priced at 1.5 or 3/2 for the win and Middlesbrough are available at a massive 10/1. You watch the pre-match build up only to hear that Manchester United are missing 3 key players. You think of what Middlesbrough's chances are of victory today and remember that they have already toppled both Arsenal & Liverpool this season. It becomes apparent that in recent years Middlesbrough have always seemed to do well against the bigger sides. You take into account all of these factors and all of a sudden Middlesbrough's price of 10/1 seems huge and you strongly believe that they have a good chance of winning this match. This is a value bet. The people who regularly lose will be piling their money into the Manchester United win simply because it is Manchester United and this increases the price of their opposition. They would not have considered all of the information available to them creating a value bet for the successful punters.

Making value selections from a football coupon has become a lot easier than it once was. With the growth of the internet and online gambling you have all of the different bookmaker's prices available at your figure tips. By applying the concept of value to your bets it will bring greater success in the long term. In any form of gambling value is by far the greatest thing you will ever learn.

By James Tillson - http://www.soccerengine.net
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