Sports Betting for Beginners – Basics and Tips for Newcomers
What advice can you give someone who has never placed a sports bet? Every beginning is hard, so in the following text you’ll find important basics and tips that you should take to heart for your first bet.
The Opponent
Who are you betting against? Your opponent is primarily the bookmaker, and specifically the bookmakers who set the odds at each individual bookmaker. Not every bookmaker assesses the chances of a particular event’s outcome the same way – which is why odds usually differ between competing bookmakers. In addition to the odds, the following factors also play an important role in choosing the most suitable bookmaker for you individually.
Payout Ratio
The payout ratio indicates how much of the money the bookmaker pays back to customers as payouts across the various leagues/sports/matches. The value is below 100% – at 100% the bookmaker would no longer make a profit and could no longer offer the service long-term. The closer this value is to 100% (99% would be an example of extremely high odds), the more you can win from the bookmaker in the long run. However, this doesn’t mean that a bookmaker with a lower payout ratio can’t still occasionally hold the highest odds for a particular bet.
Reputability/Security/Betting Tax
Obviously, the bookmaker must also reliably pay out any betting winnings, and deposits made should actually land in the registered betting account. At wett-bonus.net, by the way, only reputable bookmakers are listed, and your money is in good hands with all providers. The security of deposits and withdrawals is ensured through an SSL encryption system – this is one of the highest security standards in the industry.
The betting tax – which must largely be paid by customers in the Federal Republic of Germany – doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with reputability. If a bookmaker applies for the German license and wants to specifically advertise in the market, a 5% betting tax applies. If the company is publicly listed, a tax is usually also levied – this is the only way to create transparency. However, if a bookmaker isn’t present in German media and has no ambitions to become active there, they’re also happy to forgo the betting tax at times.
You’ll find detailed information on the topic of security and betting tax in the respective bookmaker review.
Deposit and Withdrawal Methods
There are numerous ways to deposit money into your betting account at the respective bookmaker and to have any winnings paid out. Probably the most widespread deposit method is depositing via bank transfer. However, bank transfers have gone out of fashion, not least because the bank route usually takes 3-5 business days, needlessly delaying the timing of your first bet. Deposit methods where you can access the deposited amount immediately are much more attractive. These include all types of credit cards, e-wallets such as Neteller or Skrill, Paysafecard, or deposits via Sofortüberweisung and EPS. With EPS, you can deposit money directly from your checking account, provided you have your online banking codes on hand.
PayPal is probably the deposit method par excellence on the German market. Many customers have an account with PayPal from the good old eBay days and now want to use it for sports betting too. Legally speaking, a bookmaker needs a Schleswig-Holstein license to be allowed to offer PayPal to end customers in Germany.
Support and Language
If you’re confident in your English, this criterion won’t play a role. If you’d prefer to play primarily in German and communicate with a German support team when needed, then language variety is an important topic.
When it comes to support, there are several ways to get in touch. Every bookmaker offers email or an email form as standard – here the question is, “How quickly do they attend to your request?” The big players offer round-the-clock phone support as well as live chat in German, meaning you can talk/write directly with an agent about your issue.
Betting Rules
Every bookmaker operates based on a set of rules according to which it must pay out betting winnings. These betting rules are about 80% the same – but there are subtle differences for various sports. Example tennis: what happens to your stake if a player retires due to injury? Some bookmakers refund the stakes, some bookmakers make the validity of the bet dependent on match progress (the bet counts once a set has been completed), and others declare the player who actually advances to the next round, or is confirmed as the winner, to be the winner.
Make sure before opening an account that you know your favorite sport and its betting rules. The betting rules are usually available to view in the terms and conditions.
Bonus
The betting bonus, the new customer bonus, the opening offer differs in amount (examples: 50% up to €50, 100% up to €200, etc.), through respective wagering conditions in quality (minimum odds, how many times the deposit amount plus bonus must be wagered), and in availability (bonus is credited immediately after the first deposit, bonus is credited after the first settled bet, bonus is credited as a free bet, etc.).
Now you’ve found your bookmaker – nevertheless, you should follow the advice below!
Bet and Sport Types: Stick to What You Know!
There are countless sports and bet types. Terms like Asian Handicap, scorecast bets, game winner, etc. quickly raise questions. So here’s the tip: ease into your new hobby slowly and carefully. Bet on sports you’re familiar with, and initially on the ordinary outcome of the match (1X2 for 3-way bets or 12 for 2-way bets). Dose your stakes and find a personal balance for how you can bet sensibly within your financial means.
High-Quality Bets – The Dose Makes the Poison!
Every successful sports bettor has at most a handful of good, sensible bets per day, depending on the season even per week. Don’t bet just for the sake of betting, don’t bet because you want to follow the live score at every hour of the day and night. No! Bet because you believe you have a knowledge advantage over the bookmaker. Study the betting schedule and filter out interesting betting markets, which you then take a closer look at separately.
Mix in Long-Term Bets!
Long-term bets are bets whose outcome depends on several sub-events. Example: Bayern Munich wins the Champions League. At the start of the Champions League season, this bet depends on all the group matches as well as the outcome of the knockout matches. Long-term bets offer more stable odds than a simple single bet on the outcome of one match. And as the saying goes: it doesn’t matter at all how Bayern Munich plays on the 17th matchday of the Bundesliga. At the end of the season, Munich is at the top. With a long-term bet (e.g. a bet on the champion of a league), you reduce the risk by also accepting that the team in question might lose a match here and there.
Variety in Betting Instead of Stubborn Betting Behavior
The odds reflect a probability. The lower the odds, the more likely you are to win, but also the more you have to stake to win amount X. So take the risk sometimes and bet on teams with winning odds beyond 2.0. Check the current statistics – which team is on a run and can confirm it again? Here too, the balance between risky picks and picks on so-called “bankers” is important.
Nobody Wins EVERY Bet
Betting is a game of probabilities. If someone tries to tell you their bets always win, then that person is in denial of reality. To bet successfully, you also don’t need to win every bet, but rather achieve a certain percentage of profit by the end of a period (a month, a year). You bet twice at odds of 2.1 for €100 each. One bet wins (€210 payout), one bet loses (€100 loss). With a total stake of €200 and a payout of €210, that leaves €10 profit (€210 minus €200). Congratulations, you’ve won.
Time and Money
Do NOT go by the betting stories from Sunday’s regulars’ table, where a buddy scored a dream win with a €1,000 stake. Go by your own wallet – you have all the time in the world to accumulate betting profits long-term, which will also allow you higher stakes in the future.
Successful betting is a business, not fun
Sure, betting is the most enjoyable pastime in the world – we agree on that. But that doesn’t mean you have to place a bet on every sporting event you attend live in person.
Betting Is Not a Recreational Indulgence
A cigarette with a beer is a wonderful combination. A sports bet with your 10th beer – because you’re getting overconfident – is simply reckless and will drive you to ruin in the long run. Stay focused, seize your opportunities, and bet successfully.