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Glossary
63 205

7 tips for sports betting beginners

Betting tips
We reveal the common beginner mistakes and how to avoid them.

Read the bet settlement rules and term definitions

Only place bets if you understand how they'll be settled. For example, if a friend says you should place a 
handicap
 bet, first read what that means. It may be that you think the match will have a different outcome.
If you're having trouble understanding some of the advice, check out the 
Terms section
 of our references and read the 
bet settlement rules
.

Play simpler

Place bets with low
odds
 (up to 5.00). You'll win more bets this way. Start with
Single
 bets, then move on to 
Multiple
 bets. To win a Single bet, all you have to do is correctly predict one event, but Multiple bets require all the events on the
bet slip
 to win.
Don't chase big odds. Sure, it’s fun to win a bet with odds of 500.00, but this hardly ever happens. The chances of
 
it
 
winning are
 
only 0.2%, which means, according to
 
the
 
theory of
 
probability, that only 2 out of
 
1,000 such Multiple bets will win.

Study the stats

Statistics are the foundation of an accurate prediction. Before placing a bet, check the tournament standings and recent match results to determine who's the favourite and who's the outsider. Low odds on a certain match participant winning are not a guarantee.
Tournament standings will help you understand a
 
team's motivation. In
 
football, the
 
head coach will often send out substitutes for
 
certain games, to
 
lessen the
 
load on
 
regular players before more important matches. This lineup will perform worse than the
 
main team. This is an important factor affecting the outcome of a match and
total
 goals.
Pay attention to team results at home and away. Many teams have more stable results at home in their own stadiums, meaning they win more often and score more goals.
Home match is a game where a team plays in its own stadium 
or is the nominal home team
. To
 
figure out
 
which one is
 
the
 
home team, look at
 
the
 
match lineup: the first team is
 
playing at
 
home and
 
the
 
second is
 
playing away.
Check how the teams perform in head-to-head matches and if they're considered rivals. A team may not be performing well during the season, but may pull out all the stops if they're playing a rival.

Manage your balance

Use
betting strategies
 to manage your balance. They help determine how much to wager, so you can preserve your bank and get into the black faster. The main bank management strategies include flat, fixed amount and fixed earnings.
Flat
Your bet amount should be a percentage of your account balance. Ideally, between 1% and 5%. If you lose a bet, your next bet amount is decreased, and if
 
you win, it
 
goes up, but it
 
always remains equal to
 
a
 
set percentage of
 
your bank.
There are two flat options:
  • Floating percentage – you choose the percentage of
     
    your balance based on
     
    your assessment of the event and its odds. If there's a
     
    high chance of
     
    winning and
     
    the
     
    odds are low, bet 3–5% of your bank, but
     
    if
     
    chances are
     
    low and
     
    odds are
     
    high, bet 1–2%.
  • Fixed percentage – you never change the percent wagered until you've bet your entire original bank. The amount you bet is
     
    unrelated to
     
    your analysis skills and
     
    understanding of
     
    the
     
    event, so
     
    you should choose this
     
    option if
     
    you're not very familiar with the
     
    sport you're betting on.
Fixed amount
With a fixed amount, you'll need to
 
split your bank into several parts. Every part is
 
the
 
amount you'll wager on a single bet. The
 
more parts you have, the
 
lower your risk of
 
losing the
 
bank, but this also decreases your winnings. It's best to
 
divide your bank into 100 or
 
more parts so
 
you can place more bets and
 
increase your chances of
 
staying in
 
the
 
black.
Fixed Earnings
You determine the net winnings you want to receive from each bet. Net winnings is
 
the
 
amount you win minus the
 
bet amount. The
 
desired winnings shouldn't exceed 3% of
 
your bank. Otherwise, the
 
amount you wager will be
 
too large, and
 
a
 
series of
 
losses will put you at
 
risk of
 
losing your entire bank.
Calculate your bet amount using the following formula:
P ÷ (k - 1)
  • P – desired profit
  • k – bet odds

Focus on a bet's effectiveness

Keep statistics of your bets, their odds and amounts. This can be done on paper, in Excel or Word. Keeping statistics will help you understand which types of bets you win more often, and where you should change your approach.
To assess the effectiveness of your bets, calculate their ROI or return on investment. This financial indicator shows the long-range profitability of your bets.
ROI is calculated using the following formula:
Net winnings ÷ amount wagered × 100%
  • Net winnings is the profit amount from all of your bets. For
     
    a
     
    single bet, it's
     
    calculated as
     
    the
     
    winnings minus the
     
    bet amount.
  • The amount wagered is the sum of all your bets.
You need to have at least 50 settled bets for ROI to be accurate. ROI may not be reliable with a small data pool.
If ROI is positive, it means you're in the black for that betting series. Don't be alarmed if your profits are only 1–2% – these are good results for a beginner. For experienced players, the earnings are usually 5–10%.
If ROI is negative, you're losing money. Try changing your bet type, championship or strategy. For example, if you normally bet on final match results, try total goals instead.

Take advantage of promos

Fonbet often holds promotions to give away free bets. A free bet is a bet without using funds from your account. If a free bet doesn't win, you don't lose any money, but if it wins, you'll receive the winnings minus the free bet amount.
If you haven't registered with Fonbet yet, you can take advantage of
 
the
 
new customer promotion and
 
get free bets with a
 
nominal value up to
 
EUR
 30
0.
Just register on the website or in the app, make a deposit of
 
at
 
least EUR
 
10 and
 
place a
 
bet with odds of
 
1.80 or
 
more.

Don't believe the news about match fixing

If someone offers you insider
match fixing
 information for a low price, they are a scammer.
Match fixing is very rare. If someone has information about a fixed match, they won't go spreading it around, because the fewer people know about the fixed match, the greater the chances that it won't be exposed.
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