Previews 23 April 2024
Football Betting Predictions
Looking to place a punt, but don’t know where, why, or how?
Welcome to BetOnSport, the home of expert-led football analysis and predictions for online sportsbooks.
Our team of veteran tipsters regularly updates this page with the best match predictions for today. We also include suggestions for upcoming events, allowing you to plan out your strategy.
Whether you need football predictions today, tomorrow, or over the Weekend – we’ve got you covered.
So how are these predictions made?
How do we decide which bets we offer up as tips, and how do you know you can trust them?
Well, if you want to know more about making winning betting predictions, scroll down and keep reading.
How to Use Betting Predictions
We list these predictions to help you have an easier time with sports betting.
However, if you’re new to sportsbooks or the very idea of betting tips, you may be wondering how to make use of them.
The answer is pretty simple, and we can walk you through the necessary steps.
1. Go through the matches listed on this page and find one you’re interested in
2. Click on the Match Preview button to find out more about the game and the relevant histories, statistics, and probabilities
3. All of our football match previews come with one or more betting predictions. Look them over and note the odds at which we posted them
4. Place a bet that’s identical to our prediction using your online sportsbook of choice
5. Importantly, make sure that the odds offered on the site you’re using are at least as long as the ones we posted. Otherwise, the betting value calculations won’t work
6. If you need a good bookie to use our predictions on or if the odds on your sportsbook don’t match our predictions, make sure to check out the link posted next to every tip. It will direct you to a betting site that will give you the proper price
From your perspective, following our suggestions is quite easy. Just place the wager as per the instructions, and you’re good to go.
However, there’s something more important that you need to understand about football bet predictions if you want to make your own. You need to at least have an idea about how predictions are made, so we suggest reading further.
Are Your Betting Predictions Sure?
The most common question we get about our predictions is whether they’re ‘guaranteed’.
The short answer is no.
There is no such thing as 100% sure betting predictions. We can’t see the future nor do we take part in some conspiracy to setup football matches. There is always risk involved with gambling. Moreover, all sports are unpredictable. It’s why we watch them and why we love them – because you’re never sure how things are going to turn out.
Instead, our predictions are guaranteed to provide betting value. Essentially, this means that the wagers we recommend have a good risk-to-reward ratio. They’re not guaranteed to win, but they’re still a good bet to take.
Introduction to Betting Value
Before we explain our process of predicting football matches, we’ll cover a crucial component of every smart wager – value.
The quality of any bet is determined by two factors: its odds and its probability of success. By odds, we’re referring to how much the sportsbook will pay you if you win.
It is important to understand that betting odds and probability of success are closely related. The more probable an outcome is, the less you’ll win if you bet on it. Conversely, risky, improbable outcomes pay more.
However, these two are never perfectly aligned. The odds are not a 100% perfect representation of how probable the bet is to win. There are two reasons for this:
1. Deviation – Sports betting odds are determined by people – the bookies. However, even the best bookmaker can never be quite sure how probable something is.
2. Bookmaker margins– Additionally, betting odds always make an outcome seem more likely than it is. This is how bookmakers make money.
Either way, there is always a small difference between what the odds are showing (which is called implied probability) and the actual probability of your bet winning.
This difference is betting value. In most cases, value while betting is negative for the player. This means that the sportsbook has an advantage over the player.
All gambling works like this. Multi-billion dollar companies were founded on the fact that the value works in the house’s favour.
What Are Good Betting Predictions?
Good betting predictions offer positive value for the player.
That means that they’re less risky than the price offered by bookmakers is implying.
However, bookmakers work hard to ensure they never even offer bets at such prices. Opportunities to bet with positive value are extremely rare and hard to find.
That’s why you occasionally want the next best thing – bets that have the least negative value. If the house always has an edge, you may as well try and minimize that edge and ensure long-term profitability.
Examples
If you’re still not clear about the difference between a good betting prediction and a bad one, we’ll go through some examples.
Instead of sports, we’ll use a coin flip. Flipping a coin doesn’t have many variables so it’s easy to understand.
By default, a coin flip has a 50% chance for either side to win. This means the odds should be 2.00.
Let’s say we flip that coin 1,000 times while always betting £1 on Heads. Statistically, with odds of 2.00, we would earn exactly £0. There’s room for deviation, but you get the gist – winning doubles your money, and you win roughly half of your bets.
That’s why a bookmaker would offer odds of, say, 1.95 on such a bet. This 5% is their bookmaker margin. Let’s say we flip the coin 1,000 times again, betting £1 each time.
Statistically, you would also win 500 times. However, with these odds, you would win £975 (500 x 1.95). That’s a £25 net loss from the initial budget of £1,000. That’s what we would call a bad bet.
Sure, you might win in the short term. However, negative value bets always lose money in the long run. You can’t fight statistics.
A good bet, on the other hand, would be if you had a price of 2.05. Things are different this time around, and you would win a total of £1,025 for a £25 profit.
That’s a good betting prediction. It’s not guaranteed to win, but it will statistically earn you money in the long run. It also highlights the importance of choosing the right bookmaker and basing all of your bets on value instead of just the probability of success.
How Do You Predict Betting?
Now that we understand all of the basics, we can finally get to the big question.
How do we make good betting predictions? Here is a short rundown of the steps we usually take.
1.Highlight interesting selections with potential value – The first step is to highlight potential betting predictions for today. This usually involves picking a few “safe” options based on knowledge of football and years of experience as punters.
2. Analyze stats and data to determine probabilities – We look at the relevant information depending on the market we’re interested in. For example, if we’re considering an Over 2.5 Goals prediction, we’ll look at the league table and the average number of goals the two teams score per game. Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg – we also consider team strategies, player forms, the match context and conditions, and so on.
3. Find the highest betting odds in online sportsbooks – We then go through the best bookmakers online and find the ones offering the highest odds for our chosen bets. Remember, not even the best bookies can say how probable an outcome is with absolute certainty. Different sites often disagree, which results in different offers.
4. Compare the implied probabilities of a bet with our analysis – For example, odds of 2.00 imply a 50% probability. If that doesn’t match our impressions, that means the bet has value – either for the players or for the bookmakers.
5. Hand-pick bets with the best value for the player – Before updating today’s betting predictions, we carefully curate selections with the best value. Sometimes this means our tips have a statistical advantage, sometimes it just means the bookie has a minimal advantage.
Betting Markets Covered
Our predictions should give you an idea of how a match will go – or at least how a match is probable to go.
From a practical standpoint, though, that’s not all you need for a positive wagering experience. You need specific suggestions for specific bets you should make. In other words, our predictions are all tied to popular, common betting markets.
Some examples include:
- Full Time Result
- Draw bets
- Both Teams to Score
- Over 2.5 Goals
- Under 2.5 Goals
Of course, these are just the most common markets. If we see an opportunity for a smart punt in some other market, we’ll be sure to point it out.
As a rule of thumb, though, these popular markets are usually the source of the most reliable betting predictions.
There’s a simple reason for that – because there’s plenty of available information that can help us make the right choice. Furthermore, we can easily make a connection between the available data and the probability of success for these markets.
Niche markets are generally harder to predict because there’s not enough data relevant for the bet. Otherwise, they’re just too unpredictable.
For example, consider something like a First Goalscorer bet. Even if a certain player often scores first, it’s really difficult to claim with any certainty that he’ll score first again. It’s just not a very stable betting market, so quality betting predictions for it are very rare.
Which Leagues Do We Predict?
Our goal is to provide the best football predictions no matter which competition or league they cover. That said, we have to keep a few things in mind regarding our choices.
To make reliable match previews, we need access to a lot of information. This includes detailed performance histories, player information, form analysis, and everything else we talked about above. Moreover, we need at least a few sportsbooks to cover the event if we want a useful point of reference for finding the best odds.
As you might expect, popular leagues tend to have a lot more data available. For instance, even the smallest details about players and their careers are well-recorded in top-flight European leagues, which gives us a lot more to work with and make predictions we’re confident in.
Conversely, lower-tier competition and outsider leagues are not nearly as covered. It’s quite true that these smaller events can be a great source of betting value. However, our site caters to players from all over the world and we also have to focus on games that people enjoy watching and betting on.
Last but not least, we should also mention that bookmakers often have wider margins on bets in lesser-known matchups. Such wagers are riskier for the bookies, too, so the wide margins act as a safety net.
Nevertheless, here are some examples of things you can always expect to find on this page:
- English Premier League predictions
- English Championship predictions
- Champions League predictions
- Europa League predictions
- Other European top-flight national leagues such as German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1 and so on
- Major international competitions such as the World Cup, European Championship, or African League of Nations
What About Weekend Football Predictions?
Many famous national competitions organize league matches on Saturdays and Sundays. So yes, you can expect us to make betting predictions this weekend and every weekend after that.
Premier League and other European top flights are excellent examples of this. Seeing how these are some of the most highly anticipated sporting events on the planet, we would miss out a lot if we opted not to make predictions over the weekend. It’s the prime time for punters all over the globe, and we’re here to help you make the most of it.
After all, a good punter always keeps an eye out for betting opportunities, and we do the same. Our tipsters cover both mid-week and weekend matches, and this page is a great resource no matter what you need tips with.
Where to Bet
As we explained in our short guide to betting value, picking a good sportsbook is crucial for your punting career.
Every prediction includes a link to the sportsbook we used as a reference. If you notice that the odds offered by the betting site you’re currently using are consistently worse than our predictions, it might be time to consider switching sites.
Luckily, online sports betting is a highly competitive industry. Bookies have to keep up with the prices their competitors offer, or they’ll quickly start to lose customers. After all, odds are one of the first things people look at when deciding which site to bet with.
If you need help finding the right bookmaker, check out our list of top betting sites and find your perfect platform.
Additionally, we should mention that odds are not static. Even though what we’re doing is called fixed-odds betting, prices tend to drift and change as new information comes to light.
For instance, odds may change if a player on one of the teams is injured or suspended. Alternatively, if a lot of people bet on one outcome in a specific market, the bookie may sometimes adjust the odds to reflect that.
That’s why you need to be able to make quick decisions. If you notice favourable odds such as the ones listed on our predictions, bet as soon as possible to avoid missing out on the opportunity.
Conclusion
By now, you should understand everything there is to know about football betting predictions, how they work, and how experts make them.
The ones you can truly trust are always based on science and not hoodoo. Always remember that predictions rely on statistics, histories, and cold, hard data – not crystal balls or vague intuition.
With a little bit of know-how and strategy, it’s easy to turn our prognosis into winning bets. For the best results, remember to manage your money and place your bets systematically. Even the best predictions are most effective when used as part of a wider strategy or system.
More Football Betting Tips
We offer plenty more than just Match previews and predictions! Check out our full range of free football tips here:
- Bet Of The Day
- Accumulator Tips
- Both Teams To Score Tips
- Over 2.5 Goals Tips
- Draw Tips
- Bet Builder Tips
FAQ
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We like to think that we offer some of the best and most reliable betting predictions online. We’re not saying that we’re the only ones – there are tons of good predictions out there, but also a bunch of poor ones. Either way, you can rest assured that our predictions are curated by a team of tipsters and experts with a data-driven approach to betting and decades of experience.
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Generally, the easiest predictions are for bets with only two possible outcomes. For example, Over/Under 2.5 Goals is considered a beginner-friendly market because a game will either feature 3 goals or it won’t. This gives you a baseline 50% chance to get it right. For comparison, Full Time Result bets have three possible outcomes and a base probability of 33% for each one.
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By using data statistical analysis to calculate the rough probability of various outcomes in a given sporting event. Crucially, predictions also involve comparing the risk and potential rewards of betting offers found with bookmakers.
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No single league stands out as the easiest to predict. However, your chances are best if you have easy access to plenty of relevant, reliable information about the league, its teams, and other details. As such, European top-flight national leagues and international competitions are the easiest to work with.
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The only real, mathematically provable way to win with betting in the long run is to find wagers with positive betting value. If you need help figuring out what betting value is and how to find it, check out the guide above.