We can divide sports betting books into three groups. The first one corresponds to the relatively recent books in Spanish. The second is the English books. These are often older books, but they are still current precisely because they are good. Finally, there are books that do not focus exclusively on sports betting, although they are really useful for bettors. Let’s discover them.

Read Before You Bet (Samuel Holgado)

This is one of the best books for beginners in the world of sports betting. What’s more, if you are thinking of taking your first steps in this world and you have arrived here looking for books to guide you, this could be the solution. The author himself explains at the beginning that this is the book he would have liked to read before entering the world of sports betting. It is one of the most comprehensive.

It is a very honest read, from which we can draw interesting lessons and conclusions about what lies ahead in this sector. It is mainly aimed at novice bettors, but it can also be quite instructive for those who have been betting for a long time. After all, it never hurts to remember how to create your strategy, set goals or analyse matches and odds.

Play your cards right (Leo Margets)

We finish with this book by the number 1 poker player in Spain. Leo Margets analyses in his book how important it is to make decisions in our life that are going to be profitable. Poker is the main theme of the book, but its contents can be applied not only to sports betting but to life in general.

It offers strategies and helps us to improve our decision making. And just as you can decide whether or not to go or not to go in a poker game, you can also analyse whether or not you are interested in a bet. Differentiating luck from talent, managing stress or assessing risk will be key in poker, in our financial, social or working life. Managing uncertainty is key in any aspect of life.

Sports betting: making a living from betting

A common misconception is that you can quickly make a living from betting. This is utopian, both in sports betting and in casino betting. On the one hand, it presents us with a series of sports betting strategies that we can use to try to improve our bankroll or tips for our bets, both nationally and internationally.

On the other hand, we find very interesting information on how bookmakers work and how to manage your bankroll. A realistic view of the world that we don’t always have. Although a priori it may seem that it is aimed at an audience that is just starting out in sports betting, perhaps it is more recommendable for the user who wants to advance from novice to experienced. And we insist, you can’t make a living from betting.

While in the Quiniela it is completely legal, in the case of sports betting it is not possible to form syndicates in which players group together to seek higher budgets and higher profits.

In fact, in the Quiniela, no player would even consider breaking the law by playing a ticket jointly with another player, or by pooling money with a group of friends, bar regulars or work colleagues to play a combination together.

Advantages of playing in a Quiniela syndicate

Here are some of the main advantages of playing in a Quiniela syndicate:

• Decisions are made by the most qualified
• Possibility to qualify for higher prizes

With a high budget it makes sense to use computer programmes

A player who for example plays every week for 5€, will not notice much difference if he elaborates more sophisticated plays given his low frequency of winning prizes, however, with a bigger budget it will make sense to make more elaborate plays for example by using computer programmes.

A fact in Quiniela is that the majority of single jackpots are won by large syndicates, and these are prizes that the conventional bettor does not opt for since with a low budget the tendency is to look for a very probable play that in case of being successful generates a small prize.

Why are syndicates not allowed in betting?

It is true that in order to play at a bookmaker you must be registered, and that all bets made will be associated with the account from which they have been validated. This measure serves, among other functions, to keep minors away from online gambling and to control, in case of a big win, the user who bears the fiscal responsibility.

But this is something that would also happen with the Quiniela, since, although a player is going to validate the ticket, he/she may have reached an agreement, even if only by word of mouth, to share the cost of the game and the hypothetical prize.

Benefits of sports betting pools

The truth is that it is a pity since it would be opening new possibilities to the sector, and giving rise to more lazy betting fans to participate and delegate their decisions to other more active users.

• Increased revenue
• Stimulus for the role of the tipster
• Promotion of responsible gambling

It would even be possible to give shape to tipster-managed pools, in which several users contribute money so that bets are placed by an expert who controls issues such as bankroll management or the amount to be played on each bet, in a more effective way.

This is already happening in the Quiniela, where thanks to the supporters’ clubs, the collections in a game that is in a delicate situation have been boosted. It happens that there are many members of a fan club who may not even know how many games make up the ticket, nor what percentage of the prize the winner of 14 will win, but they are nevertheless willing to put money on the line and entrust their luck to someone else. Translated into sports betting, the revenues would increase.

Another point to bear in mind concerns responsible gambling. It so happens that a lone user who is not accountable to anyone is more likely to engage in inappropriate behaviour. However, in a syndicate, the budget will be much more controlled and if it is an experienced player who makes the decisions, he or she will not make such a mistake.

It is not uncommon in a tennis tournament for one of the participants to withdraw from a match due to injury, so what happens to our bets if a tennis player withdraws? To avoid surprises, it is advisable to be clear about the rules that each bookmaker applies if such an incident occurs. In addition, knowing how they deal with withdrawals can help us to choose which bookmaker we prefer to bet on a tennis player.

Now let’s see which bookmakers are in each block as well as an example to make it clearer and to know which bookmaker we are interested in betting on depending on the status of the tennis player.

This is the largest group of bookmakers and in this case the stake is returned to the player when the bet is cancelled. With this type of bookmaker, there is no risk of losing money (or winning money, for that matter). These bookmakers are more suitable for betting on favourites with ambitions in the tournament and a clear victory, unless something unfortunate happens, such as an injury.

For bets to stand, the match must have been played in its entirety. If not, i.e. the player retires before the end of the match, bets will be declared void and any money wagered will be returned to the punters.

Bookmakers based on the first set

With these bookmakers there is some risk if the match completes the first set. If the first set is not completed, these bookmakers act in the same way as the previous bookmakers and void bets.

After the end of the first set, if there is a drop out, the player who goes through will be considered the winner of the match. This leaves us exposed to losing the bet if the player we have bet on withdraws. On the other hand, we can also win the bet if the opponent withdraws.

Bookmakers based on the start of the match

These bookmakers consider all bets valid if the match has started, regardless of the game or set. In order to settle them, they give the winner as the tennis player who qualifies for the next round. Like the bookmakers based on the first set, it is better to use Codere or Retabet for riskier bets where you are looking to go against the favourite, with the advantage that you don’t have to wait for the first set to finish.

Here we find two bookmakers, Codere and Retabet, whose common feature is that they have on-site betting shops.

EXAMPLE

Federer plays a minor tournament to prepare for a big event that starts the following week. There is a possibility that he withdraws before the end of the tournament in order to have a margin of recovery. By betting on his opponents, if Federer withdraws at any time after the match has started, we would win the bet.

It is important to know the rules of the bookmakers in the event of injury or withdrawal of a tennis player to understand how they will act in each case and to be able to better define our strategies when betting. Remember that information is always the bettor’s best ally.