Never Back Away Teams

Never, never back Premier League teams to win away from home! I’m going to share with you a little bet I had on Betfair Bookmakers last sunday. After a good day on the exchange on Saturday I was looking to re-invest my profit into Sundays Premier League action. A stand out bet looked like Tottenham to win away at Everton @2.44 (6/4), Tottenham have been improving all season and Everton are struggling for form with key players out due to injury.

I backed Spurs on Betfair, and even at the point of confirming the bet, I had a little voice in the back of my head saying “Why aren’t you laying Everton instead?”. I ignored the voice, as I’ve done many times before when backing away teams and just thought about the lovely returns I was going to get! With 78 minutes gone my bet was looking in good shape, Spurs had a two goal lead. Now, at this point I should have traded out of the bet in-play. Which simply means I would lay Spurs at lower odds than I backed them for (remember back high, lay low), and make a tidy profit on the difference between the two sets of odds. I didn’t because how could Everton would come back from two goals down with 12 minutes to go. But my original big mistake was backing Spurs to win away in the first place.

Now this isn’t to say the bet was wrong, I just played it wrong. Remember a football match can have three outcomes: Home Win, Away Win and The Draw. When you back a team to win, they must win for you to get a return on the bet. On Betfair Bookmakers you can also ‘Lay’ a team, which means back them not to win. My bet should have been to lay Everton, because that would mean that in the event the match was Drawn (and it was) I’d still win! So take a tip from me, if you think a Premier League team is going to win away, then lay the home team on Betfair Bookmakers ~ After ten years I’ve finally learned my lesson.

Another tip for Jermain Defoe ~ practice your penalty taking before the World Cup starts, you’ve already cost me a packet!