How To Work With Risk For Successful Gambling

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Gambling is a risky game - you never ever see a poor bookmaker, do you? So the odds are always loaded in their favour. They pay professionals who know their business much better than you - so it pays to manage your risk better. Here are my top tips for managing your risk, and gambling better.

1. Don't bet on your favourite team

The first rule of gambling is to be completely dispassionate. Ensure that you can see everything from every angle, and that means that when your team is involved - whether that be in football, hockey or baseball, then never bet on them - you cannot see the full story.

2. Create your own risk scoring profiles

Create a system for yourself by which you judge the risk of every potential bet you want to make. This may prove time-consuming, but in the long run, your aim is to place fewer bets, for greater reward. An example would be Chelsea at home to Sunderland. An impulsive gambler would have staked everything on the millionaires from Stamford Bridge, but the sensible gambler would have looked at potential areas of risk: Chelsea without recognised central defenders, without their captain, and Sunderland's away record improving all the time. The risk would have proved too high even for a Chelsea home win: what happened? Sunderland won 3-0.

3. Accept lower returns

Do not go chasing the golden goose - accept that the bookmakers are more often than not correct - and look for better, lower odds. There are markets where the odds-on participants are not worth the money - but you will find out that bookies know their markets very well and are tempting you with higher odds - be prepared to accept lower returns, but more often.

4. Look for patterns, and lay

Laying means betting against a particular outcome - rather than betting for it. This is available with betting exchanges, and it means that you are actually increasing your chances of winning. For example, laying a team means that you are predicting they will either lose or draw. In other words, anything other than a win. You now have a strictly 2 in 3 chance of making a return. Your risk, however, is that you might lose out on more money, depending on the odds, so laying is not a game to be toyed with.

5. Take a risk-free bet

Bookmakers offer a range of risk-free bets that you cannot lose - make sure you take advantage of free bet offers, especially at peak times during the year, such as the Cheltenham free bet, which can be more generous than at other times of the year. Avoid opening accounts during the Grand National, though, as the offers, especially risk-free ones, will not exist.

6. Look at bookmaker patterns

There are "moves" in the market that sometimes cannot be explained. A horse's odds will lengthen or shorten, and very often, it could just be because a syndicate has decided to bet heavily at one particular time. Such a case happened to me in France. A German horse called "Wild Thing" came to Auteuil racecourse, having an excellent record in Germany (not known for quality racing), and odds of 15/1. Innocuous odds in a field of 20 horses, you might think. As we watched the odds change, Wild Thing remained impassive at 15/1 - until a few minutes before the race started - where it dropped like a bomb. Wild Thing went off at 2/1, and won the race so brilliantly, he almost lapped the other horses. It was an amazing sight.

What happened? The market knew more than the bookmakers - a collection of individuals pounced, with more knowledge than anyone else on the racecourse. The advice here is that there is always risk, and there is always someone with more knowledge than you - so accept that. If you can, bet at the very last minute, because things can come to light at any time. Regular gamblers at race courses wait until they have every single last drop of information before they put a bet on.

Do the same, and you will inevitably bet less, and bet better, managing your risk.

So there it is - my tips for working with risk. Risk is inevitable, but it can be handled properly. All you have to do is have the right information, the right tactics, and the right approach: you cannot always beat the bookie, but at the same time, he cannot always beat you.

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