What are Value Bets?

What are Value Bets? Image

Value bets or “value betting” is one of the many types of bets that bettors have available. It is relatively popular within the community, and many punters report actively engaging in these types of bets for a few years with a good performance.

However, please note that value betting implies more preparation and strategy planning than other bet types. Therefore, if you’re interested in getting started with value bets, we highly recommend you to investigate all the processes regarding this bet type so you can make the most of them.

What is value betting?

If you’ve been in the sports betting world for a while, you’ve probably heard that the house always wins. While this saying applies to most situations, value betting is all about building a strategy to “beat” the bookmakers and earn more profits in the long term.

Value betting is based on math. Thanks to these calculations, the bettor will be able to point out whenever a result with considerably higher odds will happen. While it sounds a bit challenging, these results are easily visible via diverse odd comparison sites. You will express the betting opportunities spotted with a positive expected value (EV).

You will see that a value bet will appear on a spot event when you notice that the odds become higher than the real chance; or, in other words, the trouble probability of that results being the actual outcome.

It may seem odd to place your wagers on these “wrong odds,” but the truth is that you’re actually gaining advantage over the sportsbook. According to many bettors worldwide, value betting can be extremely profitable if you know how to build a good strategy in the long term.

Again, this term may sound intimidating if it is the first time you hear it, but the truth is that it isn’t as complicated as it sounds to understand.

Value betting – Getting started

Value bets can help you “beat” the bookmaker and earn higher profits than you would if you continued with the usual betting practices. It is important to understand that bookmakers have a tendency of trying “to define” the actual outcome of a particular sport event most of the time to benefit themselves.

Still, placing your wager on the wrong odds can be quite profitable in the long term, especially if you consider that most bookmakers tend to not to update the information available in their websites in the long term.

Thanks to these mistakes, many bettors out there can place bets on odds that haven’t been announced. If you want to successfully place a value bet, you’ll need to be faster than the sportsbook in obtaining that new information.

What is the true probability of an outcome?

The best tip we can give you regarding value betting is that you need to work on figuring out the true probability of a certain result in a particular sports event. This way, it’ll be easier for you to take the big wager home. Most of the time, these odds are subjective opinions, so we cannot say there is a specific way of placing a value bet. Each person has its own journey.

It is also important to be familiar with terms like the true odds, which represent the probability of a particular outcome. You won’t see them available in most bets, although sometimes sportsbooks may put them available as bonus odds.

You can get closer to the true odds by visiting and reading the information found in certain websites, including Betfair and Pinnacle. There are tons of resources available online that can help you build a good value betting strategy that’s profitable in the long term.

Back