The Double Chance Football Strategy

Guest post by Paul Micelli

One of the most appealing soccer betting strategies to be found anywhere involves the rare situation where you don’t necessarily need to see your preferred side win to make a profit. The system itself is actually referred to as the ‘Double Chance’ strategy because the sports betting enthusiast will be backing a side on two potential outcomes.

The ‘Double Chance’ strategy involves laying bets on a team to either win or draw and the secret of this particular system is being able to identify a situation where a team is unlikely to actually lose a fixture. Because the sports betting enthusiast will be betting on both the draw and the win, profits are going to be reduced. However, profit is still profit and it’s better to see that floating £10 note in your own pocket instead of the tills at your local bookmakers.

There are a number of situations where the ‘Double Chance’ strategy can be used but probably the best of these is identifying a situation where a team only needs to draw. This is a particularly useful system at the end of a domestic football season or in the early stages of international tournaments where a team may only need a point to progress to the next round of a competition.

When a side takes to the field with the determination to earn a draw, it is somewhat inevitable that they will employ negative tactics. This could include holding the ball deep within their own half or managing the clock so the ball is dead for long periods of the game. These sides rarely go on to win games because the draw is usually a big enough incentive for them to play conservatively. For this reason, it is always beneficial to actually bet in favour of these sides. Even if the side only earns the draw they needed, the discerning sports betting enthusiast will still profit because they have covered both the draw and a victory for the side concerned.

This system can also work quite well when a side takes to the field missing one of their key front players. There are a number of clubs that rely on an individual player to score the bulk of their goals and they tend to struggle when their talisman is not in the side. When Fernando Torres is unfit for Liverpool, the Merseyside team tends to struggle in front of goal and many sports bettors have profited when betting against Liverpool if the charismatic Spaniard has been left on the treatment table. On many occasions, the odds will rarely adjust to reflect the absence of a key player and this is a fantastic opportunity to boost profits. Once again, it is important to back the win and the draw for the opposing side.

The ‘Double Chance’ strategy can also be used on other types of football betting. The system is particularly useful when betting on the Asian handicap market where a draw and a win can be combined (+0.5 or +1.5). If a sports betting exchange such as Betfair is used, laying a candidate team to lose can also be highly beneficial.