Football is one of the most popular sports and there are many who bet on a particular team because they happen to live nearby, or like the colour of their kit, or have simply always supported them.
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Most intelligent football bettors however, tend to spend some time looking at the past history of a team before putting a bet on. They study past form and statistics, especially those relating to goals scored. The ability to score goals is one of the main factors of course that makes one want to bet on a certain team. Teams such as Barcelona or Dortmund rarely go a game without scoring at least one goal and of course the team that scores the most goals wins the game. Nowadays there are markets available catering just for goals scored, and using these relieves you of the need to predict the winner of a match. You just need to have an idea of how many goals there might be in a game.
Over the football season all the results of all matches are logged and you can find online exhaustive information about virtually any team in the world. What makes statistics so important in football is that teams have certain characteristics that have been noted and tend to be repeated. There are high scoring teams and also some consistently low scoring teams. Looking more deeply into past games you might determine that the style of play differs between teams and can spot aggressively attacking teams or those that are more defensive. Two defensively minded teams playing against each other are not likely to produce many goals one would surmise.
Then of course there is the possibility of analysis of individual players. There are some players who are above average ability and some teams might rely heavily on their star players. Players like Messi, Ronaldo, Salah, and Neymar are of paramount importance to their respective teams success, and are sorely missed if they are unable at the last moment to play in a match for any reason.
There are many websites, including most bookmakers and exchanges themselves, that have extensive football statistics information. Of most value is probably the goals scored for each team in their last six matches, both home and away. Then it is useful to look at head to head statistics for the two teams involved in an upcoming match that you are interested in. The past is only an indication of likely future events of course but it is especially relevant in football.
You may also want to know which team is going to be playing at home since many believe this gives them a small but definite advantage. A team playing at home knows its way around the pitch and will feel more comfortable with a crowd of encouraging supporters behind them. A team playing away, especially if they have to travel quite a distance may not have so many supporters in attendance.
A good manager can also have a strong psychological influence over his team and help their performance. Even just having a new manager can lift the spirits and aspirations of a team and make them try harder.
You should check whether a team will be likely to have its main attacking players or strikers for an upcoming match since any absence could have an adverse effect on goals scored.
A fairly recent idea has been to try to determine “expected goals” for a forthcoming match, and this is worked out by means of an algorithm that links shots on target to goals scored in previous games. It has been said that possession is a key factor in winning a football match but this is disputed by others who ask what is the point of passing the ball around and hardly ever shooting for goal? This is why shots on target has become a more popular marker for success. We have even seen some recent posts online about trying to distinguish shots on target inside the penalty area from shots from outside the penalty box, with the former being counted as more important of course. This is an area for the more determined bettor to explore perhaps as it can get rather complicated, and shots on target statistics are not so easy to find.
Another interesting area for statistics research relates to corners in football matches. You can bet on total corners or most corners and some bettors specialize in this kind of market by studying the available statistics. As I write this I see for example, that England have won 5 out of 7 games in the World Cup and should be a good bet tonight for most corners against Croatia!
So if you serious about betting on sports like football you should not ignore the statistics since they can help enormously in determining the strength of a particular that you might have in mind.
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