From the front line...betting shop wisdom # 3 January's Window of Opportunity

After the relentless consumption and bonhomie of the modern ‘festive period’ the return to workaday austerity can often come as a salve to our bloated senses. The seasonal gambler is usually served up such feast of sport over Christmas that one could be forgiven for finding their will to gamble all but consumed by the torpor that has traditionally enveloped other appetites by the time the new year comes.

This year however the big freeze left us with a dearth of punting pleasures, taking a chunk out of the football schedule and causing the postponement of Kempton’s King George VI card and the Welsh National at Chepstow. Such abstinence may have been downright unseasonal but this could have been a blessing in disguise as we now enter into a golden month for football gambles with all the added wherewithal our enforced restraint has left in our wallets.

The period that is bookended at the beginning by the seasonal fixture backlog in the United Kingdom and the winter break for the softies in mainland Europe and at the end by the return of the best sides to European competition in February is a great time of year for the football punter as it offers the best conditions for predictable outcomes. With no distractions from European competition the momth of January offers the best teams the chance to consistently put out their best available sides without need to have recourse to squad rotation. Consequently the good should, and most often does out. The keys to exploiting this profitably are as follows...


The Tools

The two websites you will need are Betfair and futbol24.com . The former as it allows you to place multiples on an extremely wide range of leagues, the latter because it is peerless in the world of free football form websites.

The Rules

• Take a pan-european approach- Punt using traditional powerhouses (Olympiakos in Greece, Anderlecht in Belgium, Barcelona in Spain etc) as your starting point and the formbook to seal the deal.
  
• Be strict with value– Avoid betting odds skinnier than 1.15 as they don’t often reflect the chance a team has of winning. Avoid betting above 2.10 as this tends to suggest too dicey a fixture to put in a multiple.
  
• Stake sensibly - This part of the footballing calendar lends itself to daily incremental wins so bet to build profit over time.
  
• Keep it real – Don’t get flashy with your multiples. Doubles, trebles and the very occasional four-timer are the order of the day.
  

That is really all there is to it so all that remains is to wish you Good Luck!

Saturday's Globe Trotting Football Accumulators brought to you by Sun Tzu

I've been having a look at the football this Saturday and there seem to be a plethora of likely bets on Saturday which I might attack in the kind of intricately tactical web of doubles, trebles and accumulators that Sun Tzu (author of the go to book for philosophical footballers such as Aston Villa's Nigel Reo-Coker) might have used to obliterate the bookmaking syndicates of ancient China.

The masterful Zulte Waregem squad are hoping to "a real fucking number" on SK Roselare on the 20th according to dashingly named striker Teddy Chevalier.

I’m sure there are plenty more diamonds to be found in the Dutch, Greek, Cypriot and Turkish rough on Sunday too! Let me know what you think of them, any you feel I’ve missed etc. Also what do you think of the chances of the big 2 in Spain this weekend?

You can find all these and more on Betfair.


Germany

Nurnberg v B Munich*

England

Wolves v Chelsea* (this one seems quite dodgy, especially in light of Chelsea’s CL 2nd round match next week)

Nottingham Forest* v Middlesbrough
Newcastle* v Preston
Cardiff* v Barnsley

Swindon* v Carlisle
Norwich* v Southampton
Colchester* v Oldham

Rochdale* v Dag and Red

Possible value upsets

Arsenal v Sunderland*
Celtic v Dundee*

Austria

FK Austria Wien* v SK Austria Karnten

Belgium

Zulte-Waregem* v Roeselare

Italy

Inter* v Sampdoria