With close to four billion fans around the globe, football is the most popular sport worldwide. Naturally, the success of the game has attracted betting enthusiasts from all over. It may not surprise anyone to learn that online bookies consistently cover football odds. But, what might interest new gamblers is what those odds are based on?
When an odds maker does their calculations about an upcoming football match, there are several factors that they have to consider. If you are interested in football betting, you should be aware of the different things that go into creating the odds you are going to be placing wagers on. So, let’s take a look at some of the factors that odds makers pay close attention to.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Among the various things that odds makers pay attention to are all of the advantages and disadvantages that a team might have over another. The most obvious of these is the home field advantage. At first glance, playing on one’s home field may not seem like such a big difference. After all, football courts are all relatively the same, right?
Well, the truth is that the home field plays quite a big role in winning. For example, the home team is acutely aware of their own field, knowing exactly where there might be bumps or cracks that might throw opposing players off balance. On top of that, the crowd at a team’s home field will likely be supporting the host team. The audience’s cheers and jeers certainly have an effect on players.
Previous Accomplishments
Odds are, for all intents and purposes, mathematical depictions of past information. So, by looking at a team’s previous accomplishments, odds makers create odds that reflect those accomplishments. So, if a team has a track record of performing better when they are home, rather than away, that is going to reflect in the odds.
Likewise, if a club has shown capable of consistently beating another club in the same league, then that will also reflect in the odds set by bookmakers. Gathering data is half of the job when it comes to creating odds. A team’s previous accomplishments or failings are a valuable source of information for odds makers.
Outside Factors
Of course, outside factors play a huge role in a match’s outcome. The weather could change a lot for example. There may be data that shows that one club performs well when it is sunny, but does not do so well when the weather is gloomier. The opposite could be true as well. There may be a club that, on average, isn’t as good as another, but outperforms them in certain conditions.
The time of the match could also play a role. It might be true that certain clubs perform better based on the time of day. It could have something to do with the players’ sleep schedules, or their moods. Many casual fans might not consider these factors. But, professional odds makers must pay close attention even to the most insignificant-seeming pieces of data, as they could change everything.
