Tipster Interviews

Over the years we’ve done some amazing tipster interviews and we’ve collected a wealth of information which we have shared in the individual interviews.

In this article I want to bring a lot of that information together. It doesn’t replace reading an individual interview with someone, but it does get a lot of useful information into one spot.

Hopefully you enjoy!

Interviewees

We have a wide range of interviewees for this article. I’ve given them all the name they went by in their main interview and to not show any favouritism I’ve went with an alphabetical order. (Ian is our favourite!)

• Becca – Used to run Simply Sports Tips, sadly this now seems defunct. You can read our interview with Becca Stenson.
• Chuck – Was a happy member of ours for some time and agreed to take part in an interview with us, you can read Chuck’s interview in full.
• George – Runs Bettify who provide statistical models for football betting. You can read our full interview with Bettify
• Ian – Ian is our expert tipster, he runs The Footy Tipster! You can read the interview with him.
• Jessica – Runs Premier Better. You can read our complete premier better interview.
• Jonathan – Runs Sportingly Better. You can read the full Sportingly Better interview.
• PFS – Unfortunately their original website is now defunct, but you can read the full interview and see more about PFS here.
• Simon – Is a tipster with Betting Kingdom you can read our full interview with Simon over at our Betting Kingdom Interview.

If you had one betting tip to share with our readers what would it be?

PFS – Have discipline and a staking plan. Ok that’s 2 things but possibly the two most important aspects of betting. Without these in your locker, you will lose more than you win – which is not what anyone wants. You need to know when to walk away from a situation. Too many times I’ve seen someone chase their loses in the heat of the moment and lose even more. Don’t get me wrong I’ve been there we’ve all been there, but betting is about experience, and if you can’t learn from your mistakes then things won’t improve.

Chuck – Don’t try to be a hero, Rome wasn’t built in a day, there’s always that next bet.

George – Bet only what you can afford to lose :-)

Jessica – Go with your gut would be my advice to any football gambler. I’ve won much more money betting on the team I want to win, rather than the favourites to win. Favourites don’t always win matches, especially when included in accumulator bets. Also you often get bad odds betting on them anyway.

Becca – Go with your gut feeling. I hate it when I’ve been looking at a game for ages, watching the stats, and I think… Both teams to will score here (for example).
I’ll then over think it in my mind, go somewhere else and choose another game I deem to be safer, or whatever reason seems to make sense at the time.
Then I’ll go back and check the original game an hour later, out of curiosity. Yep of course it’s a 3-3 goalfest whilst mine is in the 80th minute with 1 shot on target!

Don’t chase your bets. There’s always tomorrow / next weekend etc. We all have rubbish days and want to get our stake back. Let it go, you’ll get that good run or big win sometime soon!

Keep it fun, don’t bet an amount you’re going to badly miss if it does lose. Just call the team a bunch of mother duckers in your head, laugh about it inside how it’s “just your luck blah blah” and move on!

I never bet on “dead certs”. No such thing. Betting on ten 1/14 odds teams in an acca you know one (or two) are going to have a nightmare of a day! Not worth the stake in my opinion.

Jonathan – ‘Know your league’
It’s not something we promote on the site because our fans like to bet on the popular European football leagues, but focusing on more obscure leagues are the best way to beat the bookies.
The odds will certainly be priced more in your favour if you go after one of the lower leagues in Scandinavian football instead of the English Premier League.

Simon – It’s all about value in the odds for me. I will price up every match myself using the key stats. League position, home/away records, current form, head to head & team news. I avoid seeing the actual odds at all costs before pricing up the matches and then I will compare my odds with the bookies. Any match where there is a clear difference I will get involved & tip the team I think offers value.

Ian – You can’t walk into this world and say “Team X always wins at home so bet on them to win at home”. It’s imperative to understand why they regularly win at home (turf? support? pitch size? it doesn’t have to be quality that does it!) before betting on them to beat someone else there.

If there is one thing you could change about football what would it be?

Ian – I’d make it so I could watch all the games that I want to rather than adhering to some media maniac’s wishes!

Simon – I hate to see clubs struggling financially. The Premier League should be supporting the lower leagues to ensure they don’t go out of business.

Jonathan – I’m not a big fan of FIFA’s governance. The structure and committees seem to be far overdue an overhaul.

Becca – Zlatan signs for Walsall, we’re promoted, then he takes me on the holiday he promised me.

Maybe England players caring about their national side as much as they do their club sides! Not technically what you asked, and never going to happen, but I’d like that. Wear that badge with pride.

Jessica – If I could change anything about football it would be introducing the “sin bin” rule like in rugby. I think some refs use yellow cards too much when a 10 minute time out session would be much more interesting to the game. Also having the video referee (as in rugby) would be amazing we we have had many dodgy decisions made by refs.

George – I think that all the footballers from top leagues are overpaid, and that huge money involved in football has ruined game a bit in recent years. So if I had the power to change anything, I would cut their salaries :-)

PFS – As a general football fan – ticket prices. Football used to be a working man’s sport, and when you see ticket prices of over £50 for a game it’s becoming harder for people to attend games, especially with recent times. The German’s have it spot on; they offer reasonable ticket prices and fill their stadiums out. If you ever watch a German game, rarely will you see a half empty stadium. The same goes for the second tier of German football. I was watching a game a few months back, and the atmosphere was incredible for what was a standard league match, puts us to shame.

What are some of your favourite online football betting resources?

Jessica – I visit a variety of online betting websites. A wide selection often helps me decide exactly where to place my money.

I visit the BBC sports football page more than any other. I trust the information on there more than most. I do love some fan blogs too as they have the best gossip. I visit TWTD regularly for all my Ipswich Town gossip.

Simon – Only the obvious I’m afraid. I rely on the stats sites such as flashscores and soccerway. Then it’s a case of checking team news from whatever source I can find whether it be bbc sport, sky or the official club websites. Then the punters No.1 tool, the odds comparison sites of which I use oddschecker and bestbetting to get the best price.

Chuck – For American sports scoresandodds.com it is a great “free match up” tool which crunches a lot of data and gives you split for vs lefty, home/away, bullpen, etc, also carries vegas odds.

For Football soccerway.com

For all sports oddsportal.com is an awesome site, lists 30-50 books odds on any match up. Also has the per minute shifts in odd movement so you can track from opening to where it currently is. And sportsplays.com is a free betting site which has a great “public consensus” so you can see what the public on the site is wagering on, mind you its free so a lot of “squares” wagering on it, fading the public=money.

Ian – The only tools I use are in my head. I have plenty of support from locals around the world but I make the decisions, nobody else. That’s how it has to be, in my world. I tip when I think there’s a good reason to do so and when I can substantiate it; the rest only supports what I think.

George — I get facts from all over the internet – sites like bbc, 442, football365, etc.

I’m a big fan of Kelly’s Criterion, and I would recommend Kelly Calculator available in tools section of Bettify to everyone who’s serious about betting.

Becca – I use Betfair for my bets, I’ve had an account with all the top bookies at one stage or another but I’m definitely settled with what I like now! Who hasn’t gone around and milked some of their sign up offers! It’s your own preference at the end of the day but I know what I like. Often getting free bets in my email and special enhanced odds from Betfair, so I’m settled.

I do like livescore.com if I need a quick update on a score. And I have downloaded the SkyBet app for the live text updates / live pitch view even though I don’t use them for bet placement! Don’t need to be logged in to use it. Gives a clearer indication of the way a game is going by possession / shots etc. (Not that that always tells the full story of course).

I also Google a team I’m about to bet on, just to get their league table and current form / head to heads. uk.soccerway.com is a great site to get this quickly and easily.

Jonathan – Punters should use odds trackers. If you’re confident about a selection, for no extra effort you’ll be in more profit if your tip rolls in.
Betting staples such as Soccerway, Soccerstats and WhoScored are great and if you’ve got patience the previews on BBC sport for UK matches late on a Friday night are worth a read.

Want to be interviewed?

If you are involved in football betting as a tipster, a punter, or some other part of the industry then we want to hear from you. The quickest way to do this would be to email Toby.