There’s an argument to suggest that, in some ways, punters have never had it so good.
The betting industry is so competitive now that the leading firms have to keep innovating and improving their services to stay one step ahead of the game.
A Bet Builder (Build-a-Bet and other names are used) is one such tool that has emerged from that need to offer something different – although, of course, most firms now offer their own variation of it.
Used most popularly in football betting, punters now have dozens of wagering options for a single game – with the ability to add two or more of these to a single coupon.
The screenshot below is just a small selection of the options available at one bookmaker for a game between Manchester City and Arsenal:
Other options that were available that don’t feature in the screenshot include:
- Free Kicks (either team or combined)
- Goal Kicks (either team or combined)
- Throw Ins (either team or combined)
- Player Fouls
- Player Fouls
- Player Passes
- Goalkeeper Saves
And the list goes on and on.
This is great news for punters. Okay, so a lot of these prop-style bets are hard to predict and analyse, but when we’re able to create a clear narrative of how we expect a game to play out, all of a sudden we’re able to maximise that edge by accumulating a series of complimentary picks in one Bet Builder wager.
Let’s consider some smart strategies when placing Bet Builders….
#1 – Paint a Picture
Before you place any Bet Builder-powered bets, consider how the game is likely to play out.
The final score market in football is notoriously difficult to predict, but we have a good idea of the patterns of play that will unfold between two specific teams.
Let’s say that Manchester City are playing at home against a defence-orientated team like Crystal Palace.
What are the assumptions we can make about this game?
- Palace will defend in a low block with numbers behind the ball
- City will dominate possession
- Palace’s players will be forced into making more tackles
- City will be forced into wide areas to get around Palace’s central block
- City may end up taking long-range pot-shots as frustration builds
Now we can start to plug this insight into our Bet Builder. We might wager on:
- Player Passes: Rodri (Over 79.5)
- Man City Throw Ins: Over 13.5
- Man City Free Kicks: Over 10.5
- Man City Total Shots: Over 14.5
- Player Tackles: Tyrick Mitchell (Over 3.5)
What’s interesting about betting in this way is that we don’t mind too much what the final result of the game is. Whether City blow Palace away 5-0, or whether the underdogs nick a draw, is of no real consequence – instead, we’re essentially betting on the patterns of play we expect to unfold on the pitch.
This is a fairly extreme example, other games will be much harder to try and paint a picture for. But when there’s a clear pattern of a dominant favourite against a possession-reluctant underdog, or a chaotic, all-action contest between two evenly-matched sides, we can use the Bet Builder tool in a way that conforms to expectations… irrespective of the final score.
Don’t forget too that you can add selections from different games to a single Bet Builder, helping you to pick your way through a weekend’s fixture list and select only the choicest of cuts for your Build-a-Bet.
#2 – Do Your Homework
A bet builder is still a bet, ultimately, and so it should be treated with the same respect as any of your other wagers.
Team news is one of the most important factors that goes into shaping any football bet. Injuries and suspensions can be researched in advance of kick off, but key players being rested? That’s harder to predict, so holding off on placing your Bet Builders until around an hour before kick off – that will give you a better picture of what to expect from a team’s shape and style.
Using data is always a sensible option in your betting, but consider the context of the stats – and their relevance – to your bets.
Some punters use season-long data when making their selections, but this should be avoided – as we know, all football teams experience peaks and troughs during a campaign, and that fluidity is not always well represented by averaged stats.
Punters should be particularly wary of using team-based stats for sides that have a new head coach – it’s amazing how often these clubs enjoy an immediate improvement in form, while also playing in a system and style that is completely alien to what had come before.
The stats can be particularly useful when determining the playing style of an individual. It’s amazing how often the ‘shots taken’ standings are headed by players you wouldn’t be expecting – some have a penchant for taking long range shots, with few actually hitting the back of the net.
But as Bet Builder punters, who cares? That player can shoot for 90 minutes straight as far as we’re concerned.
#3 – Stake Sensibly
A Bet Builder is still an accumulator bet, ultimately, and as we know these tend to have low probabilities of landing.
While you can’t upend the bookmakers’ odds, you can stake in a way that is sensible, sustainable and allows you to bet with the ‘house’s cash’ as often as possible.
Let’s imagine you’ve placed a 2/1 Bet Builder for a Saturday lunchtime kick off. It lands – hooray! – and you bank two units.
Now, why not use those one or both of those two units? You could split them in two, and place two Bet Builders for the 3pm games. These bets would be paid for by your success earlier in the day, so they aren’t costing anything extra, and if one of those wins, then you have more house money to use for your next Bet Builders.
Staking in this way is vital when taking an accumulator-led approach; scaling up your bets using money won, rather than your deposited cash, has to be considered the smart way to play it.