It may be an old football cliché, but ‘a game of two halves’ is one of the little known yet best ways to turn a higher profit from your bets on the beautiful game.
It’s one reason why more and more punters are paying attention to the different half time or full time betting markets and today I want to show you exactly why.
Nowadays we’re all feeling the strain, but the good news is that the bookmakers are too!
The half time betting market is a classic example of where over worked odds compilers might be missing a trick. For many firms, the half time betting odds are based on the full time odds. This does make sense to a point , but it doesn’t take into account the fact that some teams only really get going in the second half.
Why Stoke Are A Classic Half-Time Team
Perhaps one of the best examples we have found refers to Stoke City, who away from home in their last 20 games, have an amazing trend of never having been in the lead come the half-time whistle.
It sounds crazy but yet Stoke away at half-time in the last 20 games, have a record of won 0, drawn 9 and lost 11!
Of course nothing is decided after 45 minutes, but this is a massive angle to exploit in the HT markets – and never more so than this weekend up against Everton.
Everton are the perfect team to bet with against Stoke as they themselves are a huge second half team, having scored 8 out of their 15 goals this season in the last 15 minutes of games.
Digging further into this, going back to the start of last season, they have entered the half-time interval on level pegging in 12 out of 25 home games and have lead on just 6 occasions. Come the end of 90 minutes though, Everton have won 11 out of 25 whilst Stoke on the flipside have lost 17 out of their last 25 games on the road.
A Better Way To Bet On Everton V Stoke?
All of this combined leaves us with some interesting angles for this weekend’s game, which is priced up in the 90 minute market as:
Everton 1.75
Draw 3.69
Stoke 5.75
1.75 for Everton to win might look a decent bet for some given Stoke’s away form but what if we look into the half-time markets, can we get better value?
If you remember from above we can rule out Stoke winning at Half-time and Everton draw 50% of their home fixtures at the interval so how about a HT/FT of Draw/Everton?
The odds on offer are a best 4.90 from Unibet – a seemingly much better value bet based upon the stats above.
But what if Everton fail to break down Stoke and the game ends in a stalemate, is it worth backing a draw at both HT and FT?
Well the odds for this are even better at a generous 5.50
You could even take it a step further and back Draw/Stoke at HT/FT, which is available at 12.0
A combination of the above as follows would see you make a profit, should as the stats suggest it be all square at half-time.
- 0.5 pt HT/FT Draw/Everton @ 4.90
- 0.5 pt HT/FT Draw/Draw @ 5.50
- 0.1 pt HT/FT Draw/Stoke @ 11.0
Of course this could turn out to be the weekend that bucks the trend and Stoke go in 4-0 up at half-time, but over time this kind of strategy can pay you dividends.
Find Out More On Half-Time Betting Trends
This is just one such practical example of how analysing half-time betting trends can be so lucrative if done right and in our latest Smart Betting Club magazine we have plenty more to share with you.
In our revealing article we bring you…
- Stats from the last 10 years in different leagues across Europe and which country sees the highest number of draws at half-time.
- Stats from the Premier league in the last 10 years at half-time, including the odds-range you should concentrate on if betting at half-time.
- Details on the teams like Stoke and Everton who provide the best profits at half-time with our unique members’ only strategy. Dating back the last year, this would have made you £178 at £10 stakes from just 61 bets.
All of this and a lot more including our insider interview with a former bookmaker can be found in SBC Sports Betting magazine – out now.
