Tag: man utd

Last match could be the most interesting

Last match could be the most interesting

If you keep your eyes open, opportunities can occur from the strangest of circumstances.

On Sunday May 15th, 2016 we faced an interesting final day in the English Premiership season. The title and relegation battles had already been settled. But there was still the qualification for European competition to decide.

Qualification

Most of the focus was on Man City, Man Utd, West Ham, Southampton and Liverpool. Some could qualify for Champions league football, some for Europa league football.

You also …

17/05/2016 | By | Reply More
Option to profit

Option to profit

Been nosing at the Derby vs. Man Utd FA Cup this evening with interest.

Man United are about evens for the match and playing away. This struck a chord with me.

First off, everybody knows how bad Man Utd have been recently. Their last 11 home games at half time have been 0-0,0-0,0-0,0-0,0-0,0-0,0-1,0-0,0-0,0-0,0-0. OK they are away and at a team a division lower, but confidence is obviously fragile. If Derby want to make things difficult, especially tactically, they can.

29/01/2016 | By | Reply More
Why trading works so well – On football

Why trading works so well – On football

With the champions league football starting up again, I thought I’d take a look at football at a simple level and explain why trading works so well, using football as an example.

First off a simple maths lesson.

Finding value

When you look at odds on Betfair, they refer to the implied chance of that event occurring. If we saw Manchester United priced at 2.00, we simply divide one by those odds and it produces the implied probability of that …

15/09/2015 | By | 1 Reply More
Knee jerk reaction to new football season

Knee jerk reaction to new football season

Not a trick question, but how many games are there in the season?

Well there are 38 in the premier league and 46 in the other three tiers. So if you win the first match of the season what impact would that have on your chances? Not much you would think. Three points divided by 38 isn’t exactly a large number, but last weekend we saw quite a large reaction to some mundane first day results.

Chelsea’s difficulty in breaking

13/08/2015 | By | Reply More
Sunday Soccer stats

Sunday Soccer stats

These stats are brought to your by our friends over at Football Form Labs. Check out their site and the powerful software that sits behind these comments. 

PREVIEW: Man Utd v Chelsea (Sun, 17:00)

Chelsea remain unbeaten in all competitions this season as their impressive form has seen them move five points clear at the top of the table. Man Utd, meanwhile, are still adapting to life under Louis van Gaal and this is only the second time in …

26/10/2014 | By | Reply More
Man Utd vs. Olympiakos

Man Utd vs. Olympiakos

Do or die for Man Utd and to a certain extent David Moyes tonight. Looking forward to the match.

We looked at our historical database of matches and found 70 matches that looked very similar. The market is discounting a 65.4% chance of a Man Utd win, a 13.9% chance of a Olympiakos win and a 21.3% chance of a draw. Our historical data shows that a match like this has produced, in the past, a 65.7% chance of a

19/03/2014 | By | Reply More
Sunday football previews

Sunday football previews

Chelsea v Man Utd (Sun, 16:00)

The first meeting between these teams this season was a drab nil-nil affair that is probably best forgotten. With Arsenal and Man City both hosting bottom-six teams this weekend Chelsea will need to win to stay within three points of the lead, while United know they cant afford to drop too many more points. So hopefully the significance of the game creates a bit more excitement.

Chelsea are in decent form having won their …

18/01/2014 | By | Reply More
Manchester Derby – Match preview

Manchester Derby – Match preview

Many thanks to our friends over at Football Form Labs for this guest post, E&OE and all that.  Football Form Lab is software that I use to help me spot patterns or trends in football matches. It can help you identify thousands of opportunities every week across over 40 different leagues.  It’s very detailed and that’s why I like it, so much information. Form Labs is currently on offer and you can save 66% on a Form Labs subscription.…

21/09/2013 | By | Reply More
Will the premier league goal drought continue?

Will the premier league goal drought continue?

Many thanks to our friends over at Football Form Labs for this guest post.  Football Form Lab is software that I use to help me spot patterns or trends in football matches. It can help you identify thousands of opportunities every week across over 40 different leagues.  It’s very detailed and that’s why I like it, so much information.

Form Labs is currently on offer and you can save 66% on a Form Labs subscription.

ANALYSIS – WILL THE

14/09/2013 | By | Reply More
The longest running Betfair market ever

The longest running Betfair market ever

News that Sir Alex Ferguson is about to retire has re-ignited interest in the long forgotten ‘Next Man Utd manager market’.

This is a market that must hold the record for the longest ever market on Betfair. Some must be glad it is coming to a close! According to the start date on Betfair, the market first opened on 17th September 2001! I realised it had been up there for some time, but that date even surprised me.

Since the …

08/05/2013 | By | 1 Reply More
Real problems for Man Utd?

Real problems for Man Utd?

My favourite champions league memory comes from a Man Utd vs Juventus match back in 1999, before the dawn of betting exchanges.

A friend phoned me and told me he had a spare ticket for the match and “Did I want to go?”. I immediately dropped everything and headed up to Manchester. I needed a hotel, so picked a reasonable one on a late booking and headed straight there. Remarkably I’d managed to pick the hotel where the Juventus were …

05/03/2013 | By | Reply More
The comeback kings

The comeback kings

When trading you are looking to lay at the shortest possible odds first then trade out at much higher odds, or vice versa. Doesn’t matter which, I’ll take either!

However you need something to happen for that opportunity to arise. In football there are many ways that this can happen but the main method to see a swing in odds is goals.

The perfect scenario is for a team to conceded a goal then comeback to win the match. This …

11/11/2012 | By More
By the skin of their teeth

By the skin of their teeth

Last night I forecasted around 24 goals and we ended up with 22. I should have used a decimal place as my spreadsheet actually said 23.5, but forecasting half a goal often doesn’t make sense to some readers! Tonight I am aiming for 22.75 and we have a generally more competitive set up for the matches tonight. Dortmund caught my eye on the last round and I’ll be looking closely at their match with Real Madrid this evening. I’m not …

24/10/2012 | By | Reply More
When to bet on your own team

When to bet on your own team

I’m a strong advocate of not betting / trading on your own team when watching a sport. I like to have a reasoned logical approach to things and trying to place a position on a team that you follow can seriously mess up your head and result in taking positions in hope rather than for a profit. So therefore I don’t bet or trade on teams I follow.

However, there is one time though where I do tend to have …

02/09/2012 | By More
Europa league matches

Europa league matches

Both Manchester teams being in the Europa league has injected a bit of life into the Carling Cup of Europe it seems.

I quite like the look of this evenings matches. The market is forecasting around 21-22 goals this evening. SP Lisbon vs Man City is the pick of the bunch from the 18:00 kick offs. So I am secretly hoping that City score first but struggle to break down their opponents from there on in. Despite my wish, I’ll …

08/03/2012 | By More
Is trading football the new racing?

Is trading football the new racing?

Horse racing markets are popular with traders because of the large amounts of volatility, but trading football on betting exchanges hasn’t traditionally been seen as a place to get large risk free swings in odds. Things appear to be changing however.

I have recently been conducting some re-reseach on pre-off movements on football. I do this sort of thing on all sports, revisiting previous research. But on conducting the research this time around I noticed a change. The football pre-off …

03/03/2012 | By | Reply More
In the wrong Kompany!

In the wrong Kompany!

There are many cases for backing or laying at 1.02. But last Sunday we had a great example of why you just wouldn’t back at such short odds.

First off lets look at the odds: –

At 1.02 you would return £2 for every £100 staked. If you laid, then the opposing situation is true; you would earn £100 for every £2 lost. At odds of 1.02 the market is telling you there is a 98% of this situation occurring. …

14/01/2012 | By More
Carling cup lessons

Carling cup lessons

Some interesting lessons from last nights Carling Cup.

First, the best bet of the night wasn’t on Man Utd or Crystal Palace but elsewhere, have a think about it. In the underlying match itself there was a in-play characteristic that really showed up Man Utd’s struggles. It made an outside bet on Palace a good option.

I have to thank an ‘expert’ for hihglighting this characteristic that I hadn’t looked at before. But rather bizarrely this academic was using it …

01/12/2011 | By More
Every action..

Every action..

Requires an equal and opposite reaction… said Issac Newton.

So my attention is drawn to the clash between Aldershot and Man Utd this evening.

Man Utd should win, but the odds are discounting a bit of uncertainty, which is probably a fair reflection of the likely team and how they will play. But can Fergie risk anything less than an emphatic victory? I’m on the look out for a reaction to the stunning result on Sunday. I imagine that will …

25/10/2011 | By More
United vs City

United vs City

One of the big matches of the season is up today, the Manchester Derby. I’m really intrigued.

This is the real acid test of who is going to be in the ascendancy over the season. Both have thrown down the gauntlet with very good early season performances and matching each other stride for stride so far. So this match is the first opportunity to throw both in the mix and see what comes out of the melting pot.

You have …

23/10/2011 | By More
Pity City

Pity City

That was an intruiguing and exciting start to the the elite football season. This charity shiled final highlights where a lot of people go wrong in trading football matches. At half time a 2-0 lead flattered city according to the stats and Man Utd were still in it. Add in their propensity to score late goals and a back on Man United or the draw screamed value.

Unfortunatley I was not in a position to trade on Sunday, but got …

08/08/2011 | By More
City or United?

City or United?

Tricky, neutral ground, key players out, non-descript match, revenge for an FA Cup exit. Many factors in play.

I did a cut of data this morning against similar looking matches. I say similar because I analyse matches on a much deeper level than just look at odds and other top line levels or form. I open up the match and examine what the market is discounting on a number of levels and then recompile it. The neutral aspect of this …

07/08/2011 | By More
A bit of a messicre!

A bit of a messicre!

Fairly early on last night, apart form the opening exchanges, you could see this match wasn’t going Man Utd’s way last night. The stats said it all. Possession was heavily skewed to Barca and by the end of the match Barca had 13 shots on target to Man Utd’s 1! Over 2.5 goals looked almost certain by half time, as did the Barca win. Barcelona really cemented their status as best club in Europe last night and probably the world.…

29/05/2011 | By More
Champions League

Champions League

Everybody else will be posting about it so I thought I would add my two penneth worth.

An intriguing clash, for once I think I will watch this than trade it.

A neutral venue but Man Utd will practically be at home, so you would have to favour Barca but discount some of the neutrality. I think this is the weakest Man Utd team for a while. Other teams really should have put in a stronger challenge for the premier …

28/05/2011 | By More
Match of the season

Match of the season

A tantalising match this afternoon between Man Utd and Chelsea and the market is being cautious by pricing up Man Utd at 2.34 for the win. I would have priced Chelsea near 4.00 for a win here, but with so much at stake; its probably right for the price to be a bit shorter. The market is priced for 2.50 goals with 1.30 going to Man Utd.

Home advantage is historically 0.40 goals so if you take that out, the …

08/05/2011 | By More
May the 4th be with you

May the 4th be with you

Hmm, not sure Ferguson is making the right decision to rest players ahead of tonight’s Champions league semi final. OK a two goal lead should be plenty but a goal for Schalke could really put the cat amongst the pigeons. I guess he will bench key players and bring them on if it merits it?

I had a quick look on the DB and hunted for Man Utd matches at home priced between 1.50-1.60. It threw up five recent matches. …

04/05/2011 | By More
Forgone conclusion?

Forgone conclusion?

You can’t help but think, like the rest of the community, that the two champions league semi finals are forgone conclusions. I looked at the weekend markets and curiously all teams lost, so no clues in there. But it was possible to start opposing Man Utd after it dawned to me that they may have half an eye on the semi final.

The market is discounting a win by one goal for Barcelona tonight but much depends on whether Real …

03/05/2011 | By More
Farcelona

Farcelona

That was the word on the street after the sending off last night. It seems a common trait to dislike success, but you can’t escape the fact that Barcelona have proved on many occasions that they are by far the best team in the tournament and did so again last night. It’s just such a shame they have often degraded their performances with gamesmanship.

It’s also a shame that the first leg was a duplicate of the other semi final, …

28/04/2011 | By More
Schalke vs Man Utd review

Schalke vs Man Utd review

The market was predicting a low scoring affair but it was obvious, fairly early on, that the match was likely to be anything but. Man Utd’s pace seemed to surprise Schalke and plenty of chances were created.This produced the unusual effect of there being little price decay in the under 2.5 goals market.

Come half time there were plenty of shots but no goals so a back of overs was a natural step. It took a while be eventually there …

27/04/2011 | By More
Man Utd to leave it late?

Man Utd to leave it late?

Manchester United have a chance to stretch their lead to nine points at the top against Everton at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime. The games are coming thick and fast for United and the signs were there for all to see at Newcastle. United could only manage a goalless draw at St James’ Park and Sir Alex Ferguson will be pleased to return home next. Old Trafford has been an impregnable fortress this campaign with only West Brom returning with …

23/04/2011 | By More
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