When it comes to betting on football, the temptation is to take the odds available before kick-off and then sit back, relax and hope your selection(s) lands.
But there is a theoretical advantage to betting in-play, which gives us a chance to watch the early action on TV – or track the stats via your app of choice – and place smarter wagers accordingly.
Of course, the patterns of play in the first 30 minutes of a football match may not be the same as those of the last hour, but as a rudimentary guide the in-play data and eye test can be excellent barometers for betting.
Quite whether one Betfair punter leveraged the stats or not on Saturday only they know, but a ten-fold acca that they placed at half-time of the 3pm kick-offs yielded a £29,422 return from a £5 stake!
Their betting market of choice? Goals… and lots of them.
Three (Or More) is the Magic Number
Of the ten legs selected, seven were for Over 1.5 Goals and the remaining three on Over 2.5 Goals.
Of that latter trio, each were 1-0 or 0-1 at half-time: Stoke were leading Sheffield Wednesday, Cardiff were a goal up against Rotherham and Wimbledon had got in front against Reading.
And so our punter needed two or more goals in each during the second half to land these particular selections… a quest which got underway nicely when Divin Mubama found the net for Stoke just 60 seconds after the restart.
Meanwhile, in Cardiff, Rian Ashcroft was making it 2-0 to the Welsh side after 55 minutes, before Rubin Colwell extended the Bluebirds’ advantage to 3-0 just five minutes later… the first leg was in.
Back in Sheffield, things were going from bad to worse for Wednesday as Stoke’s Million Manhoef added his second – and the Potteries outfit’s third – of the game… leg two could be crossed off.
A lack of activity in the Reading vs Wimbledon clash would have been vexing our punter, although it wouldn’t be too much longer until Marcus Browne put the Dons 2-0 up after 70 minutes.
Reading huffed and puffed in their pursuit of a comeback… but would finally break through via Lewis Wing in the 86th minute – that made it 1-2, with the third of the Over 2.5 Goals legs landing.
The Late, Late Show
Meanwhile, the seven Over 1.5 Goals legs were still to be played out.
Epic second halves at Sunderland and Millwall saw three goals netted… eviscerating our punters’ need for two or more – the Black Cats demolishing West Ham 3-0 in their return to the Premier League.
Elsewhere, the Over 1.5 Goals selection in Doncaster Rovers vs Wycombe Wanderers would land in the 71st minute with the score now locked at 1-1.
Of course, when you place a ten-fold acca of any description – but particularly one in the region of 6,000/1 – there’s likely to be bumps in the road.
And so, as the clock ticked past the 80th minute mark, there were still four games outstanding.
But then, in the space of four glorious minutes at around 16:40 GMT, three of our punters’ remaining selections landed.
Stevenage scored their second goal of the second half against Northampton in the 82nd minute, before Colchester’s Kyreece Lisbie put them two to the good at Shrewsbury.
And the miracle was well and truly on when Bolton’s John McAtee equalised the 47th minute goal of Barnsley’s David McGoldrick – the 1-1 scoreline also satisfying that Over 1.5 Goals requirement.
So just one selection remained: Tranmere Rovers vs Gillingham.
A goalless first half was anything but actionless, with Gillingham shown three yellow cards – including one to manager Gareth Ainsworth.
The second half was nip-and-tuck until a savvy substitution from Tranmere saw Kristian Dennis enter the fray in the 62nd minute. Barely 60 seconds later, he was providing the assist for Omari Patrick to put the Merseysiders ahead.
Gillingham were trying hard to get back in the game without creating anything of note; in fact, by the time the final whistle had blown, they had mustered just one shot on target.
But that’s all it would take… for them to equalise and for our punter to get over the line in a trouser-shredding bout of injury time.
Remember the name: Joseph Gbode. The Betfair punter certainly will after the rangy striker blasted home a 92nd minute equaliser for the Gills.
In less than an hour of football, he or she found themselves the best part of £30,000 to the good… or should that be ‘to the Gbode’.