Is betting on football risky?
Fri, Mar 7, 2025
by
CapperTek
Betting of any kind, by its very nature, entails some kind of risk. Football is one of the most popular sports to bet on, though it certainly can entail risk. But this, in a strange way, does not have to be the same as it being “risky”. There’s always the risk that your bet won’t pan out—this is something we all have to accept. But there is of course extra risk involved with betting on the football in variety of ways, and so it’s important to be aware of things you can do to best reduce that risk and give yourself the best chance at a healthy betting career.
Let’s look at a few of these tips and tricks.
1. Budgeting
First and foremost, the most important thing you can do in any betting endeavour is to budget carefully. In some places like the UK, many problem gamblers are as much as £10,000 in debt before they start actively seeking any kind of help. You need to put measures in place to make sure you never get to this point in the first place. Other options some bookmakers offer according to Scs.ie is to set a loss limit on your betting account.
Create a budget for betting, and stick to it without even the slightest variation. Never, ever bet more than you can afford to lose, and your budget will stop you from chasing your losses.
2. Research
Specifically when it comes to football, you also want to be sure you are doing plenty of research. Whether you’re an expert on the sport or not, you can never have too much knowledge and information to go on, and your research is a really great way to reduce potential risk. This means both research of the teams and the bets you want to make, naturally, but also of the places where you are making your bets.
Make sure all the bookmakers you are using are fully licensed and certified to reduce the risk.
3. Outsiders
Bookmakers will often try to tempt people into making high-stakes bets on outsiders with low odds. Everyone, after all, loves an underdog. But in general, this will not work in your favour and is again, by nature, extremely risky. At the very least, you should not bet on outsiders until you’ve got a lot of experience with betting on the football. In general, though, avoiding betting on outsiders is always good advice.
You can still make lucrative, high-stakes bets on more reliable teams without the added risk of betting on outsiders.
4. Security
Security features are another important part of risk. When the question is asked about the risk of betting on football, this is also a question about the inherent security risk of handing over financial information to a third party. Not all online bookmakers offering odds on the football will have the same level of robust security, so you need to do your due diligence in checking for any history of data breaches within the company.
Equally, make sure that you use strong passwords and 2FA to keep your account as secure as possible and reduce the potential risk when betting.
5. Self-limitation
Finally, it’s also important to be able to do some self-reflection on your own habits. Again, gambling often becomes a far bigger problem before people even realise. You need to be able to implement ways to limit your own gambling in case things take a turn for the worse. Again, all betting involves an element of risk—that’s part of the point. There are programs by which you can impose limitations to your own betting, and abstain from betting for a set period with all companies that are part of the program.
Debt can destroy lives, so always be careful and make sure you’re able to stop when you need to.
Betting is a tricky area, then, as there are certainly plenty of potential pitfalls to any kind of betting you might want to do. It can easily become a huge problem if you aren’t careful, and so the main thing to think is responsibility. You need to be aware of what you’re doing, make sure you are carefully budgeting, and then beyond that, that you are doing your due diligence in each and every bet you make. With this in mind, you’ll have no problem.