Football Betting - End-of-Season Games
Everyone loves a trier, especially when it comes to putting down your readies. There's nothing more galling for punters than to realise that your selection was 'not off' and that you've not even had a fair run for your money. Blanket television coverage and the greater transparency of the betting exchanges have raised awareness of the 'non-trier' issue in horse racing, but football punters need to be on their guard too. It's clear that all is not well in the world of football, judging by the recent match-fixing scandal in Germany involving referee Robert Hoyzer, ongoing investigations into some Italian results and irregular betting patterns on obscure European and international matches. Thankfully, the consistency of results in the bigger leagues (and especially in England) indicates that there is no reason for lack of punter confidence. The main problem - as in horse racing - lies around the margins, in those matches (or races) not subject to the full glare of the media spotlight and where skulduggery is less likely to arouse suspicion. All very trying However, my research suggests the 'non-trier' issue does rear its ugly head towards the end of the season, even in the major leagues. Most leagues are competitive enough to ensure they go right to the wire in the battles for championships, places in Europe and safety from relegation. But, inevitably, some teams have nothing left to play for in the final weeks of the season, which is where problems can arise. The last few weekends of a league season feature three types of match: 1. Matches between two teams with nothing to play for. 2. Matches between two teams with something to play for. 3. Matches between one team with something to play for and one team with nothing to play for. Out of focus The commitment of either team cannot be taken for granted in the first category, so the most sensible betting strategy towards the end of the season is to focus on categories two and three. Matches in the second category should be assessed using your usual techniques. (Anybody who doesn't know needs to read our football betting articles on inside-edge-mag.co.uk - Ed), but the best betting opportunities often lie in category three, where there's always the potential for a 'non-trier'. This isn't to suggest that anything underhand takes place in these games, merely that a slight drop in focus by one team can make all the difference in a competitive league such as the English Premiership. There may be many reasons for this drop in focus - including the widely held view that some players are 'on their holidays' before the end of the season. It's equally likely that, given the demands of modern football, a player who has been carrying an injury will be rested once his team has nothing left to play for, or that there may be some easing off in training sessions. Whatever the reasons, our results at the bottom of this article show a team with something to play for is more likely to win a match against a team with nothing to play for. Across the top three English divisions and the major European leagues that we analysed (Spanish Liga, German Bundesliga and French Ligue 1), these matches usually produce a win rate of 50-60% for the team with something to play for, and a win rate of 20-30% for the team with nothing to play for. The stats vary a bit from year to year and league to league, but overall are pretty consistent. It's a bone of some contention that such figures offer conclusive proof of the non-trier effect, but there's one crucial piece of supporting evidence that swings the issue for me. If there was no link between the results and one team's urgent need for points in such matches, we'd expect a higher win rate among higher-placed teams than those struggling near the bottom, since that's what has been happening during the rest of the season. In fact, the win rate of teams battling to avoid relegation is abnormally high in such matches at the end of the season - virtually on a par with the win rate achieved by teams at the top of the table who are chasing titles, places in Europe or play-off slots. Fight for survival For example, the last five seasons of the English Premiership have produced a win rate of 55% for teams with something to play for. That figure does not vary, no matter whether the team is in the top six or the bottom six. It's a similar story in other leagues, though the win rate of relegation-threatened teams in such matches does tend to be slightly lower overall than that achieved by teams near the top of the table. So, do these stats alone offer a good betting opportunity? The simple answer is no, but there are some refining touches that can put these figures to good advantage. Let's look at the overall picture first. A 55% win rate would give a tidy profit margin if the average odds available were evens, but that's unlikely to be the case in matches where one team has something to play for and the other team doesn't. Taking the games that fell into this category last season in our featured leagues, a level-stakes bet on all the teams with something to play for would have brought a small loss. This was due, in part, to last season's lower-than-average win rate by these teams, but a more significant factor is the reduced odds that punters are asked to accept on such teams. How to beat the odds The bookmakers generally factor in the 'nothing to play for' syndrome when pricing up end-of-season matches, though a few do slip through the net. If you're good at making your own book on matches, you can spot these matches - otherwise, you will find it difficult to make a profit backing blind on the teams with something to play for. The counter argument, of course, is that the value lies in backing against these sides, given that teams with nothing to play for will be available at artificially inflated odds in such matches. This doesn't hold water, though, due to the lower win rate of these teams. The problem for punters, as outlined earlier, is to know whether these teams will be trying hard enough - the evidence suggests that, on the whole, they won't be. How, then, can we beat the odds? Well, a little more delving into the statistics puts more flesh on the general assumptions often made about end-of-season matches. Starting at the top, the late-season records of league champions are very revealing. There's clear evidence that, once a title has been secured arithmetically, there's a widespread tendency for champions to take their foot off the gas. Last season, for instance, the Spanish and German champions were confirmed with two games to play - Valencia and Werder Bremen, the respective winners, then promptly lost their last two games. This is far from an isolated example. In 2001, Manchester United lost their last three games, having run away with the title, though it has to be said that they had finished with four straight wins when in the same position the previous season. Overall, however, the record of already-crowned champions suggests they're prone to easing up once the race is won. In the leagues analysed here, the win rate of champions over the course of the season usually exceeds 60%. Once the title has been secured, however, this dropped to an average of 57% over the past five seasons. And the fall is even more dramatic in games where they face a team with something to play for - their win rate then averages just 45%. A ton of profit In general, then, it's worth opposing already-crowned champions. Last season, in the leagues featured here, this approach would have yielded a 24% profit to level stakes. If you had concentrated only on games where the opposing team still had something to play for, the strike rate in opposing the champions would have been 100% and the profit a whopping 125% to level stakes. The only caveat is to be wary of any factor that may cause the champions to keep the pressure on - one example is Arsenal last season, when they were Premiership champions with four games to go but were keen to maintain their unbeaten record. They did so, but with only a 50% win rate in their last four games (two wins, two draws). Another factor might be when a lower-division side is chasing a landmark such as 100 points - that was the case with Wigan Athletic in the old Division Two in 2003, when they reached three figures with two wins and a draw, even though they were already champions. Knowing that champions ease off once they've nothing to play for, it's easy to assume already-relegated sides must be even more prone to this. Again, the reality is more complicated. Bottoming out Overall, in the leagues analysed here, relegated teams have a 23% win rate once they're mathematically doomed - pretty close to the average expected from relegation-zone teams over the course of the season. In other words, they don't fall apart once all hope is gone. In fact, relegated teams actually have a surprisingly good home record in the final weeks of the season. On average, they manage a fairly even split of wins, draws and losses at home and in none of the leagues does their number of home defeats outweigh the combined number of wins and draws - making relegated teams always worth a look on the Asian handicap at home, as they'll rarely, if ever, be giving up a start to their opponents. Where they perform very badly is away from home. Even more markedly, they're usually lambs to the slaughter (home or away) versus teams still with something to play for. Their loss rate in such matches is 70% and, in the past five seasons, no relegated team recorded a single win in this type of fixture in the top leagues in France, England and Germany. That 70% loss rate is equivalent to the odds on their opponents being around the 2/5 or 4/9 mark. The bookies are stingy about such teams, though you could still have made a profit last season backing against the relegated teams in such matches. With extra selectivity about the odds you're prepared to take (no less than 1/2, say), the potential exists to make money on these games. Middle-of-the-table teams is an area to tread warily. While the stats show punters generally can rely on sides scrapping for top places or battling against relegation, this isn't the case with teams marooned in mid-table for the last few games of the season, with no incentive to move up and no fear of dropping down a few places. The final word In the leagues analysed here, the win rate of mid-table teams in their final games doesn't appear too bad, averaging 33%, which is broadly in line with their overall seasonal record. The picture isn't so rosy, however, when the figures are narrowed down to games against teams with something still to play for. The win rate of safe mid-table teams dips to 26% and their loss rate goes up to 49% (from 41% overall). In the end, end-of-season betting all comes down to the odds available. Pricing up these games is a difficult process, and it's impossible to come up with hard-and-fast rules about when to bet or what odds to accept. An appreciation of the underlying stats is important, however, because end-of-season games aren't governed by the normal rules of form and are a law unto themselves in many instances. The one golden rule is: be sure you know your selection will be trying. More Football Betting Articles
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