What the stats say about betting on the UK football season

While the football season in the UK has not yet finished, we are reaching the endgame for most competitions.

Plenty of punters would have, and will continue to, bet on the UK football matches up and down the leagues all season.  

But what do the stats tell us about making a profit? Who were the teams to deliver it? Who are the teams to avoid for the rest of the season?

 

Getting on the scoresheet: Man City

It’s obviously no surprise, but Man City are the UK’s darlings when it comes to scoring in each game.

Only Crystal Palace kept Man City out in the league, mean City scored in 3% of all games so far, notching 88 goals in 31 games. It may surprise you to learn that Tottenham, not Liverpool, are next with only 10% of games seeing Pochettino’s men draw a blank.

City are way ahead though, so you can see why they are just 1/4 to score a goal in the upcoming game against Tottenham.

 

Clean sheets: Manchester United

Again, no surprise that Jose Mourinho’s men have kept the most clean sheets. In 52% of games, David De Gea has kept the opposition out.

United have been the standout bet for the ‘win to nil’ markets this season, doing it 14 times. It’s 8/13 for them to do it against West Brom. City are second in the clean sheet stakes (48%), with Spurs 3rd (45%).

 

ACCA-Busters: Southampton

Southampton haven’t been the worse team in the Premier League, that ‘honour’ surely goes to West Brom. However, they have been the team that have arguably underachieved the most.

They have just won five games so far this season and been generally wretched, but the bookmakers keep backing them to succeed. They are quite tempting at 14/1 to win the FA Cup however.

A word of advice though, check out free bets from the Bookies Offers if you are backing Southampton, because they have been letting punters down all season.

 

The New Year Heroes: Swansea, Millwall, Plymouth and Accrington Stanley

If the leagues had all started on New Year’s Day instead of August, the quartet above would be fighting it out for the top places in their respective leagues.

Swansea and Plymouth should be singled out for praise, because they looked like relegation fodder before Christmas but have made punters plenty of cash in the last four months. Millwall have lost once this year and are looking like Playoff contenders, available at odds of 22/1 – another use for those free bets.

However, special kudos must go to Accrington Stanley, who join PSG and Juventus as having the best records across European football Leagues over the last fifteen games.

 

Slow Starters: The Championship

Half-time markets are big business in football betting, with punters betting one everything from correct score to over/under goals.

However, 147 Championship games (31%) have been 0-0 at half-time so far this season. In fact, 69% of all Championship games have seen one goal or less at half-time.

That’s bad for spectators, but something to note for punters going forward.

 

Cash Out: Bolton and Chesterfield

All punters know the feeling of conceding a late goal that scuppers their bet, with the ‘cash out’ option looking good with hindsight.

Bolton and Chesterfield have been woeful in the latter stages of the matches this season, conceding a Football League high of 20 goals each in the last 15 minutes of games.

It’s unsurprising then that both sides are in a relegation battle, with Bolton 3/1 and Chesterfield 19/29 for the drop.

 

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