Cyberspace is filled with weird and wonderful creatures and as I gaze upon the betting nebula, it’s clear that variety – from your
sportsbooks
fans, to your
online casino
aficionados, to different betting strategies and
betting tips
– is all part of its strength.
The more places to land, the more people can find that perfect slice of cosmic betting goodness, and my job as your captain is to help you find your way down. Hedging your bets is one of many betting techniques that make the online experience so rich and versatile. If you’re here, you’re probably looking to learn more to see if hedge betting is right for you. If so, I welcome you into my ship for this most epic of interstellar journeys.
Mission Preparation: An Overview of Hedging Bets
Good day to all my new recruits! There are many places to explore in the world of cyberspace betting, from
award-winning casino promotions
to hedging a bet. Here, I’m going to be focusing on the latter, going through everything you’ll need to know about in order to make the finest use of this strategy if you decide it indeed is right for you.
For the purposes of your education, I’m going to assume you know nothing about the hedge your bets meaning. This is unlikely to be the case, as even outside of the world of online betting, it’s a pretty common phrase. In different contexts, it generally means to do something to mitigate potential losses or failure. It’s something that is said in business, for instance, when a company decides to further the spread of their strategy going forward. A similar phrase is not putting all your eggs in one basket. In other words, it’s about spreading risk.
In the world of betting, it also means spreading risk. Specifically, hedging a bet is when you contradict one bet with another to minimise your risk of loss. On a basic level, it’s like backing team A and team B, so you’ll lose less money. There’s plenty of other variables, but that’s the fundamentals of what this means. It’s the Big Bang of the hedging concept.
I’m going to go through a specific example shortly, but as long as it falls under that criteria, it counts as hedging your bets.
1.
Bet £10 Get £40
Requirements (WR): 4x Bonus + 10x Deposit, Min. Deposit: 10
New customers only. 7 days to place qualifying bet of £10 at 1/1 (2.0) to receive 4 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 football, 1 x £10 horse racing & 2 x £10 Bet Builders. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned.
18+. T&Cs Apply.
2.
Bet £10 Get £50
Min. Deposit: 10
New customers only. Register (excl 05/04/25), deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility exclusions & T&Cs Apply.
3.
Bet £10 Get £30
Requirements (WR): 1x Deposit, Min. Deposit: £10
New cust only. Opt-in required. Deposit & place a bet within 7 days and settle a £10 minimum bet at odds of 4/5 (1.8) or greater to be credited with 3 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 horse racing, 1 x £10 Free Bet Builder and 1 x £10 football. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Stake not returned. 18+. T&Cs Apply.
Charting the Course: the Importance of Understanding Odds and Returns
That’s a very basic example of the overall concept. In order to get deeper into our understanding, we’re going to have to do a little math. I know, I know, settle down class! Ultimately, the rocket doesn’t pass orbit without the right coordinates and hedging doesn’t work if you don’t understand the basics of odds in betting.
Hedge betting is not just a blind panic move, or at least it shouldn’t be. Remember what I always say: when you get nervous, that’s when the aliens sense your weaknesses and attack. So, keep it loose people! No, this strategy is about precision, and in order to be precise, we need to know what we’re talking about. And what you need to understand is simple.
One is that odds are a way of expressing both potential returns and represent the probability the bookmaker thinks that event is likely to occur. There are calculators to help with both of these, but what’s vital is to recognise those fractions and decimal points you see on betting sites are quite a bit more than mere symbols. They represent the bookmaker’s prediction and more importantly, the amount of money you get if that bet is successful.
I’ll be providing examples in the following sections, but always remember that if you’re confused, you should be able to easily discover your potential returns by adding the market and your stake to your bet slip.
Pre-Match Examples of Hedge Betting
Because you can’t go into hyperspace right away, let’s take a really simple example to begin with. Let’s say you have one market at 1/1 odds, and that translates to 50% or, for a £10 stake, a £10 return, leaving you with £20. But, say you get nervous before the match and are less confident about your success. You decide to bet a fiver on the other team, who has 2/1 odds, or 33.3%.
This means you have staked £15. If the first bet wins, you’re a fiver up. If the second bet wins, you’ve come out even. The only way you can lose money is if the game ends in a draw.
Accumulator Examples of Hedge Betting
The previous example showcases how hedge betting can be utilised for a changing perspective on the game, or to manipulate the odds to be exactly how you would like them. A similar example is also very possible with an accumulator. Perhaps even more so considering the weeks, months and lightyears between the start and end of some accumulators.
I’m not going to provide a similar accumulator example as the pre-match one though. It works the same way, just over a longer time and with more markets. Instead, I’m going to provide a very interesting scenario to help showcase the versatility of hedging bets.
Let’s say, you backed Everton to win the Premier League. You bet £10 and were now headed into the final looking at a £5,000 payout. However, they’re big underdogs, and you could lose everything. The other team has 1/3 odds to win, which translates to 75%. If you were to bet £3,000, then you would get a return of £4,000. In other words, if you decided hedging a bet was the right way to go, you would have two possible scenarios.
You have staked £3,005. If the first team wins, you would receive £,5000, or a £1,995 profit. If the second team wins, you receive £4,000, or a £995 profit. If you chose a no draw market, this would mean you can guarantee winnings either way – less than if you stuck to your original bet and won, but with far less risk.
Live Betting Examples of Hedge Betting
Of course, just as the best space fights are done so in the heat of the battle, remember that very often the most spectacular hedge betting is done during live betting. This is probably the truest test of all because hedging bets is all about being able to assess and adjust your bets to best suit that situation. Live betting is the ultimate example of this.
If we’re talking about accumulators, you could have several weeks to make your decision but that’s not the case with live ever-changing betting odds. A knowledge of how best to utilise hedge betting – which comes part in parcel with your ability to quickly translate and assess odds – alongside the use of the cash out feature means that the cleverest of interstellar travellers to the gambling galaxies can twist any set of odds into exactly how they’d like them.
None of these options mean that you cannot fail: that is always a risk with gambling, but it does give you more control over your bets than you could previously have ever been conceived. We’d consider that as vital an advantage as any
sportsbook bonus
– even an
award-winning sportsbook bonus
– for its potential for improving your returns. And wherever in the universe you hail from, we can all agree that higher returns are the greatest bonus of all.
1.
Bet now
New customers only. 7 days to place qualifying bet of £10 at 1/1 (2.0) to receive 4 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 football, 1 x £10 horse racing & 2 x £10 Bet Builders. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned.
18+. T&Cs Apply.
2.
Bet now
New customers only. Register (excl 05/04/25), deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility exclusions & T&Cs Apply.
3.
Bet now
New cust only. Opt-in required. Deposit & place a bet within 7 days and settle a £10 minimum bet at odds of 4/5 (1.8) or greater to be credited with 3 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 horse racing, 1 x £10 Free Bet Builder and 1 x £10 football. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Stake not returned. 18+. T&Cs Apply.
Consulting Ground Control: Whether Hedge Betting is the Right Choice
You can see that the maths of it is actually really simple when you break it down. Now, some of you cadets may be wondering why I have also made a point of including converting percentages, considering they’re not needed to work out your potential returns across different outcomes.
This is because assessing whether or not this bet is a wise one entirely depends on the teams involved and your predictions of the events unfolding. That percentage puts into terms, in a way you can understand, what the bookmaker thinks is going to happen. This allows you to figure out whether you agree with those predictions.
This kind of strategy may provide a great deal of leverage in terms of your ability to mould your odds and your bets to exactly the level you’re comfortable with, but ultimately, the wisdom behind any kind of betting, including hedging bets, depends on your opinion on the accuracy of those odds. It should always be the centrepiece of your market analysis, while hedging is a tool through which you can best express that opinion in the form of your bets for the best predictions you can muster, and with any luck, the best results.
And that, my fellow cyber space travellers, is why I always make a clear point of including percentages as part of my strategic teachings.
Captain’s Log: A Stellar Strategy
From great
casino promotions
to market variety, to all the different strategies, something that’s reiterated time and time again here at
PlayersBest
is how big a role variety has in making online betting as great as it is.
If you’ve listened to my teachings, cadet and have decided that the ‘hedge my bets’ life is not for you, then you should still be happy it’s an option. Even if you personally decide not to utilise any of the wonderful things which make cyberspace betting what it is, they still all contribute to this cosmic betting buffet we all enjoy. And if you have decided that bet hedging is useful, then I really hope you learned a lot about how best to utilise this technique. To all of you though, have a safe journey back to Earth.
1.
Bet now
New customers only. 7 days to place qualifying bet of £10 at 1/1 (2.0) to receive 4 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 football, 1 x £10 horse racing & 2 x £10 Bet Builders. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Exclusions apply. Stake not returned.
18+. T&Cs Apply.
2.
Bet now
New customers only. Register (excl 05/04/25), deposit with Debit Card, and place first bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports within 7 days to get 3 x £10 in Sports Free Bets & 2 x £10 in Acca Free Bets within 10 hours of settlement. 7-day expiry. Eligibility exclusions & T&Cs Apply.
3.
Bet now
New cust only. Opt-in required. Deposit & place a bet within 7 days and settle a £10 minimum bet at odds of 4/5 (1.8) or greater to be credited with 3 x £10 Free Bets: 1 x £10 horse racing, 1 x £10 Free Bet Builder and 1 x £10 football. Free Bets cannot be used on e-sports and non-UK/IE horse racing. 7 day expiry. Stake not returned. 18+. T&Cs Apply.
