Any Which Way But Lose Strategy Explained
The Scenario: You see a team playing at home, you're sure they're gonna win, but there's a slight chance they could concede a late goal and draw. You're anxious to put too much cash on the straight win....
The Solution: Cover all scenarios but the team losing. This is great for those 'sure fire' wins that slip up.
In this strategy you do not simply bet on the win. You can cover the most popular half-time/full-time win scenarios and the draw by betting on a) the draw itself, b) your team to be winning at half-time and winning at full-time (win-win) and c) your team to be drawing at half-time and winning at full-time (draw-win). The only other way your chosen team can win the game but you lose the bet is if the opponent is winning at half-time and then your team pulls back the win (half-time/full-time reversal).
Stake enough cash on the draw to win back your total stake, stake enough cash on the win-win to get back all your stake, then bank the rest on the draw-win.
This way you're not actually betting on the win, but the draw-win, and if your team slips up and draws you still get your stake back. Treat it like an insurance policy.
Arsenal vs Man Utd are playing and you fancy United to not lose (Odds - Home - 6/4, Draw - 2/1, Away 6/4). You're confident Man Utd won't lose the game, but this is one of those where Man Utd could quite easily come away with a draw. So, you've got £10 you want to risk on the game and you're trying to work out what you need to stake to win that tenner back for the draw and win-win.
To calculate what to stake on the draw and win-win : Draw stake = (£10/(2/1+1)) = £3.33, Win-Win Stake (£10/(3/1+1)) = £2.50. If you follow these stakes, if Man Utd win-win or draw you'll get a tenner back.
So, you've already staked £3.33 + £2.50 = £5.83, which leaves you £4.27 to put on the remaining win outcome - draw-win.
Put the remainder - £4.27 on the draw-win (4/1). Now, if ManU win-win or draw you get your tenner back, but if they are drawing at half-time but then win you'll return £4.27 at 4/1 = £21.35!
Any Which Way But Lose Examples
In summary, the draw-win is your banker, the other two bets are your safety net, and the only way you can lose is if Arsenal win, or Arsenal are leading at half-time and Man Utd turn it around and win in the second half (unlikely since most bookies quote 28/1 on a half-time/full-time reversal, although it does happen sometimes). You've staked a tenner, if Man Utd don't lose you either win your tenner back, or if you're lucky to get a draw-win you've got more than 100% profit with this example. You can also bank on the win-win if you think Man Utd are going to stroll it, but the percentage returns are lower since a win-win is usually quoted at double the odds for a win e.g. 3/1. You may still make 50% profit though.
This method can prove quite useful if you pick those games where the bookies think it's tight and offer similar odds for home and away. It doesn't work that well for one sided games and will only return a small percentage profit if you're banking on Man Utd to win at home at something like 1/5. In these cases you can still bank on the draw-win at between 3/1 and 4/1 hoping that although it's a home banker, Man Utd might not score until the second half. It's advisable not to go for anything where you can't make a good 50% profit.
