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 tie. 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 tie by betting on a) the tie itself, b) your team to be winning at half-time and winning at full-time (win-win) and c) your team to be tying at half-time and winning at full-time (tie-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).
Wager enough cash on the tie to win back your total wager, wager enough cash on the win-win to get back all your wager, then bank the rest on the tie-win.
This way you're not actually betting on the win, but the tie-win, and if your team slips up and ties you still get your wager back. Treat it like an insurance policy.
Arsenal vs Man Utd are playing and you fancy United to not lose (Odds - Home - 6/4, Tie - 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 tie. So, you've got $10 you want to risk on the game and you're trying to work out what you need to wager to win that ten bucks back for the tie and win-win.
To calculate what to wager on the tie and win-win : Tie Wager = ($10/(2/1+1)) = $3.33, Win-Win Wager ($10/(3/1+1)) = $2.50. If you follow these wagers, if Man Utd win-win or tie you'll get ten bucks back.
So, you've already wagered $3.33 + $2.50 = $5.83, which leaves you $4.27 to put on the remaining win outcome - tie-win.
Put the remainder - $4.27 on the tie-win (4/1). Now, if Man Utd win-win or tie you get your ten bucks back, but if they are tying 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 tie-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 sportsbooks quote +2800 on a half-time/full-time reversal, although it does happen sometimes). You've wagered $10, if Man Utd don't lose you either win your $10 back, or if you're lucky to get a tie-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. +300. You may still make 50% profit though.
This method can prove quite useful if you pick those games where the sportsbooks 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 tie-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.
