Betting Futures Not the Best Approach for Sports Pool Betting

Author: Neha Agrawal

Operators of all tote gambling services have made the features of their pool bets very similar to their operations which offer fixed odds on sporting events. This includes bets on future wagers. For instance, you can bet on next year’s Open Championship, or next year’s Wimbledon winner even if it is many months away and even if this year's events were just played. This has been a popular feature of betting services for a long time and it is not surprising that they have also been offered for pool bets.

But just because a bet is available doesn't make it a good proposition. Betting a future bet on an event without fixed odds is an example of a bet that is not a good idea. Unless the tote gambling service has an early cutoff date, it makes no sense to get in an early bet on an event if the odds are going to change right up until the event is actually contested.

The main reason you should want to make a futures bet is that you think you are getting good odds, much better odds than you will get at the time of the event. Of course this isn't really why these bets are offered. Most bettors who put their money down on in futures are acting on emotion. They see someone win an event or tournament very impressively and think, "That’s the Open champion for next year!!" They then rush out to the bookmaker who is more than happy to take their action.

Bets on emotion are almost never a good idea and future bets have the other problem of no refunds if the participant gets injured and can't participate. Plus, if you're betting on someone after a very impressive win, their odds are probably lower just at that moment than they will ever be again.

All these are bad reasons to be betting on future bets, but if the odds you're betting are not going to be the final odds that you will be getting, there is really no point to it. That's why future betting in pools with no early closing date is a bad idea. And it doesn't matter what sport it is or how good the odds may currently be on that future event.

You are much better off putting your money into pools that are either going off or about to go off.