In ordinary life, a recognized leader is called a favorite. In the world of betting, a favorite is an individual player or an entire team, whose victory is the most likely for bookmakers within a particular sporting event. If the strength of the two teams is approximately equal, then there is no favorite among them. Accordingly, the betting odds on them are also almost equal. If the first team is clearly stronger than the second, then they are called “favorite” in the first case and “underdog” in the second, respectively.
How do you identify a favorite?
Let’s look at an example. Let’s say we choose a football match in Germany, in which the national teams of Germany (W1) and South Korea (W2) take part. W1 will be considered the leader or favorite, and for good reason:
- Team W1 will play on home territory and will gather much more fans than W2 (away);
- Germany has much better statistics of past matches, but Korea is characterized by average indicators;
- The composition of the German team is clearly good, there are no injured players, all the players are in great shape, and the P2 forward was recently injured, the goalkeeper divorced the day before, his attention will obviously be dispersed.
The meaning of a favorite for a bettor
Newcomers to the world of betting believe that betting on favorites is always a win-win. But this is a misconception. Experienced bookmakers know for sure that sometimes a bet on an outsider turns out to be much more profitable. Betting odds for the leader to win are usually low, as he has a high chance of winning. But these chances are not 100%.
When choosing a strategy and a team to bet on, you need to take into account a number of points. Otherwise, the bets will be doomed to fail from the start.
- The favorite is not always focused on winning, especially if there is a more serious match ahead, for which it is worth saving your strength and just relaxing for now.
- The favorite doesn’t always win. Sport is hard work, but even it does not guarantee success in all cases. There are also defeats.
- The number of matches for the favorite in accordance with the calendar workload may be too much. Then the players start to get tired, and they can play a draw or even lose to the opponent.
Therefore, you need to carefully analyze everything beforehand in order not to lose your money and motivation to continue betting.